In her third album "bury me at makeout creek," Brooklyn songwriter Mitski reveals a dual musical personality and a multi-faceted talent. Opener "texas reznikoff" presents us with what (deceptively) sounds like your regular, acoustic guitar armed singer songwriter, who gently sings about her wishes, her lovers and far away lands. It takes less than a minute and a half for that first impression to get completely subverted by a sudden build up of distorted guitars. The sonic saturation continues in the following track, the noise pop gem "townie," where Mitski sounds like a riot girl of the new millennium, crafting a beautifully tense melody, full of carefree lyrics, over an unrelenting carpet of fuzzy guitars and feedback. Following track "first love / late spring" take us back to the initial sparseness, introducing a very elegant, if not seductive melody, reminiscent of the crooning charmers of the ’50s. A few tracks later, "jobless monday" doubles down on the crooner-pop influences, forging another incredibly beautiful vocal line. The rest of the record keeps dwelling between these recurrent extremes, revealing an artist who relies on her pop sensibility to allow her poetry to shine, while her instinctive, youthful angst leads her to reject anything that’s too conventional or predictable. Many great records emerge from this kind of tension.
Don’t miss the album’s release party tonight at Silent Barn.
Sunday Video: "Townie" – Mitski from Rookie on Vimeo.