After honing an 80s-inspired and -influenced indie sound, the solo singer-songwriter Mitski set out across the range with previous album The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We. Its rural, rustic aesthetic paired with Mitski’s exploration of love and loss.
This authentic combination chimed with a huge audience, with “My Love Mine All Mine” earning almost two billion streams on Spotify, and widespread use on TikTok. The huge success can largely be explained by Mitski’s uncanny ability to frame herself in the point of view of deeply to down to earth characters, bringing to life the mundane and real with pinpoint observations and relatability.
That continues with Nothing’s About To Happen To Me, Mitski’s eighth studio album. Where the country stylings have been left behind, Mitski places herself in the character of a woman who lives alone. Outside of her home, this character is alone and aloof, but in the comfort of her own four walls she is at peace and free. This lends the album a push and pull in tone, earnest and from the heart one moment, paranoid and uncertain the next.
But at the heart of Nothing’s About To Happen To Me is Mitski’s continued grappling with her fame and renown, most certainly not helped by just how widespread her preceding effort was. As in the opening “In A Lake”, Mitski inhibits someone moving from a small town into a big city, a mirror for Mitski’s own journey into the wider mainstream awareness.
Elsewhere, Mitski is still backed by her touring band providing the foundation and sonically, this is just as rich and abundant in warm tones and production. Even at times Mitski and Co edge into heavier tones, such as the fraught and rocking lead single “Where’s My Phone?”, and the moody “If I Leave”.
Ultimately, the current music scene may not exactly be lacking in artists evaluating their relationship with fame and fandom. But so far, very few do it with the earnestness, humour and endearing deprecation of Mitski. Although at just shy of 35 minutes runtime, it is very brief; Mitski produces numerous thought-provoking lines, seamlessly blended again with rich tapestries of sound.
