By: Gwendolyne Chambers
Mitski is a music artist, known best for her raw emotion in her lyrics, who has now made a comeback after a three year hiatus. What better time to explain her musical history than now?
Mitski Miyawaki was born in Japan and moved frequently as a child, eventually staying in America. At 18, she went to Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music where she recorded and self-released her first two albums. Lush and Retired From Sad and New Career In Business were piano based, her music wouldn’t change from that until after she graduated and began her album Bury Me At Makeout Creek.
Bury Me At Makeout Creek was published through Double Double Whammy. Instead of piano in this album, it’s replaced by impulsive guitar. Raw emotion seeping into every word of every song.
Puberty 2 came out after Mitski had signed with Dead Oceans, the album being released through them. She released the singles “Your Best American Girl” and “Happy” after the release of Puberty 2. The album was well received and “Your Bets American Girl” was titled “The 13th Best Song” in 2010 by Rolling Stone. This is where Mitski began gaining popularity, the song, Francis Forever, from the album Bury Me At Makeout Creek was put into an episode of Adventure Time, in which Olivia Olson, the voice actress for Marceline, covered it. Mitski continued to cover songs and was an opening act for Lorde on her Melodrama World Tour.
The next album to come out was Be The Cowboy. This was without announcement and it was made available for pre-order. On the same day, her single “Geyser” came out. Two more singles came out after Be The Cowboy, those being the songs “Nobody” and “Two Slow Dancers.” Be The Cowboy came out a few days after the release of “Two Slow Dancers” and was critically acclaimed album of the year by publications such as Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork. It was during this tour where she announced her hiatus.
Three years later, Mitski announced her new album Laurel Hell. “Working For the Knife” and “Only Heartbreaker” are the only songs that have been released so far. The full album will be released on February 4th, 2022.
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