Mitski's New Album

“The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We”

In July it was revealed that Mitski was planning on releasing another album.

On September 15, 2023, Mitski came out with that said album named, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We”, therefore abolishing the rumors about her “retiring.” She has written every song in the album. “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We", being her seventh studio album, has a total of 11 songs, 2 already becoming quite popular; “Bug Like an Angel” and “My Love Mine All Mine.”

In “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” there is a written description in which Mitski expresses what her songs mean to her. On her YouTube, “Mitski”, she’s also expressed what these songs mean to her and what they are meant to convey.

“Bug Like an Angel”

The first song of “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” is called “Bug Like an Angel”, one of the popular songs from the new album. In the song Mitski sings “As I got older I learned I’m a drinker” and “Sometimes a drink feels like family.” She’s singing about her immense solitude here and how in a way she finds comfort in it.  She writes, “There’s a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom/Of my glass, with a little bit left.” Again, she’s finding a sense of solace in loneliness. 

“Buffalo Replaced”

With the second song of the album, Mitski continues to sing about isolation. She sings of the want and the need for meaning while the world changes around her. Mitski sings of a separation from human connection. She writes “Mosquitos can enjoy me, I can’t go inside.” She is expressing how she feels as though she is a stranger to people. She doesn’t understand how to wholly engage in society.

“Heaven”

Mitski’s third song “Heaven” dives into love. “Heaven” is, simply put, a love song, but of course Mitski’s songs are never that simple. Her music is known to be deep and sometimes confusing the meaning of her music being hidden by her poeticness and strong figurative language. She often uses paradoxes, metaphors, and personification. In this song she uses personification. She sings “Hear the storm/Dances outside/Something set free/Is runnin’ through the night/And the dark awaits us/All around the corner/But here in our place/We have for the day/Can we stay awhile and listen? For heaven.” She fears the arguing that comes with relationships and wants to be present in only the good times, or as she calls it, “Heaven.” “Heaven” is also the more blissful and ardent side of the relationship.

“I Don’t Like My Mind”

“I Don’t Like My Mind” is the fourth song of the album and this one is more direct than her other songs. Of course Mitski still manages to use her poeticness to convey the meaning of her song in a more subtle way. When she sings “A whole cake, so please don’t take/Take this job from me.” These lyrics divulge her fear of losing her job and the symbolism of “A whole cake” is the need for authority over her life. By eating the cake she feels in control because she chose to do that. Right after she begs to keep her job because if she doesn’t her control is gone. 

It could also resemble that eating the cake is her job. The cake is how she copes in which she pleads not to have her coping mechanism taken from her. She also sings of upsetting memories and the self criticisms that derive from said memories. Thanks to this coping mechanism she only gets worse, throwing up due to the over consumption. This coping mechanism was also revealed, in the lyrics, to give rise to these bad memories. This song is about her self conflict.

“The Deal”

Fifth song deep into the album Mitski sings of going on a midnight walk. Again, a song of solitude, Mitski debates on making a deal, with something/someone unsaid, so that she could give something up and in return she’d gain a sense of freedom from her isolation. She sings “I want someone to take this soul/I can’t bear to keep it/I'd give it just to give” She hopes that someone taking her soul will give her a sense or meaning in this world. She also sings “Your pain is eased but you’ll never be free” and then the repeat of “There’s a deal that I made” she sings of her pain being soothed yet she isn’t free from her loneliness. Then the repetitiveness of “There’s a deal that I made” right after is almost mocking in a way. Even though she’s given her love to someone she still hasn’t found any sense of meaning or freedom from her isolation. She may be comforted for a while but in the end she is the same. Empty.

“When Memories Snow”

“When Memories Snow” is the sixth and shortest song of the new album lasting a minute and 44 seconds. Mitski sings about her memories and how they affect her. Mitski again uses figurative language to make her message elusive or difficult to understand. The meaning of the lyrics “When memories snow/And cover up the driveway” are hidden by a metaphor of snowfall to illustrate the buildup of memories that stop her from moving on with her life. When she sings “I shovel all those memories/Clear the path to drive to the store” Mitski is actively pushing aside her painful memories so that she is mentally able to do the things she has to do, such as going to the store.

“My Love Mine All Mine”

Another fan favorite being number seven in her album “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” is about the one thing Mitski has for free in this world. Her love. In her YouTube video titled “Mitski-My Love Mine All Mine (Behind The Song)” Mitski is seated next to her piano in front of a camera explaining her thoughts behind the song. She says “I was thinking about how I don't actually have anything of my own that I can keep.” She then goes on to explain how all materialistic things get lost and how even her body, when she passes, will deteriorate. She wanted to think of something that she could keep and she eventually came to the conclusion that “It’s this love I feel in me, that i’ve created in me, that i’ve built in me, that i’ve held onto and it's mine for as long as I want it, for as long as I don’t give it up or let the world take it away from me and I really do believe to love is the best thing I ever did in my life; better than any song i've ever written, better than any achievement by far, to love is truly the best and most beautiful thing I ever did.” “As I was thinking about that I started thinking about how sad it was that once I die I can’t leave behind this most beautiful thing that I have. I guess it sort of dies with me. So, I wanted to write a song about how I wish that when I die I could at least leave all this love behind in the world. So, that’s what the song is about and I hope you like it, thank you.”

“The Frost”

As this album follows the theme of isolation and love, the eighth song of the album “The Frost” sings of lost love and lonesomeness. She sings “This morning after you’re gone/And the house is mine alone” and “You’re my best friend, now I’ve no one to tell/How I lost my best friend.” Someone she loved has left her behind and when she goes on to sing “The frost, it looks like we’ve been left in the attic” it is unveiled that the frost was written to symbolize the aftermath of not just her lover leaving her behind but everyone. She has no one to tell about her lover and bestfriend leaving her because there is no one to hear. Her loneliness is really accentuated by the lyrics “After everyone’s long been gone” and “Now the world is mine alone.”

“Star”

“Star”, the ninth song of the album, like “Heaven”, revolves completely around love. This love has dimmed out. In the first lines Mitski sings “Remember when we met?/We acted like two fools/We were so glad” She recalls meeting her past lover and how at first they were so deep in love. “That love is like a star” She uses a simile to compare their love to a star, a star that has traveled far, losing its light. That “leftover light” does not seem worth holding onto by the singer’s lover. Their star’s shine eventually fades out completely, their love now gone. At the end of the song Mitski once again asks “Isn’t that worth holdin’ on?” And the song fades out just like their star.

“I’m Your Man”

The tenth song from “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” is “I’m Your Man.” Mitski sings of being in a relationship in which she compares herself to her partner. “You’re an angel, I’m a dog” Mitski puts herself down believing that her lover is superior to her. She expresses how she feels she is constantly destroying her partner like she did herself. Then she apologizes, singing “I’m sorry I’m the one you love.” She sings of how she deserves to die for not being a good enough lover. She then goes on to sing how “People always gave me love/Others were never the problem, after all.” Here she’s coming to a realization that she has been a void. Nothing can fill this emptiness, not even a love like her partner, in which she’s established to be an angel. She now knows that nothing will be good enough for her. “You believe me like a god/I betray you like a man.” This represents that all of her inner turmoil and self destruction has finally struck not only her but also her partner as she said it would.

“I Love Me After You”

The eleventh and final song of the album is a bit different from the rest of the songs on this album. This song is about independence and finding herself in which is liberating her from her solitariness and past. The first lyrics of the song are “Brushin’ my hair naked/Spritz my face with toner/Splash water on my neck/Laughin’ in the mirror.” Mitski is actively taking care of herself here. She is growing. She no longer lets her past stop her from taking care of herself or completing her everyday tasks. 

Purpose

“The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” is an album where we are taken on a journey into Mitski’s mind. We can feel her intense loneliness as we listen and all of the love in her heart that she wants so badly to give. She clues into this in “My Love Mine All Mine” and “Heaven.” We listen as Mitski searches for purpose and meaning in this life. She wants to love someone but struggles with the actual relationship in which we observe in her song “I’m Your Man.” This is thanks to her inability to move on from the past, as heard in “When Memories Snow”, and self destruction which ends up affecting her partner. She learns that she must love and take care of herself in “I Love Me After You” and it being the last song on the album brings about this sense of change in Mitski. She is working to free herself from this deafening solitude and meaningless life. Instead of beating herself up over the past she now participates in self care. She’s found that, for her, love is her purpose.