July 26th, 2023, Mitski surprised fans with an announcement for her album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We. In her previously released album Laural Hell, Mitski expressed her conflicted emotions surrounding her career as an artist and planned it to be her last album retiring from making music. In her surprise announcement, she addressed her emotions regarding re-entering the music industry, "There are a lot of things about working in the music industry, and about being in the public eye, that feels like it goes against my nature...but I am also in a miraculously lucky position to be able to make music with resources and time.” As a big fan of Mitski, her return came with great excitement, and the songs she released with it exceeded all my expectations. Mitski is known for creating music with poetic lyricism that explores darker themes. Themes explored within this album include addiction, grief, depression, love, and life and death. She uses religious elements, including choir vocals, to explore these different themes in this Americana/folk/country album. Here are some of my favorites from the album and their deeper meanings expressed.
"Bug Like an Angel"
Her lead single, "Bug Like an Angel," was released along with a music video exploring the theme of addiction. It details the thoughts and mannerisms of an alcoholic who is drunk, contemplating their choices and how they got to where they are in their life. Her opening line, "There's a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom of my glass, with a little bit left," depicts the perspective of the narrator who has drunk past their limits and is being cut off from drinking any further because of this bug tainting their drink. The bug's description is meant to visually describe this pest-like creature with wings appearing like an "angel" and acting as a savior that cuts the narrator off, who struggles to do so for themselves often. Mitski uses heavy imagery to display the mannerisms of the narrator during their drunk episode, "Hey, what's the matter? Lookin' like your sticker is stuck on a floor somewhere." This line describes an outsider's perspective of the narrator, who has lost control over their body and finds themselves bending over and gazing at the floor. Mitski explains that her inclusion of this line is meant to invoke nostalgia and longing and references her childhood: "When I was a kid I remember, stickers were so important to me...I just thought of how sad I would be, how sad a kid would be if their precious sticker was on the floor somewhere and they couldn't get it off." Alluding to a child clawing at a floor where their sticker has fallen, possibly tearing it in the process, could then represent the narrator's fall from grace and their desperate attempts to retrieve back their innocence.
"Heaven"
Throughout this album, Mitski explores the idea of processing death, and “Heaven,” although a soft song, expands on this theme while representing love within a rocky relationship. The scene is set in a room where the couple she describes holds their love and locks out the troubles within their relationship, as interpreted from the line, “Hear the storm, dances outside.” Despite these troubles, the couple appears to hold onto hope and faith in the strength of their relationship, even if it is temporary. The line, “And the dark awaits us all around the corner. But here in our place, we have for the day. Can we stay a while and listen for heaven?” reveals the double meaning of the couple’s acknowledgment of inevitable difficulties arising and their inevitable death. Regardless of what awaits them, they choose to embrace the present.
What makes this song so special to me is how Mitski takes something so dreadful like death and transforms it into something beautiful, using it as a metaphor for letting go of the fear of vulnerability and loving someone. Just as someone may hold back from loving someone fully, this could parallel how one may refrain from fully living their life due to the common fear of things coming to an end. With her angelic vocals, Mitski encapsulates the divine feeling of accepting death and challenges as a natural part of life. Knowing that we must all let go someday makes love and life all the more precious.
"The Deal"
This song is based on a poem Mitski later realized she misinterpreted. Astronomer Maria Mitchell’s poem “How Charming is Divine Philosophy” was written to describe all the beautiful things you could discover about yourself and life by taking a walk alone at night. In her poem, the line, “There’s a deal to be learned on a midnight walk when you take it all alone” is meant to convey this message but Mitski misread it as “a deal to be made on a midnight walk alone.” Mitski took her interpretation and created a song that answered the question: what kind of deal could be made on a midnight walk alone? The narrator in “The Deal” appears to be trapped within themselves and proclaims out loud an offer to give up their soul and to be free of what holds them back from being happy. Being alone on this walk, the only thing that replies is a bird that says, “Now I'm taken, the night has me. You won't hear me singin'. You're a cage without me. Your pain is eased, but you’ll never be free.” Mitski chooses a bird to represent the narrator’s soul to convey the message that the one thing that could give the narrator freedom is the soul itself. All that is left without the “bird” is the “cage”, leaving the narrator an empty vessel.
"The Frost"
Following the theme of grief, “The Frost” is written to reflect the experience of loneliness in the absence of a loved one. For this song, I just have to put on my psych student glasses and with my very amateur skills say that the narrator's described experience gives hints of seasonal depression. Frost plays a central role in reminding the narrator of their loved one, bringing on deep sadness, “With no one, no one to share the memory of frost out the window this morning after you're gone, and the house is mine alone.” Memories are used to describe events that linger with us over a long period of time, further supporting the idea that the loved one’s passing occurred during the same season years ago. Frost could be seen to also represent all that is left after a person has passed. If we look at water and ice as life and death, frost represents the traces of death left on the living—frost becomes the lingering presence of the narrator’s loved one who has passed.
"My Love Mine All Mine"
“My Love Mine All Mine” is a very straightforward love song written as a conversation between the narrator and the moon. In their conversation, the narrator touches on a topic that you won’t guess–death! Again! Similar to the way “Heaven” portrays it, death is viewed as a natural part of life that the narrator accepts. The narrator recognizes that everything they have now is temporary, and after death, all that remains are the memories and love shared with those who are left behind. The narrator sings, “Moon, tell me if I could send up my heart to you? So, when I die, which I must do, could it shine down here with you?” Since we can’t take anything with us in death, the narrator chooses to leave behind their love to the moon–the oldest shining beacon they could think of that will outlive us all. On sleepless nights, loved ones could at least look up at the moon and find comfort in remembering that love.
"I’m Your Man"
The story in “I’m Your Man” revolves around a person coming to terms with all the wrongs they have committed in a relationship they are now forced to leave. Throughout the song, the narrator expresses deep regret for their treatment of their partner and a sense of unworthiness of their partner’s love. The opening verses reveal the narrator’s insecurities and how they view their partner, “You’re an angel, I’m a dog. Or you’re a dog and I’m your man. You believe me like a god. I destroy you like I am.” Here we see the narrator place their partner on a high pedestal and themselves, the farthest beneath them. They imply that their partner is loyal to a fault by comparing them to a dog and themselves as the owner. The third comparison being made between the narrator and “a god” is meant to convey the message that they ended their relationship in the same catastrophic way a god may cleanse a sinful land with natural disasters or plagues. The song's overall feel stays true to the continuous theme of death within the album and showcases the narrator’s grief
through haunting sounds. I love this song so much for its nuances and layered meaning. There are more elements within it than I have already pointed out that build on its story and connect back to other songs Mitski has written throughout her career including “I Bet on Losing Dogs.” In her YouTube playlist, where she briefly explains each song within the album, Mitski also touches on the theme of the masculine subconscious in “I’m Your Man.” I highly recommend checking it out for a deeper understanding of this song and others within her album.
More to explore...
The Land is Inhospitable & So Are We is a beautifully crafted album that evokes strong emotions that people tend to avoid. Those who know about Mitski but don’t listen to her usually comment saying “her music is too depressing”–and honestly, they’re not completely wrong. But not every artist has to be like Panic! at the Disco; some artists just prefer to write tragedies, not sins. So, when you’re curious enough to listen to her album, which you absolutely should do, be prepared to confront buried emotions you may carry.
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