Mitsk Miyawaki is an American singer-songwriter whose work is a direct replica of her inner feelings, thoughts, stances, turmoils, and sorrow. With music catered towards those who are uncomfortable within their own skin and world, her work is untraditional as her voice is almost haunting-esque with a soothing overtone. Mitski releases music that tackles the bigger questions we may have in life such as love, family, individualism, and loneliness. In a world that is so full of hate, war, and death, Mitski strives to encourage others in finding the light and hope within the darkness through a sense of community.
The song I have chosen is that called “My Love Mine All Mine”, off her 2023 hit album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, which is a soft ballad of sorts that expresses how love, as a subjective term that is not at all well-defined, is all that we take with us in the end. Love, in this sense, is subjective to the audience. Whatever you constitute as your love is what she sings for, allowing the song to be malleable in meaning. Our money, clothing, cars, and homes all die with our bodies, but our essence of love is everlasting. We humans own nothing beyond our souls and the basic emotions that tie us to our memories. Mitski explains that so long as we humans hold the ability to love then we can never be poor. It is love that trails us long after we leave. Love is seen as a multi-generational entity in itself that can be rehomed and given a second chance at life long after we have departed.
Another song that caught massive appeal was that of "Bug Like an Angel" from the same album. With just under 22 million streams on Spotify, the song tackles the pain of broken promises, alcoholism, and religion as she paints us a world of dejection and bitter reality. Mitski is no sucker in this world but is still found as the subject of much pain and turmoil at the hands of those who mistreat her. Life is not binary, not one thing or the other. Life is not good or bad, there is no line separating pleasure from pain or lust from love. One line at the end of the song, sung in both comfort and knowing, encapsulates the theme of it all, "the wrath of the devil/ Was also given him by God." It's a reality check of life as the devil (Lucifer) was once an angel of God, and if God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing to all, then why would he deject one of his own servants? It's such an incredible way to tie off the theme of it all.
Mitski has such a gift for her delivery, tone, and style of creating music. Most works carry a similar dissonant tone that may come off as unsettling. Yet, any other tone would completely destroy the exact feelings she wants her audience to experience. It is a true craft that she has perfected.
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