Mitski released her eighth studio album, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me”, filled with 11 songs about isolation and finding one’s true self on Feb. 27. Since 2012, Mitski has been a popular contemporary artist who is famous for her melancholy music with lyrics about love and loneliness.
As I’ve listened to numerous of Mitski’s older songs and enjoyed them, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” surprised me.
Whereas Mitski’s older albums use deep, raw vocals and incorporate a heavier use of bass, her new album felt like a mixture of ‘70s soft rock and country-folk. It is some of the most mellow music I have ever heard from Mitski.
Moreover, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” wasn’t as artistically or musically creative like the previous albums. For example, the second to last song of the album, “Charon’s Obol” had sounds similar to that of Florence + the Machine and Mazzy Star, but didn’t deliver the same emotional effect for me. The dreamier songs and tunes did not Mitski’s deeper voice and singing style.
Though, it seems that “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” is full of musical genre shifts for Mitski.
The first song of the album, “In a Lake,” starts the album off with an interesting change because it borrowed sounds from alternative country. It was unusual to hear sad indie artist use banjos and sing with twang. I mildly enjoyed “In a Lake” because the tune was pleasant, but there wasn’t anything unique that separated it from other alternative country songs.
When the second song began, I quickly decided that “Where’s My Phone?” was my least favorite. Though it is the most listened to song on the album, with over 12,000,000 listens, the lyrics bored me. I could not connect to a song where the majority of it was asking “where is my phone?”
It is always an important criteria for mellow or sad songs to have poetic lyrics. If I can not connect to the words of the song, it makes it hard for me to enjoy the song. So, with a large portion of “Where’s My Phone?” literally being Mitski repetitively asking (singing..?) “where is my phone?” I struggled to form an emotional connection to the music. Rather, its repetitiveness made me want to skip the song because I couldn’t find much purpose in it.
Other songs on the album like “Instead of Here” and “I’ll Change for You” also changed its tune from sad music. Mitski’s decision to use percussion and piano gave it more of a jazz feel, along with her choice to sing in a lighter tone.
Although enjoyable, I still felt like “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” was a pleasant, but forgettable album.
Nevertheless, I respect that this was a leap outside Mitski’s conventional music style. It is hard for artists to break out of a role when they’ve established a certain sound and style that people know and come to expect.
