On her eighth studio album, singer-songwriter Mitski crafts a stunningly dark tapestry concerned with solitude and death, in which psychological unrest manifests physically as a spooky house.
And yes, there are cats.
Mitski has described the new 11 song collection, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me,” as a musical continuation of her celebrated 2023 release, “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We.” She again blends Americana and alt-rock with meticulous orchestral and choral arrangements.
But this is more than a simple second edition. At its core, the new release is a free-standing concept album and gothic multimedia project about a reclusive woman’s progression from lonesome despair to horror. In her telling, haunter and haunted are often one in the same — and in the same home.
Backed by her large touring band, Mitski unleashes her musical arsenal sparingly but effectively. She utilizes instrumental bursts to shape the narrative and build drama in a manner more common in musical theater than in popular music. Fats Kaplin’s mournful pedal steel frequently shines, pairing seamlessly with Mitski’s melancholy.
Her patient vocals outline a loose but gutting narrative of an unraveling. On the opener “In a Lake,” she sings, “I’ve tried very hard to be good, but / When they think you’re bad, people act worse.” As the vignettes descend from loneliness to evident madness, there is little comfort to be found outside the companionship of cats (as evidenced in the track “Cats.”)
Mitski’s songs sometimes feel nostalgic for a bygone Romantic era, but the raucous, indie rock “Where’s My Phone?” piledrives directly into digital-age anxieties and paranoia. Guitarist and longtime-producer Patrick Hyland plays with a chunky urgency that contrasts with her languid delivery. “I keep thinking, ‘Surely, somebody will save me’,” she sings in the first verse. “At every turn, I learn that no one will.”
“I’ll Change for You,” a standout track on the album, starts out jazzy and becomes increasingly unstructured and unsettled as it recounts a needy drunk dial. Mitski’s vocals find a gorgeous, heartbreaking depth as she sings, “If you don’t like me now / I’ll change for you.” But it is clearly too late.
By track nine, “That White Cat,” the narrator’s solitude has metastasized to deeper disorder, and she raises her voice for the first time. “The white neighborhood cat / Marking my house,” Mitski sings, “It’s supposed to be my house / But I guess according to cats / Now it’s his house.”
Those hoping for relief would be wise to look elsewhere. In the song, her lament at having to provide for “the bugs who drink my blood / And the birds who eat those bugs / So that white cat can kill the birds,” is as close as the album comes to levity.
Mitski is practicing her craft at a high level here, and she has once again created a powerful artistic statement. But the relentless darkness results in a claustrophobic listen — as is its goal.
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A previous version of this story misidentified Mitski’s longtime producer as Patrick Ryland. His name is Patrick Hyland.
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“Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” by Mitski
Three and a half stars out of five.
On repeat: “I’ll Change For You”
Skip it: “Rules”
For fans of: The writing of Shirley Jackson, “Grey Gardens,” Weyes Blood, cats