The Mitski Discography Rate | winner revealed

[fatyoshi]

Let's get rid of that first opening track, then?





















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#34 - Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart
8.042

High scores: 10 (@Remorque, @ohnostalgia), 9 (me, @pop3blow2, @Serg., @finito)
Low scores: 6 (@Coochi), 6.5 (@Trinu 3.0)
fatyoshi's score: 9

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #34
10 voters - #42 (-8)
Final placement - #34 (+8)

The time has come, Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart is our first opening track out. Leaving us with two tracks from Retired still in the running. One of the two tracks is my favorite on the album (too bad about the other one though...) so we did pretty well I'd say.

We have yet another manic moment in Goodbye. The track sees reflection on a breakup (or other form of relationship decay) and all of the feelings that can come with it. Appreciation for the love that was experienced, noticing where things went wrong, gauging how both parties may have grown or changed, and so forth. All of this is set over a snaking guitar line that repeats throughout the tracks duration and yet another fantastic key change found in the last chorus.

Definitely a bit sad to see this go but this placement feels pretty solid. At the very least, we nailed this as the first opening track from the main albums to leave (if I'm saying this with a track that I gave a 9 you can imagine how I feel about the rest ddddd). This is one of Mitski's tracks that I think really comes to life in a live format. Seeing it performed during the Be the Cowboy tour definitely helped the song grow in my favor to where I'm at now. I love the bouncy feel the track takes on especially with the soaring final chorus but there's something missing that keeps me from giving it a 10 that I can't quite place. I'll probably remember/figure it out 3 minutes after I post this or some mess.

I'll leave us with Cutlery's commentary and some visuals.

Cutlery - 7 - "This sound is totally making me remember St. Vincent / David Byrne’s Love This Giant, and that’s not exactly the strongest starting point. Fortunately for this opener, it gets a pass because the last 40 seconds are very much ‘Geyser’-like, and beautiful as such."

This sound is totally making me remember St. Vincent / David Byrne’s Love This Giant

Mitski sweetie, i'm so sorry...

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flashing warning for first vid




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[Cutlery]

The two remaining Business tracks total 8 points from me...

 

[fatyoshi]

The two remaining Business tracks total 8 points from me...

About that...





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#33 - Strawberry Blond
8.056

High scores: 10 (@aux, @Remorque, @LE0Night, @ohnostalgia), 9.5 (@pop3blow2, @finito)
Low scores: 2 (@Cutlery), 6.5 (@Phonetics Girl)
fatyoshi's score: 7

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #63
10 voters - #55 (+8)
Final placement #33 (+22)

It seems that it's time to say goodbye to yet another track that has taken off a bitsy since release. At number 33 we say goodbye to Strawberry Blond. This leaves us with only one track from Retired in the running.

People seem to really connect with this one. What at a first glance seems to be a surprisingly joyful and upbeat sounding moment, leaves room for some less than stellar feelings in the lyrics. A song that focuses this heavily on infatuation was always gonna come through. Who can't relate to navigating the emotional minefield that is longing?

With unconventional for her catalog instrumentation like handclaps aplenty and even kazoos making an appearance in the end, the track definitely sets itself apart even further from the rest. It's probably the closest any of the early discography material comes to approaching bop material or whatever. At the very least I have to give credit to this one as there's nothing else in her catalog like this.

Strawberry Blond is a track that again kinda suffered from being solid but not a favorite. I like it for sure but we're getting into our top 30 and at this point it was definitely overstaying its welcome for me personally. A 7 next to 8s, 9s, 10s, and so forth. I still have a 6 lingering around that can leave any day now...

We'll end with commentary. There's two sets for this track.

Consantino who gave it a 7.5 wished for a longer track: "Wish this was longer, as i love a lot of elements of this."

and Cutlery who really went in, giving this a 2 (our lowest score in the rate ddddd): "Oh this is, without a doubt, the worst song released by Mitski. The career-low lyrical content. The overdone upbeat guitar. The clapping. The god awful choir performance coming in full force with lethal doses of decaying bronze era Disney ending scene happiness, grating my ears. The way more and more is thrown at the wall in terms of instrumentation in a garish display of excess, yet barely anything does stick. The way it’s so sappy, I feel like I’m getting high fructose corn syrup injected into me via catheter, putrefying every cubic centimeter of my bloodstream and diminishing all my cell counts until I expire. If it were any longer than 2 minutes I would’ve had to skip giving it any marks whatsoever."

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That's another week of eliminations down. I'll return Monday

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[Cutlery]

5 voters - #63
10 voters - #55 (+8)
Final placement #33 (+22)

I hate you all (except for @aux @Phonetics Girl and @fatyoshi) !!

 

[DinahLee]

Seeing how I Don't Smoke, Because Dreaming Costs Money My Dear, Square, Shame, Blue Light plummeted so this bat could scape from Hell... sad. I tried to keep it cute with a "7" but that was my worst mistake.

But well

 

[fatyoshi]

Well, it's over...





















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#32 - Between the Breaths (with Xiu Xiu)
8.067

High scores: 10 (me, @Coochi, @finito), 9 (@Phonetics Girl, @Crisp X, @ohnostalgia)
Low scores: 5 (@LE0Night), 6.5 (@Doenjang)
fatyoshi's score: 10

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #28
10 voters - #26 (+2)
Final placement - #32 (-5)

At number 32 we lose our second collaboration (leaving only Susie Save Your Love). Goodbye to our collaboration with genre hopping experimental act Xiu Xiu, Between the Breaths.

Between the Breaths was released in 2018 as part of the soundtrack for How to Talk to Girls at Parties (which was an adaptation of a short story with the same name). This is one of the lesser intensive collaborations in the rate with Mitski supplying vocals but having no input on the songwriting. Having said that, she absolutely brought it here with the vocals and those are decidedly Mitski through and through.

This was one of the most exciting moments for me to experience as a Mitski stan. Not just because I also love Xiu Xiu but this felt like a song of many firsts or unique elements in her discography. The track features vocals in a higher range than what is seen in most of Mitski's other work plus there's the post-punk or even dance music inspired soundscapes. All of this topped off with what turned out to be the longest track in the rate made for a tasty treat for me.

I gotta say, this did better than I expected it to. A piece of me wanted it to pull a top 20 placement but I knew the mixture of it being an extra, the track length, and Xiu Xiu not being for everyone (though this was mitigated a bit by not featuring Jamie's vocals ddddd) would prevent that. I'll gladly take where it ended up. Especially with the set of 10s and 9s it received. We did well <3

We received one piece of commentary this time around.

constantino was on the same page as our host and said "I have decided to ascend."

I'll leave us with a selection of Xiu Xiu tracks. I tried to go with what I thought would be good introductory tracks as a fan but can acknowledge getting into the band is a bit of an uphill battle. If anyone is curious they should just dive in. Who knows what awaits them depending on where they begin.





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I'll be back with another tomorrow.

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[Cutlery]

I mean I liked what the song was throwing my way but the spoken bits? Mitski was channeling Elizabeth Grant's voice, intonation, and words. I wasn't a fan

 

[fatyoshi]

hey















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#31 - Last Words of a Shooting Star
8.083

High scores: 10 (@DinahLee, @Euphoria, @Trinu 3.0), 9.5 (@pop3blow2)
Low scores: 6 (@Phonetics Girl, @constantino), 6.5 (@LE0Night)
fatyoshi's score: 9

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #46
10 voters - #37 (+9)
Final placement - #31 (+6)

At number 31 we say goodbye to Last Words of a Shooting Star. After Pearl Diver, this is our second of the closing tracks from the albums to leave. Now there's only 3 left.

This one really stings, even though I gave it a 9. Last Words of a Shooting Star always stands out to me because of its placement on Bury Me at Makeout Creek. The album isn't really hurting for emotionally painful moments to start with but here comes this track at the very end to just further trample over the listener. Over time I've come to find this to be one of, if not the bleakest track(s) in her catalog.

TW: suicide/death discussion in the next paragraph:
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Spoiler

I've personally perceived this track as being about living with suicidal ideation or even the act of suicide itself. The narrator seemingly feeling indifferent about their potential death other than concerns about burdening others by leaving a mess behind hits extremely hard. This is exemplified as the track (and album) end with the lines "I am relieved that I left my room tidy. Goodbye." as the final notes are drawn out as if to mimic the sound of a descending plane or in the case of my reading a further fall into depression or otherwise.

That's just my take on the song, though. Perhaps more ideally it's just literally about a stressful plane ride and the thought process during it. It would be less devastating in that case.

This one started out in the upper 40s with the earliest votes in but it found itself rising as the rest came in. With a lowest score of two 6s this didn't seem to have many detractors. The lowest scores are starting to creep up higher and higher so look forward to also seeing the gap between high/low scores shrink too.

There's no commentary for this one so I'll leave us with some performances.




Tomorrow we'll break into the top 30. We're really getting into it now.

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[Cutlery]

Oof Last Words is grim for the reasons you discussed, though I will say I think A Burning Hill was a more fully realized album closer with a similar feeling to me

 

[fatyoshi]

hello

#30 - Lonesome Love
8.131

High scores: 10 (@Euphoria), 9 (@constantino @DinahLee, @Trinu 3.0)
Low scores: 6 (insolentire, @Coochi), 7.5 (@Cutlery, @Crisp X)
fatyoshi's score: 8

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #36
10 voters - #44 (-8)
Final placement - #30 (+14)

Our break after the album's previous cull has ended, it seems. At number 30 we lose our next Be the Cowboy track with Lonesome Love.

Not sure what to say about this one dddddd. It's pretty straightforward or at least much moreso than some of her material. Lonesome Love examines loneliness (who would've thought?), the negative things we may do or put up with to avoid said loneliness, and even self sabotage. That's a decent amount of ground to cover in a song that debatably ends before it even gets started.

I like this one quite a bit, it's not favorites material but I'll absolutely reach for this over a few other tracks on Be the Cowboy. The lyricism cuts deep as usual and the short length doesn't bother me too much. The ending line of "Why am I lonely?" is one of the more impactful moments across the rate's material. Just something about the delivery and how plainly it is asked.

In terms of rate participant reception this was kinda all over the place. Our middle set of voters seemed to be less enthused, taking it down 8 spots until our final ones brought it up 14 beyond where it began. Our sole piece of commentary came from @constantino who gave this a 9 and said "We love a masturbation torch song moment.".

I could only find one video of a live performance for this one so I couldn't pick and choose the one with the best picture quality and so forth. This one will have to do.



See you tomorrow.​

 

[Cutlery]

Shame outsold

 

[DinahLee]

"Last Words" is so strong. It's sort of a two-part with "A Burning Hill" for me. Not sure why since the main bridge between them is being last song on their respective records, but there's something so strong. Not getting too personal and writing an article (even thought it deserves) but I do relate to it a lot. It also amplifies my fear of flying dd.

Lonesome Love is powerful too. Nobody fucks me like me.

 

[fatyoshi]

thank god

#29 - A Loving Feeling
8.136

High scores: 10 (@Euphoria, @Serg.), 9 (@Phonetics Girl, @constantino, @Coochi, @ohnostalgia)
Low scores: 6 (me, @Trinu 3.0), 7 (@Remorque)
fatyoshi's score: 6

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #35
10 voters - #38 (-3)
Final placement - #29 (+9)

Today we say goodbye to our next Puberty 2 track and our host's lowest remaining score. A Loving Feeling falls out at number 29.

This one makes an interesting follow-up to Lonesome Love in terms of elimination order. They cover very similar topics of how relationships or other intimate interactions don't always do anything to quell loneliness, sometimes even exacerbating it. The additional layers of A Loving Feeling getting into the song's subject only feeling loved when alone with the object of their affections on the might resonate particularly with some of our LGBTQIA voters and the whole can of worms secret relationships can be. At least it did for me.

Beyond this projection, there's not a ton for me to sink my teeth into with this one. This has always been one of my least favorite Mitski tracks. It's not bad by any means but it's kinda just cute next to gorgeous at this point. The track kinda steps in it a bit with the short length being detrimental (more than most Cowboy tracks for me) and there's not a ton to make it stand out among the rest of Puberty 2 so it kinda just occupies the bottom space for me by default. The ending with "You only love me when we're all alone" packs a punch similar to the closing line of Lonesome Love so it has that going for it, still.

A Loving Feeling was never performed live so I have no visuals to share today. I'll leave us with the sole piece of commentary I received. Constantino who gave it a 9 said "Not to be shady but the good sis doesn’t appear to have experienced said elusive feeling all that often...".



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Tomorrow will be another bad elimination for our host.

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[Cutlery]

Finally indeed. My lowest from the album, albeit it's still a 7.25

 

[fatyoshi]

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#28 - Texas Reznikoff
8.139

High scores: 10 (me, @finito), 9 (@DinahLee, @Coochi, @Serg.)
Low scores: 5 (insolentire), 7 (@Phonetics Girl, @Trinu 3.0, @LE0Night)
fatyoshi's score: 10

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #39
10 voters - #33 (+6)
Final placement - #28 (+5)

At number 28 we say goodbye to our next opening track, a fave of our host's, and next Bury Me at Makeout Creek track. Goodbye to Texas Reznikoff, sorry our voters are flops. ":("

Texas Reznikoff starts off the album similarly to how our previously eliminated closer Last Words of a Shooting Star did, with the sound of rain. This fades out as some gentle acoustic strums come in and the soft (at least in the beginning) vocals follow. From this early portion at release, I wonder if fans who had followed Mitski up until this point were expecting this to be an acoustic singer/songwriter type effort in contrast to the Lush and Retired's piano centric work. The track instead defies expectations as the calm gives way near the mid point while the instruments and vocals fully take off. What a moment.

Texas Reznikoff is one of my favorite Mitski songs, for sure. There's tracks I like more (including both of the following album openers) but it kills me to see this out so soon regardless. Some of our voters weren't feeling the absolute catharsis of things popping off in this one and it shows.

As the votes came in this crept further and further up the leaderboard so I'm gonna celebrate that. Our lowest score from our non-PJ guest insolentire was counted among the first set of voters so most of that damage was out of the way. Our next lowest scores were a set of 7s so at least I don't have an unruly list of people who need to be dragged. Little victories, this is me trying.

Texas Reznikoff was yet another track that never saw live representation in shows so I'll finish with what y'all had to say. Cutlery, who gave this an 8.5 returns with the following commentary "The way she exorcised, cleansed and purified those 2012-2013 demons with a deceptively calm acoustic start fully blossoming into a noisy bop chorus with the euphoria of passion/love/etc. I shed a tear." Yes.

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I'll be back for another set of eliminations next week. See you then.


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[Cutlery]

I was gonna protest this eliminationbut at this stage, an 8.5 is one of my lowest scores left... Would've been a bit poetic if Texas Reznikoff outlasted the first two albums tho. Actually there are still a few Be the Cowboy tracks i wouldn't mind leaving next

 

[ohnostalgia]

I need to catch up on this rate, but scrolling this page is already making me angry ddd.

 

[fatyoshi]

pasting this on my phone so hopefully it doesn't get mangled..

let's get another week of eliminations started.

#27 - Liquid Smooth
8.15

High scores: 10 (me, @Phonetics Girl, @Remorque, @ohnostalgia) 9.2 (@pop3blow2)
Low scores: 5.5 (@LE0Night), 6 (@Euphoria)
fatyoshi's score: 10

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #15
10 voters - #26 (-11)
Final placement - #27 (-1)

Lush takes another loss at number 27 as we say goodbye to its opening track Liquid Smooth. This leaves us with only opening tracks from Puberty and Be the Cowboy in addition to only one Lush track in general remaining.

Liquid Smooth sees an examination of how so much women's worth is tied to beauty. The treatment of women by patriarchal societies, is a running theme on Lush as a whole so it makes sense that it crops up on the opening track. Not content to accept this, we perhaps see Mitski questioning or even arguing against said notions by stating "Biology, I am an organism, I'm chemical. That's all, that is all." It definitely makes something of a statement for this album or even her body of work as a whole.

Liquid Smooth has always been a personal favorite of mine on Lush. It was one of the most immediate tracks (along with Pearl Diver and Brand New City) in the earliest listens. It has held up pretty well for me. It carries some of the ominous feelings of the rest of Lush and has some of my favorite vocal delivery in her discography. What's not to like?

Following up on that last question, apparently quite a bit with some of our voters. Liquid Smooth began at #15 with our first set of voters and dropped twelve spaces as the rest of the voters came in to be where it is now. Maybe it was too ahead of its time for some people.

I'll leave us with our two pieces of commentary.

First up is Remorque with a 10, who said "I'm sorry, but this is one of my favourite Mitski songs. She sounds fucking lush (pun intended) and her voice gives this dreamy quality to the sparse production. And it features a Japanese lyric. I'm sold."

Next there's Cutlery with a 8.25, who said "Sultry jazz-influenced pop is, perhaps unsurprisingly, almost tailor-made for her voice. My only wish is she had actually pushed her performance a little more here because the song asked for that kind of drama. And it's over too soon too, I fear…"




I'll be back with another elimination tomorrow. Is Lush in danger of bowing out?​

 

[fatyoshi]

let's do another.

#26 - Thursday Girl
8.164

High scores: 10 (me, @DinahLee, @finito)
Low scores: 6 (@Serg., @Coochi), 7 (@Crisp X)
fatyoshi's score: 10

Leaderboard trajectory:
5 voters - #27
10 voters - #31 (-4)
Final placement - #26 (+5)

Shifting focus back to Puberty 2 for at least one elimination, it's time to say goodbye to Thursday Girl. This makes it our third Puberty track to leave.

I feel like I'm saying this every two eliminations but this is yet another track that gets me in my feelings. The idea of going so far off the rails with self destructive actions that you're left begging/hoping for someone to say something... anything to confront you for the behavior is definitely something I've experienced and worry about doing again. Just this sad image of going out and overdoing it while being completely aware of it yet being unable to set boundaries for yourself. A bit of a been there, done that kinda of thing I guess.

Anyways. I was getting ready to complain about this being out when I got around to this post but looking at the remaining tracks, it seems about right. I would've shifted one more Puberty 2 track and a few scattered ones elsewhere out first but otherwise it works here. I guess this is what happens when a discography serves as much as this. My remaining scores are all 7+, most of them being 9s and 10s. It's just gonna get worse from here ddddd.

In terms of voter consensus this didn't really see a ton of movement. It dipped a bit as the first half of the voters came in but then it went back up with the last set. In the end, the track left one placement higher than where it first started. This is one of the less turbulent leaderboard trajectories that we've had for a track for a minute. Or at least it feels that way.

Let's wrap this up with commentary and videos. Our single piece of commentary for Thursday Girl comes from Cutlery who gave it an 8 and said "One underrated track, table 8. A somber ambivalent moment of contemplation that I really appreciate."




Our last three eliminations for the week come from different sections than each other.

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[Cutlery]

"One underrated track, table 8.

I'm scratching my head having no idea what this part was supposed to mean?? I blame autocorrect.

Anyway, It's a bit sad to see Thursday Girl out of the top 20. Coming off the energic back of Crushed Little Stars, I think it sets the perfect tone for the contemplative last stretch of the album (A Loving Feeling sticking like a sore thumb notwithstanding), even if there isn't any outright connections between the songs, I get into that mood in the end