Mitski - Be The Cowboy

No one does vulnerability like Mitski. Whether it’s an overblown indie rock banger, a jazzy number with an elaborate horn arrangement or an intimate piano ballad, every single track on ‘Be The Cowboy’ is tremendously compelling.

Lead single and opener ‘Geyser’ is a song that literally embodies its title, bubbling under the surface until the chorus explodes. The momentum she displays on it is unstoppable, rolling through the album like an avalanche triggered by the sound of a heart breaking.

Mitski’s records have always been like opening up her diary, but there’s something particularly striking about the lyrics this time around. “Walk up in my high heels, all high and mighty, then you say hello and I lose” on ‘Lonesome Love’ is heart-on-your-sleeve like no other. The same goes for the simplicity of “somebody kiss me, I’m going crazy” on ‘Blue Light’. ‘A Pearl’ has the spunk of a Nirvana song with the sincerity of a 3 am phone call to an old flame.

‘Be The Cowboy’ is packed with fantastic contradictions like those. ‘Nobody’ channels The Cardigans’ ‘Lovefool’, but couldn’t be further from it lyrically. The relatively disturbing imagery conjured up on ‘Washing Machine Heart’ (“toss your dirty shoes in my washing machine heart, baby, bang it up inside”) is offset by Mitski’s sugary sweet delivery and clapping song beat.