Nobody

A Dork five-star record, 'Be the Cowboy' is Mitski's fifth album, a 32-and-a-half-minute collection that pairs painfully candid lyrics with clearer production and more confident vocals than her earlier work. 'Nobody', the second single, channels the deceptively upbeat energy of The Cardigans' 'Lovefool' whilst carrying entirely different emotional weight.

The track opens with a stark admission of loneliness, Mitski singing of opening the window to hear sounds of people, before pivoting to an image of Venus destroyed by global warming, asking whether its people wanted too much. The chorus strips down to a repeated "nobody, nobody, nobody", the word cycling through the song like a dare rather than a lament. What begins as self-abasement transforms into something almost celebratory, Mitski playing with the confirmation of her isolation.

The production keeps the mood deceptively light, a clapping beat and sweet delivery offsetting lyrics that move from "I don't want your pity, I just want somebody near me" to the plea for one good honest kiss, then one good movie kiss. The contradiction holds: vulnerability delivered with the momentum of someone who has made peace with yearning, who can shout louder now.