Mitski Miyawaki, known by the mononym Mitski, is a Japanese-American singer and songwriter. Her first album Lush was self-released by the artist in 2012 as a student project at State University of New York at Purchase. Since then, her music has taken millions of listeners on all sorts of emotional journeys, dealing with such all-encompassing feelings like grief, fury, longing, regret, and love. Vulture gives a great synopsis of what a Mitski song is—“an economy of words suffused with an oversaturation of feeling”.
The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We is Mitski’s seventh studio album, released on 15 September 2023 as a follow-up of last-year’s Laurel Hell. Although continuing on the ever-present theme of loneliness and love, it is described by Pitchfork as “warmer, quieter, and more organic-sounding”. The subject matter of the album is described by Mitski on her Spotify as follows:
The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people. I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.
I thought it would be interesting to delve into the portrayal of love as seen in Mitski’s newest project. Despite the negative or critical perspective of love that most of her listeners associate or expect from her music, like the broken love in I Bet on Losing Dogs, isolating love in Me and My Husband, or even the loss of love in this album’s The Frost, I chose two songs from this album that show the goodness, the hope that love is capable of bringing into our lives.
‘Heaven’
All of our love
Fillin’ all of our room
Your low, warm voice
Curses as you find the string
To strike within me
That rings out a note
Heard in heaven
The third song of the album, Heaven, is a comforting portrayal of intimacy. The love that shines through the lyrics and musical arrangement is a blanket of reassurance, likened to heaven. The lovers have this intimate knowledge of each other, of what brings them comfort and pleasure, the body compared to an instrument that only a special person knows how to play.
And the dark awaits us
All around the corner
But here in our place
We havе for the day
Can we stay awhile and listеn for
Heaven
The lovers are like two celestial bodies orbiting around each other, Mitski’s references to nature alluding to their closeness and the uniqueness of their connection. Even in the face of hardships, they still have this safe space just for the two of them where they do not have to worry—their personal heaven.
‘My Love Mine All Mine’
Moon, tell me if I could
Send up my heart to you?
So, when I die, which I must do
Could it shine down here with you?
The seventh track views love as a legacy. Deep devotion can be felt in between the lines, in the gentle slow-dance of the words—the speaker entrusts their love to the moon, to a higher being, to make sure that even as they disappear, their lover will not be left alone. In shining along the moonlight, their love transcends mortality and can remain permanent.
Nothing in the world belongs to me
But my love, mine, all mine
Nothing in the world is mine for free
But my love, mine, all mine, all mine
The speaker relishes in having something they can call uniquely and wholly theirs. Although everything in life is fleeting, their love is a constant, a feeling to fall back on and take comfort in. The adoration in the chorus feels reverent, almost worshipful in the way the words are repeated—perhaps for their gravity to truly sink in, to make them feel real.
Love as something divine
Both of the songs are connected not only through the grace with which they outline what love is, but also through their references to divinity—love is heaven, love connects even through death, love is a part of us that stays behind. The last concept reminds me of the notion of non omnis moriar (‘I shall not wholly die’) from Horace’s Odes, this idea that an artist’s life does not finish as they die, but instead gets immortalised through their creations. In a sense, our love is also our creation and our legacy, a part of us that outlives our physical form, but stays with the people that matter to us most. As much as it can feel temporary, in a way it is also timeless, something that goes beyond humanity—our final parting gift. The fact that we as people are capable of caring in such a profound way is something we take for granted.
I would highly recommend you give this album a listen! The link to it on Spotify can be found here.
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