When it comes to music, Mitski has never been a stranger to wearing her heart on her sleeve. “Let’s step carefully into the dark,” she sings softly on the first line of the album’s opening track, setting up Laurel Hell as another emotional rollercoaster courtesy of the Japanese-American songwriter.
Laurel Hell is her sixth album, marking a return from the wilderness after announcing an indefinite music hiatus in 2019.
Right away from the broody opening chords and echoing vocals of ‘Valentine, Texas’ it’s clear that her sixth album is a reflective and soul-searching culmination of the past 10 years of her career.
Stylistically, the album follows on from 2018’s Be The Cowboy with its high production and pop veneer, which subsequently launched her career from a cult following into the stratosphere. Laurel Hell weaves between unsettling yearning and retro disco. While instrumentation ultimately takes a back seat in favour of poignant lyrical observations, it doesn’t mean that the album doesn’t contain some of her strongest work. Melancholy lyrics mix well against bright musical highs of ‘Love Me More’, ‘The Only Heartbreaker,’ and the gothic pop lows of ‘Everyone’ and ‘Heat Lightning.’
As the unapologetic pop highlight, ‘Love Me More’ builds to full crescendo on the chorus, made ready for disco dancing with its infectious hooks and singalong chorus “I need you to love me more / love me more.” ‘The Only Heartbreaker’ (co-written with Dan Wilson, who has worked with Adele and Taylor Swift) is another, filled with upbeat, 80’s disco synth beats.
On ‘Should’ve Been Me,’ outwardly an unadulterated pop banger, Mitski brings the characteristic yearning along. The peppy melodies juxtaposing the melancholy lyrics “I went through my list of friends / And found I had no one to tell.” On ‘I Guess’ Mitski reaches peak existential crisis and dread before once again circling back round to disco fun for closer ‘That’s Our Lamp.’
With lead single ‘Working for the Knife’, upon first listen, and compared to the louder, catchier songs on the album, feels like a peculiar single to lead with until you listen deeper into the track. ‘Knife’ serves as a metaphor for the ruthlessness of the music industry and feeling lost in the process. “It’s about going from being a kid with a dream, to a grown up with a job, and feeling that somewhere along the way you got left behind,” Mitski described the song in a statement.
In a way, ‘Working for the Knife’ encapsulates Mitski’s career, a musician renowned for pouring all her vulnerabilities into her music, “I used to think I would tell stories / but nobody cared for the stories I had about,” she sings. With its eerie synth and piano progression, confessional lyrics, and being the first single since her hiatus the song is a brutally honest self-reflection. All while keeping in with the heartbreakingly beautiful style which has made Mitski famous. ‘Working for the Knife’ lays bare the contrast between making music as a passion and making music as a job has had on Mitski.
After announcing her break from the industry nearly three years ago, from dissatisfaction with being a tool to make money (understandable given a lot of her songcraft comes from exposing her vulnerabilities) and the disorientating feeling as the idol of a dedicated fanbase. Laurel Hell feels like Mitski reconnecting with her listeners and coming to terms with the disorientating world of being famous.
While the stripped-back synth-pop approach sacrifices the raw, unfiltered charm of Bury Me At Makeout Creek and Puberty 2, Laurel Hell stands firm as a collection of, mature and considered songs, allowing Mitski to build her songwriting skill as she advances in her career.
Words by Brenna Cooper
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