I've revisited the extras and finalized (i think?) my rates. My 11 is decided. ":)"
How about the next album, then?
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Alright, we're really getting into it a bitsy now. Left exhausted after finishing up her time at SUNY Purchase while working other assorted jobs, Mitski once again switched it up heavily for her third effort. Perhaps most notably, she picked up guitar and pursued a more rock based instrumentation. Recorded in a more DIY fashion than what came before,
Bury Me at Makeout Creek was released on November 11, 2014 by Double Double Whammy (a CD reissue with bonus tracks came in 2015 from Don Giovanni Records).
Not counting some of the extra materials (more on those later, perhaps?) this is the standout left turn in her discography (at least personally). Less fidelity, more noise is the general theme here sound wise.
Texas Reznikoff starts off with some pleasant acoustic strumming that while already new territory for her work soon gives way to an absolute wall of sound in the track's latter half. The rest of the tracks aren't too far off from this with
Townie,
I Don't Smoke, and
Drunk Walk Home being delightfully fuzzy in particular. Meanwhile tracks like
Carry Me Out and
Last Words of a Shooting Star serve a middle ground between the bombast of other album tracks and the earlier more ornate material. There is absolutely a sense of things clicking into place here as this feels somewhat of a blueprint to be iterated on in
Puberty 2 and even later with elements of
Be the Cowboy.
2014 and 2015 was an exciting time for Mitski and her fans. Beyond the already covered sound shift, this was also an era of many career/discography firsts. After just dropping the previous two albums on bandcamp (and later other streaming services) this is the first time we saw a full album roll out (physical copies and all) from her. There were singles/pre-release tracks in the form of
First Love / Late Spring,
Townie,
I Don't Smoke, and
I Will. There were two music video variants (only one of which I was still able to find, unfortunately) for
Townie. Most excitingly however, this was when Mitski started playing live shows promoting her material. Bury Me at Makeout Creek is where we really started getting into live representation and varied performances for the material. Every track on here has seen some kind of setlist representation over the years besides
Texas Reznikoff and
Jobless Monday. We love to see it.
It's hard for me to put into words how I feel about this one to be honest. It's effectively my favorite album of the 2010s if not
overall favorite. Most of what I could say feels like it would undersell it. Just stacked from start to finish, classic after classic.
Texas Reznikoff, Francis Forever, First Love / Late Spring, I Don't Smoke, I Will, Carry Me Out... all big faves of mine. I don't say this kind of thing lightly but on some level even if it isn't immediately apparent at a glance, I think this album had a huge effect on my life.
Revisiting this at almost 2 am for this write-up obviously had me feeling... whatever led to the above so I'm gonna cut myself off a bit. As usual I'll provide some supplementary visuals (this time the
Townie video in addition to some of my fave era track live performances).
Lastly, some discussion questions/prompts. I know y'all have been a bit quiet with the first two albums and I lowkey expected that since some were new to the material but I'm sure a lot have heard from here and on. Get your asses in here xx
What's your favorite (or least favorite) track on the album?
How do you feel about the shift to a more rock instrumentation and lo-fi production?
Just share some thoughts in general. Also let me know how y'all are coming along in your rates. We have time still but I just want to have a general feeling for where we're at.
