by
Mitski
- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Release Date: Sep 15, 2023
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Oct 5, 2023Mitski’s forte in her work has been her willingness to discuss her vulnerabilities. In The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, she imparts the idea that such vulnerabilities are better understood as mutual.
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UncutSep 18, 2023There's not a weak moment here, though the aforementioned "I Don't Like My Mind" and "The Deal", with its sudden percussive tumult, shine brightest. [Nov 2023, p.31]
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Sep 18, 2023Few albums in recent memory are as thematically bold and cohesive as The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. Mitski has a firm world built around her. Her identity as a musician has been long set in motion. Nevertheless, she flies past her own mark in this record, creating something more multifaceted than ever before.
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Sep 18, 2023The good-not-great quality of much of The Land… is at once its strong and weak point, enhancing the highlights but exposing concrete shortcomings. Simultaneously, this album is a highly productive move for Mitski, opening up a wide array of new possibilities for future endeavours.
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Sep 18, 2023Throughout, Mitski’s voice has never sounded sweeter or more exquisitely measured, even as she sings of protagonists vomiting cake, alcoholism (Bug Like an Angel), men, dogs, God and the devil.
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Sep 15, 2023Like all the best albums, it keeps you on edge, never quite knowing what’s coming next.
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Sep 15, 2023Each poetic song on The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We paints a powerful picture that is made more captivating by the orchestral and choir arrangements. It’s a risky record, but one that pays off much better than trying to be rid of a soul.
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Sep 15, 2023There are plenty of artists who make music occupying the same space as Mitski – reflective, weepy, introspective – but she stands alone in her lyricism and heart; on this album, she also seems less frightened by the potential fruits of her own talent.
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Sep 15, 2023The subtle melodies on The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We can take their time to gleam through the murk. So give it time and space at night, when you’re alone, to allow its wild darkness to shine.
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Sep 14, 2023The album’s brevity only adds to the allure, as it is stripped of any excess, and devoid of a single misstep. It is a distinct departure, but ultimately unsurprising in its flawless execution.
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Sep 14, 2023These are among some of the most surreal, existential, and fascinating songs of Mitski’s career, zooming out from the exigencies of her vocation to probe the essence of the human condition and our place in the cosmos.
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Sep 14, 2023She makes a stylistic sharp left turn with the more reserved, acoustic-leaning The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, a quasi-country album.
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Sep 14, 2023Mitski has not only created her most cohesive, accessible, musically diverse album yet, but also an arresting work of substantial beauty.
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Sep 14, 2023The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is another evolution: a mix of quotidian-yet-elliptical lyricism, classic country accompaniment, daring orchestral movements, and the musician’s unique brand of storytelling.
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Sep 14, 2023There are an awful lot of singer-songwriters around exploring the kind of subjects Mitski touches on here: disillusionment, isolation, broken relationships, overindulgence. But it is questionable whether anyone else is doing it with this much skill, this lightness of touch or indeed, straightforward melodic power: in the best possible sense, Mitski feels out on her own.
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Sep 14, 2023‘The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We’ is Mitski at her most emotionally raw.
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Sep 14, 2023The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We finds Mitski at her most peaceful, hopeful, and, yes, loving.
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Sep 13, 2023Taken individually these songs are all gorgeous, but as a whole they create an effect of being hemmed in by absence, that inhospitable land overwhelming in its minimalism. No other record today sounds so beautiful and full while being quite so sparse.
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Sep 13, 2023The choices and the arrangements on ‘The Land is Inhospitable…’ are some of Mitski’s most complex and richest, yet they translate to such simplicity, a statement that there is pain and love and that’s it. Those are the ingredients with which we make everything.
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Sep 13, 2023It contains both her gentlest, most fantastical production and her saddest, most miserable lyrics. The commendable combination, as well as the new musical directions, reestablishes her artistic identity the same way Bury Me at Makeout Creek and Be the Cowboy did.
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MojoSep 11, 2023Mitski has long stared at happiness and wondered what comes next; here, she spies it, smiles and then shrugs, the smart band beneath glowing like some warmth hearth on a cold Los Angeles Night. [Oct 2023, p.85]
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Sep 11, 2023The record can be as self-lacerating as any of Mitski's past works — the skin-tingling bar room swing of "I Don't Like My Mind," with its frenetic binging and sorry purging, is an early gut punch — but it holds a steady, wisened resolve at its core, an acceptance of solitude and ache that sets it apart from the rest of her catalogue.
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Sep 11, 2023The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’s numerous emotional peaks, from “Star” to “My Love Mine All Mine,” are so moving that the listener may also be convinced that love is a light in a dark world, a pillar of fire in the wilderness. Indeed, Mitski’s ability to pack so many gut-punches and inspired ideas into half an hour remains uncannily impactful.
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Sep 11, 2023The album is truly extraordinary – it is a once-in-a-career masterpiece that synthesises difference through abstracted self-observation. It is a vehicle for making meaning, an invitation to try again.