In hauntingly eclectic glory, Mitski’s new album takeoff has finally happened.
The indie singer-songwriter’s eighth studio album, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me,” released Feb. 27, just shy of three years after her resounding 2023 release “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.” Juggling 11 genre-defying songs, the album breaks new sonic ground in the vein of Mitski’s previous folk-leaning musical shift, effortlessly melding her earlier heart-wrenching rock anthems with the sweeping orchestral waves of “The Land.” An album unafraid of flaunting its odd contrasts, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” is Mitski at her wildest, with a delirious yet adept handling of mismatched musical moods that only intensifies her poignant lyricism.
With arguably the most visually distinct marketing of any other Mitski album, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” uses a kitschy Victorian aesthetic, which includes the seemingly outcast design choices of gingham patterns, lavish furniture and anachronistic 90s technology. The opening track, “In a Lake,” embraces the nostalgia and novelty akin to this lost-and-found aesthetic. Against a backdrop of plucky guitar and folky strings, the artist transitions from rural to urban fantasy: “But in a lake, you can backstroke forever / The sky before you, the dark right behind / And in a big city, you can start over.” The instrumental vortex at the climax of the song depicts a cinematic transition into a city atmosphere, while also evoking dissonant feelings of alienation.
After this uncertain opener, the album’s pace accelerates with its lead single, “Where’s My Phone?” Mitski’s wandering vocals create a wonderful dissonance against an addictively cyclical bassline, as she toes the semantic line between “Where did it go?” and “Where’d I go?” As the track’s lyrics dissolve into chanting vocalizations, then dip into a crackling guitar solo, the singer leaves behind a mirror maze of a song that never truly finds the object it searches for, instead discovering the psychedelic rage behind a missing sense of self.
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Similarly haunting is fifth track “Dead Women,” one of the album’s most tragically resonant numbers. Telling the story of a woman who only finds autonomy through death, Mitski leans into a gothic mood in both lyricism and instrumentation, with the final image of a posthumously auctioned house echoing against the singer’s wordless chorus. While the instrumentals in the entire album are Mitski’s best across her discography, those in “Dead Women” are the strongest, with willowy strings and a skittish rain-like twinkling that reflect the vast expanse of her previous LP.
On the note of instrumental earworms, the second single, “I’ll Change For You,” warms up the album with its mellow winds and lilting bossa nova beat. While some may argue that the track’s jazzier composition undermines the album’s more rage-centered rock, the potent intensity of Mitski’s vocals allow for her lyrics to deliver the same gut punch as some of her grittier numbers, as she belts, “I’ll do anything / For you to love me again.” Sweet and atmospheric, the contrast between Mitski’s plaintive lyricism and dainty bossa nova rhythm – the latter a sonic leap for the artist – seamlessly aligns with the album’s greater focus of finding harmony in the miscellaneous.
The fourth track, “If I Leave,” marks a sonic transition to indie rock, with a piercing fury reminiscent of the artist’s previous albums, “Puberty 2” and “Bury Me at Makeout Creek.” Alongside a swaying guitar pattern, Mitski’s raw, melancholic lyrics create the tantalizing sensation of increasing claustrophobia, culminating with the cathartic outburst of, “I ride through a tunnel / It’s been dark the whole way.” The song’s uneven gait and subtle dissonance perfectly match the feelings of insecurity that Mitski sings about.
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“Rules,” the album’s most sonically adventurous track, juxtaposes themes of destructive obedience against a swinging, upbeat melody. With hints of synth and an instrumental break brimming with brass flourishes, there is a fresh, whimsical energy to the track that is reminiscent of a sitcom opening – a dexterous musical shift that buoys the album’s more predictable sonic choices. The catchy counting that Mitski opens with invites listeners to dance along, creating an extroverted facade that fittingly collapses once the “Rules” of the song at last release their hold.
Neither does Mitski relinquish organic folk instrumentals in “Cats” and “Charon’s Obol,” which balance out the album with warbling background vocals, acoustic guitar and rich strings. While “Cats” is more soothing, romanticizing the speaker and her lover as two cats, “Charon’s Obol” takes a third-person approach to a woman who feeds dogs at the crossroads of an afterlife.
The intense rebirth of “Lightning” is a flawless finish for this album of odds and ends. With a beautiful melding of violin and electric guitar, Mitski speculates on an afterlife of different reincarnations, finding acceptance in the ebb and flow of light and dark. The song’s most striking part is at its bridge, as the artist wails, “If I’m dark, all the better / To reflect the moonlight / If I mourn, all the better / To behold the sunrise.”
An accumulation of emotional and musical curios alike, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” will no doubt leave listeners with an appreciation for their own idiosyncrasies.
