Album Review: Mitski "Nothing's About to Happen To Me" Album Listening Party
At first I thought collaging at a Mitski listening party at Echo & Bounce was a little on the nose. Of course Mitski fans collage. Yet, as the album played to a full house - a musical patchwork unfolded; an obsessive sadness stitched together an array of genres, sound effects and wry humour. I had to eat my words - cutting up the same ignored messages of global warming from old Nat Geos was the perfect activity to indulge in the New Mitski.
Our queen of rumination’s latest offering ‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me’ is a polished full band album. It has rich instrumentation that begs to be heard live. ‘If I Leave’ has guitars that chug and strain until they are released. ‘Rules’ is lusciously packed with trombones, organs, horns - french and flugel. “Cats” is a gentler alt-country song in its’ own feline introspect, proving that codependency isn’t bound by species. An honourable mention goes to the Bossa Nova groove of “I’ll Change for you” - it provides this tipsy foundation for shameless begging to an ex-lover.
‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me’ often feels so full of life that it takes a moment for lyrics to land. Mitski is pulling an unending sadness and endless humour from the same well. In the song, “That White Cat’, Mitski bemoans in a funny powerlessness in the care of pets. - “And I go to work/to pay for that cat’s house…/For the bugs who drink my blood” The album is full of lyrics that are as sharp as they are doom-provoking. In ‘Instead of Here’ she throws out “Death Said I’d called/Not Knowing that I did/She said she wished I’d known/That I’m still just a kid”. It’s gallows’ humour cloaked in the richness of a Mitski melody, something that so many others would simply make corny.
The album always returns to Mitski’s constant state of loss. Who would she be without her lover? Without her city streets, full bars, next empty glass. Very importantly - her two cats? She is on this downward spiral that she allows us join. Our spectating turning it into a scenic route. She is overwhelmed by needing, being needed and requiring mercy she isn’t sure she deserves. Mitski’s star quality is that it never feels like a drag. With Mitski, every street curb is the final cliff but the way she sings of it, nothing is better than the view from the top.
‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me’ pulls from all of her previous work - especially the rockier stuff. It’s a rich and full album that is easy to get lost in for new and old Mitski fans alike. It’s not breaking new grounds. more so tending old wounds and that’s what we go to Mitski for. She provides the space, emotionally, to indulge our worst anxieties.
The album isn’t exactly hopeful, it stares at the abyss frankly and often. But, to be honest, it seems like Mitski likes making music more than she wants it all to end. She always takes all the broken pieces and puts them together once more - like a collage I guess.
Mitski’s ‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me’ is out 27th of Feb - everywhere you get good music.