TRACK REVIEW: Mitski - Heat Lightning

TRACK REVIEW:

Mitski

Heat Lightning

9.3/10

The track, Heat Lightning, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvIkcN5YMH4

RELEASE DATE:

7th December, 2021

ORIGIN:

New York, U.S.A.

The album, Laurel Hell, is available from 4th February, 2022 and can be pre-ordered here:

https://www.secretlystore.com/laurel-hell-mitski?ffm=FFM_e25855277b7644042dea6c7db466f0b2

LABEL:

Dead Oceans

PRODUCER:

Patrick Hyland

__________

EVEN though there are not many interviews…

PHOTO CREDIT: Parris Thomas

from this year, I am keen to include some interview details for the Mitski. Releasing new music this year, there is a lot of new interest around the New York-born artist. Real name Mitski Miyawaki, her latest album came out in 2018. Be the Cowboy was a hugely successful album that marked Mitski as a tremendous songwriter and talent. Het upcoming album, Laurel Hell, is out on 4th February. I am going to come to the new track, Heat Lightning, in a minute. Before coming to the single, there is a lot to cover off when it comes to knowing more about this incredible artist. I was interested to know what it was like growing up for Mitski. As we find out from a New Yorker article from 2019, she had an itinerant upbringing:

“Mitski, the indie musician, was eighteen when she wrote her first song. That may not seem particularly precocious in an era when adolescent pop phenoms release entire albums that were recorded in their parents’ house. But Mitski Miyawaki, who is now twenty-eight, had not envisaged a future as a musician, or much of a future at all.

Mitski grew up all over the world. Her mother, whose last name she uses, is Japanese; her father is American and worked for the State Department, in capacities that she does not discuss. By the time Mitski was eighteen, she had lived in Japan, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Turkey, Alabama, and Virginia. Changing schools almost yearly, she was always the new kid, always the foreigner, trying on personae—the studious girl, the party girl—with varying degrees of success and self-alienation. At a suburban school in Virginia, she decided to be the quiet girl, and barely spoke to her classmates all year. Then she signed up for the year-end talent show and performed Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” in the bombastic style of the Whitney Houston cover. Mitski has an astonishing voice—clear and supple and haunting—and so when I first heard the talent-show story I imagined it as a redemptive scene out of a John Hughes movie. She told me that it hadn’t felt that way at all. “When I was planning it, I’d envisioned it as much more cinematic and funny and grand,” she told me in a text message. “But the actual execution of it was much smaller in cinematic scope. I was just singing this melodramatic song to confused and alarmed faces.” Instead of forging a connection with her peers, she felt like a “carnival attraction,” an even weirder version of the outsider she already was.

Movies offered a refuge. Mitski admired Hayao Miyazaki’s lush animated films, especially the way they never fully explained the mysteries of the fantastical worlds they conjured. We talked about a scene from “Spirited Away” in which a very young girl embarks, alone, on a long train journey. “It’s so resolute, the way she’s looking out the window, especially because she has no return ticket,” Mitski said. “It’s the face of someone who’s made a decision.”

For an isolated child, immersion in movies can sometimes lead to social miscues. Mitski told me, “In tenth grade—this says a lot about how developmentally delayed I was—I had in my mind that it was the proper thing for me to have a love interest. And you’d see in movies where two characters instantly see each other and are, like, I’m in love!, and then it just cuts to them on a date or interacting. So in my brain I interpreted that as, if I just keep looking at this boy, that’s how it will start.” She went on, “A lot of my adolescence was like that. Me thinking I was doing the right thing by re-creating a movie scene that I’d seen but then realizing that’s not how it happens in real life.”

Like many young people, Mitski was intensely preoccupied with how she looked. “I spent all my teen-age years being obsessed with beauty, and I’m very resentful about it and I’m very angry,” she told Jillian Mapes, of Pitchfork, in an interview onstage in Brooklyn a few years ago. “I had so much intelligence and energy and drive, and instead of using that to study more, or instead of pursuing something or going out and learning about or changing the world, I directed all that fire inward, and burnt myself up.”

She knew that she had a good voice—she’d been singing in choirs since middle school, and had always stood out. Whenever she was lonely in a new house or city or country, she’d walk around and hum invented fragments of melody. But these acts of self-consolation were insufficient. “As a teen-ager, I didn’t want to be alive,” she told me. “Everything was so hard. I just wanted to be dead. I didn’t have anything I was good at, because I didn’t know I could make music yet. And I didn’t fit anywhere. And I took a lot of risks, and I just did a lot of things where I didn’t take care of myself”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

I think one of the things a lot of people might not know about Mitski is her generosity. This is one thing I found out when researching her. Coming back to the article from The New Yorker, we get a sense of how Mitski has supported her peers and is highly regarded:

“Among musicians, Mitski is known as a quietly generous colleague. Phoebe Bridgers told me that, after she signed her first record deal, Mitski wrote to her to say that being a performer “can be very isolating,” and offered, “Let me know if you ever want to talk about anything.” Bridgers added, “I know she’s done that for a ton of my friends, at varying levels of their careers.” The musician Sasami Ashworth told me that Mitski was “sort of a mother hen.” When Ashworth was about to go on tour without merch—she couldn’t afford any—Mitski told her she’d never make enough money just by performing in clubs, and immediately sent her five hundred dollars to have T-shirts printed. Ashworth also noted that Mitski is “very conscious of who she brings on tour—having opening acts she wants to uplift personally, financially, and professionally.” She went on, “Mitski doesn’t necessarily talk about feminism all the time on Twitter, but she has so many women of color and queer people working with her.” The two acts that opened for Mitski in 2016—Japanese Breakfast and Jay Som—are both fronted by Asian-American women. That triple bill was “sort of legendary,” Ashworth said”.

As an Asian-American artist, Mitski does not want to be seen as a figurehead or start a revolution. If there is reluctance for Mitski to see herself as a role model or leader, her professional confidence is clear. In 2018, she spoke with The Guardian (to promote Be the Cowboy). It is clear that Mitski, as an artist, knows exactly what she is doing:

“Sometimes, though, Mitski is so good at connecting with people that it backfires. Her fans feel they know her more intimately than they actually do and occasionally act as though they are entitled to her time and attention. She recalls walking off stage after a recent concert, when fans grabbed her and shouted at her to take selfies with them. “That’s valid, I really appreciate it, but I was saying, ‘No, please stop, please let me go’, and everyone’s eyes were glazed over. I realised I wasn’t actually a fellow person; I was an idea. That’s what I’m uncomfortable with. People want to take something of me to keep with them, and I don’t want to be owned like that. I want to be a fellow person standing on the same ground, I don’t want to be someone’s little treasure in their pocket.”

Nor does she want to be put on a pedestal, and asked to represent something bigger than herself – though as an Asian American woman in an industry historically dominated by white men, she often finds herself painted as a figurehead. “The US is in political turmoil so people want change. They’re unsatisfied with their life, understandably, and then they see my face all the time and they put it together and think, ‘This person should fix it for me’. But I took like, maybe one American history course. I don’t know anything about politics or law, I’m just a dumb musician. I’m just as mystified as the person looking at my face. I don’t think it’s wise to turn to me for revolution, because I’m not equipped for that.”

But when it comes to her artistic worth, Mitski is self-assured. Though reviews of her work are usually glowing, she finds it galling when they imply the music must “just flow out of me”, as if she has no agency. “People cannot fathom the fact that maybe a woman created something from nothing, and that she has control over what she makes,” Mitksi says. “People have worked so hard to try to make me seem like I don’t know what I’m doing. But I know exactly what I’m doing”.

It is worth spending some time with the remarkable Be the Cowboy. Her fifth studio album, it was one of the very best from 2018. In an interview with FADER, Mitski talked about the inspirations and characters behind the album:

“When did you write and record Be the Cowboy?

“It was done little by little between tours — which was challenging, because it gave me so much time to doubt and second-guess myself. Between each song's recording, I'd go on tour and be left pondering about whether I'd done it right. I don't wanna do that again. If I make another album, I'd like to do it in a limited amount of time so I can be in it and then get out of it, so that by the time I start doubting it'd be too late.

It was mostly just me and [producer Patrick Hyland] in the room. We played most of the instruments except for the occasional horns — that's something you just can't fake. So we got a couple of horn players who we didn't know based on recommendation of the studio owner, but other than that it was very straightforward.

Tell me about the characters that populate the album. Are you the protagonist of the songs?

I think Björk said in an interview that all of her albums are just exaggerations of a specific part of herself. I think it's like that for me. It's not like [the album’s protagonist] is a fictional character, but I noticed a personality in me that was very obsessed with control and feeling like I have power — because I am powerless and don't have a lot of control. So I kind of investigated that person in me. What is the exaggerated form? Well, it's a woman who's incredibly controlled, severe, and austere. But maybe there's some kind of deep desire or emotion that's whirling around in her and trying to get out. Maybe she's losing control.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

One of the album’s themes seems to be this idea that even with fame, there's still a lingering fear that it's not enough — that we need something more.

I'm less talking about fame in the crude sense, and more [about how] I'm someone who goes on stage and becomes a symbol. People project onto me. Internally, [I’m trying] to understand that dynamic. I think that's something that everyone thinks about. Even in day-to-day conversation, we're projecting onto each other. And [there's] a weird dissatisfaction either way: you want people to project onto you and see you as something bigger than you are, but when people actually do that, it's not what you want. You want people to know you for who you are, but when they actually know you for who you are, you're like, "No, I want you to think I'm great."

Another big theme seems to be loneliness. How does that relate to the other stuff we’ve been talking about?
There's the loneliness of being a symbol and a projection, but I think that loneliness [says a lot about] being a woman, or being an other — some kind of identity that has a lot of symbols attached to it. And there's also just touring. Touring is a very ... it isolates. The longer musicians tour, the more isolated they become from the rest of society, because the way you live is so incredibly different. And no one can really relate to your experiences, so you can't talk to anybody about it and you go deeper and deeper inside”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Koury Angelo

One of the things that is clear about Be the Cowboy is the power of the sound. There is a raw and mesmeric female artist that moves the senses. It is an empowering and stunning album that still reverberates today. In an interview with The Line of Best Fit, Mitski discussed where that powerful female energy stemmed from – or at least one inspiration behind the sound of Be the Cowboy:

“Sonically this violence can be heard on the record. There’s threat in the off-ness of some of vocals, a lot of "brash sounds" as Mitski describes them. “I have leaned into an easiness with vocals that aren’t doubled,” she explains, “keeping vocal flaws in there and not having harmonies, just one voice." Mitski says she’s stopped polishing or rounding things off for the listener, producing a more up-front, bold sound: "Not soft and giving - all the sounds are sort of opinionated." She describes making sounds coming from a forceful female perspective, and it’s empowering.

Mitski adds that part of the record's female energy was inspired by The Piano Teacher, a 1983 psychological thriller novel by Elfriede Jelinek that was later adapted for screen in a film written and directed by Michael Haneke. It tells the story of an unmarried piano teacher at a Vienna conservatory, living with her mother in a state of emotional and sexual disequilibrium, who enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with her student.

"She's very cold and icy, doesn’t form relationships,” explains Mitski. “But then this young student seduces her and she goes for it… then her desires end up being too much for him to handle. He runs, and tells her she's disgusting – the only person she's ever opened up her heart to. In the film, the last scene is of her just stabbing herself." This character seems to have echoes of other 'too passionate', violent women in literature such as Madame Bovary and Cathy of Wuthering Heights. Mitski has taken a figure we're all familiar with and spun a unique musical take on her”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parris Thomas

Prior to coming to a new track, Mitski is preparing her sixth studio album, Laurel Hell, soon. In this article, we get some more details about the album’s recording. Mitski also discussed her previous single, The Only Heartreaker:

“Mitski has announced a new album: Laurel Hell is out February 4 via Dead Oceans. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘The Only Heartreaker’, which follows last month’s ‘Working for the Knife’ and arrives with an accompanying video co-directed by Maegan Houang and Jeff Desom. Watch it below, and scroll down for LP’s cover artwork and full tracklist.

“I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost,” Mitski said of the new album in a statement. “I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don’t want to put on a front where I’m a role model, but I’m also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area.”

Mitski recorded the follow-up to 2018’s Be the Cowboy with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland during the pandemic, when some of the songs “slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower,” and the album as a whole became “more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk,” Mitski explained. “Like, it’s time, we’re going to dance through this.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

Mitski co-wrote ‘The Only Heartreaker’ with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson. Talking about the single in a new interview with Apple Music, Mitski said:

This is the first song in my entire discography of however many albums I’ve made where I have a co-writer, and it’s because this song was this puzzle that I couldn’t solve. And I was just sitting on it forever. I have so many iterations of it. Nothing felt right. And right when I was stewing over it, I was actually in LA, doing co-write sessions for other artists. And we had this one day, or I had this one day with Dan Wilson. I had every intention to write for somebody else, but then I just sat down at his piano, and I was like, he’s one of the best, smartest songwriters in the world. Maybe he can help me with this song. And so I brought the song to him, and it turned out he’s really good. He helped me solve so many of the problems and kind of lead me out of the labyrinth of it. And yeah, I’m really glad that I took that chance with him.

Commenting on the song’s video, Houang said: “The worst pain I’ve experienced is when I’ve fully understood the pain I’ve caused another. It’s one of the hardest parts of being human, that no matter our intentions, we’ll inevitably do something hurtful to our fellow man, if not someone we love. In this case, the harm Mitski enacts in the video is to the world. It’s unstoppable and destructive, but worst of all, she doesn’t even want it to happen. She’s a stand-in for humanity as we collectively do so little to save ourselves and our planet”.

The introduction to Heat Lightning features beautiful guitar strings and a tribal drum. It is almost like a tribal song; like something born of nature that is beckoning the spirits. It is a wonderful start that projects all sorts of vivid and beautiful images. It seems that Mitski has been restless. I am not sure whether the heroine has been going through a tough time or not, but the lyrics point to someone who is going through a transition: “Heat lightning/Running outside the window/I’ve laid awake since 1 and now it’s/4 o’clock/Though I’ve held on/Can’t carry it much longer/On the ceiling dancing are the/Things all come and gone”. I wonder whether the words are relating to a relationship end or a personal struggle for Mitski. After that compelling introduction, you are hooked by the story and lyrical development. There is a dreaminess and stillness to the vocals that lull you in and have this haunting quality. On this passage, it sounds like there is a male voice harmonising with Mitski: “And there’s nothing I can do/Not much I can change/So I give it up to you/I hope that’s okay/There’s nothing I can do/Not much I can change/I give it up to you/I surrender”. There is a gorgeous musical passage with twinkling piano that translates and evolves into a more spirited and zippy sound. The chorus finds Mitski’s voice more open and flowing. Rather than it being smokier or more haunted, there is an energy and passion. I love the beauty and gracefulness of Mitski’s voice.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

Like the verse, I was wondering whether the chorus was a reaction to a romantic ill, or whether it was more compelled by a dream. There is something quite mystical about the vocal and lyrics: “Heat lightning/Watch it from my doorstep/Sleeping eyelid of the sky/Flutters in a dream/Well I’ve held on/But feel a storm approaching/Trees are swaying in the wind/Like sea anemones”. Visions of the sky and sea combine and entwine. “And there’s nothing I can do/Not much I can change/Can I give it up to you/Would that be okay/There’s nothing I can do/Not much I can change/I give it up to you/I surrender/There’s nothing I can do/Not much I can change/I give it up to you/I surrender”. I have come back to the song time and time again, and I get caught in the warm-tide sound of the vocal. Although the lyrics point to something more troubled under the surface, there is a beauty and tenderness that gets into the heart. Like Be the Cowboy, there is a meticulousness to the composition and a powerfulness in the quieter moments. Even though there is something mordent or scarred at work, I detected something softer and alluring. Following Working for the Knife and The Only Heartbreaker, Heat Lightning is another incredible song that highlights that the fact Laurel Hell will be an amazing album. It is an L.P. that looks at relationships where Mitski did not want to talk about power struggles and win and loss. Heat Lightning shows what we can expect from Laurel Hell: vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence. Above all, and ultimately, love will prevail and is powerful. A lot of different emotions will combine and play out across eleven tracks. One of the music world’s most consistent and important artists, Mitski is someone always blows you away. On Heat Lightning, she delivered a song that, once heard, will not be forgotten…