The deadline is tomorrow night. As previously mentioned, the actual hard cut-off will be the next day when I wake up/get going but don't linger if you're still coming.
As promised, here's the final write-up.
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It seems that we've reached the end of Mitski's discography. Two years after
Puberty 2 we saw the release of
Be the Cowboy in 2018. Something of a culmination of her career up to this point (the previous four albums, her increasingly stellar visuals, live performances/presence, and so forth), the album almost feels like a victory lap of sorts and what a victory lap it is...
As always with her releases,
Be the Cowboy sees our indie legend trying new things in terms of songwriting and composition (in addition to said new things radiating outwards to the visuals and live show as well but more on that Soon.) in comparison to the previous works. Ms. Mitski herself described finding inspiration in "the image of someone alone on a stage, singing solo with a single spotlight trained on them in an otherwise dark room" which can be seen as something of a core or mission statement to the record. What we've got here is the most musically eclectic Mitski album with the varied instrumentation of
Lush, the fuzziness of
Puberty 2, and other elements from her work as a collective making an appearance. This is mixed in with songwriting that does something completely different with the tracks feeling like vignettes offering brief glimpses into the lives of characters vs some of the more inward facing writing from before. Add in things like Nobody being her Big Pop Moment of sorts and it can all be a bit overwhelming ddddd.
Picking up a bit from the visuals and performances I mentioned earlier, the
Be the Cowboy era saw perhaps the biggest expansions on both fronts in her career. Starting with the visuals, we got four music videos this time. Geyser, Nobody, and Washing Machine Heart seeing live action videos while A Pearl received an animated one. If
Puberty 2 is where I mentioned that I started to consider Mitski as more of a visual artist, this is what cemented it with visuals that served not only stimulating aesthetics but also general cohesion across the board. (At the rate things had been progressing from album to album, it makes me wonder if we'd be in for a full visual album on a future release if they ever come.) Elsewhere, the live show also saw some shifts with choreography inspired by
Butoh, props, and new arrangements of older material. It's quite hard to put the vibe of this era's shows into words so I'll be sure to link some performances below and during eliminations once we get going.
Be the Cowboy has been an interesting one to let settle in, personally. It was the most immediate album of hers to click with
Bury Me at Makeout Creek. Elements that others find polarizing (the short track lengths, the scattered songwriting topics/themes, and so forth) were a bit part of what drew me in originally (the Tegan and Sara stan jumps out in unexpected places). Tracks like Old Friend, Two Slow Dancers, and Geyser are among my absolute favorite Mitski tracks and were in the final running for or one may even be my 11. Relistening to it in prep for this rate and while finalizing my scores I think I've settled into preferring both
Bury Me at Makeout Creek and Puberty 2 but that's no great insult, it fucking slays. Y'all know I'll be the first one breaking down the door of my record store (in a non pandemic time) for a new Mitski album but if this has to be the last album it was an incredible ending.
As always I'll leave some videos of visuals from the era in addition to performances.
What's your favorite or least favorite track on Be the Cowboy?
How do you feel about the songwriting and composition of the tracks? The track durations and character focused writing for example.
