What a loss it would have been if Mitski had followed through on her threat to quit the singer-songwriter profession. This seventh album of his career is his most successful, melodically and lyrically. “ There’s a bug like an angel / Stuck to the bottom / Of my glass, with a little bit left / As I got older / I learned I’m a drinker / Sometimes a drink feels like family », she sings in her silky voice on Bug Like an Angel in the opening, serving the first of a volley of slaps, here attenuated by the presence of a string section and a choir giving a classical, vaguely retro luster to these eleven precious songs. We are far from the existential doubts indie rock – which still resurface on the intense The Deal And I Love Me After You — or tearful love stories from the synth-pop episode Be the Cowboy (2018), the musician even touches on the country ballad on the astonishing Heaven. Which says everything about Mitski’s talent: whatever the musical costume, rock, electro, pop, country, his melodic flair, his refined prosody, his signature remains, unique among all.
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