MITSKI
Laurel Hell [Dead Oceans]
here is no grunge-soaked moment of catharsis like ‘Your Best American Girl’ on Laurel Hell; the closest we get is the climax on . There’s no disco-pop twirling like , either, but almost takes us there. Here, Mitski takes the up-tempo pop sensibilities of her 2018 album, ‘Be The Cowboy’, and stretches them to fun tunes influenced by full-blown ‘80s pop ballads and grandiosity. The conceptual themes of Be The Cowboy — narrative and fiction — are gone. Instead, Mitski has turned inward, refusing could be from by Hall And Oates; the opening melody to forces us to hear and and ) sound half-baked. I just wish that the guitar was her primary instrument again, with a keyboard thrown in here and there.
