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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Songs that speak of – in her own words – “real relationships, not power struggles to be won or lost”, they’re honest, affecting and brilliant.
100
The indie artist delivers devastating emotional truths and unsettling imagery – with sharp hooks and an 80s pop sheen
90
A record that dresses up the themes of a standard Mitski song — yearning, belonging, fear, love — in flashy attire, all while oozing vulnerability.
90
You can’t help but feel that it’s all one broken brick away from tumbling down, which is exactly why it plays out with such delicate urgency.
90
We see her carefully curated lyricism of despondency and sharp ingenuity with a musicality that is more experimental and emotionally cautious than her more famously depressive works.
85
Laurel Hell is grounded in the details of imperfect relationships and mistakes compounded.
82
Mitski’s much anticipated sixth studio album, Laurel Hell, released on Dead Oceans, a record that dissects the feelings of surrender to (and fighting for) a life of honesty and security in a world that swirls with threats to our vulnerability.
80
After ‘quitting’ music in 2019, the emotionally-charged Japanese-American singer is back, and sounding better than ever.
80
Returning with Laurel Hell she has decided to cast the shackles aside and deliver her boldest and strongest musical statement yet, rejecting cult appeal for a pop sheen steeped in her own distinct image.
80
Laycock's quest for escape yields some of her deepest moments, but her balance of mesmerising, confessional intensity with sculpted pop instincts remains an unfailing pleasure throughout.
80
Mitski wields her voice like a weapon, cutting into the deepest parts of the human condition with hauntingly clear-eyed lyrics.
80
Mitski's fourth album, Laurel Hell, finds the songwriter in a less volatile, more (but not completely) resigned state of mind as she reflects on persistent incompatibility with partners, perceived disinterest in what she has to offer, and an overriding ennui.
80
The tension between that craving for dance and the yearning to walk away dominates Laurel Hell.
80
In Laurel Hell lies a series of pre-pandemic poems that frequently belie their fright of success with production that basically guarantees it, creating a vehicle for “hit” songs that she hopes will never be hits.
80
Laurel Hell can feel, at first, like an impenetrable record, full of guarded gloss and pop production that feels more like cold caution than anthemic summoning.
80
Like the music on its predecessors ... many songs are short, and the whole thing is barely longer than half an hour. Which makes the times when she sounds energetic and ambitious all the more precious.
80
Dancing with tears in her eyes, Mitski's romantic hell makes for heavenly pop uplift.
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1y
80
‘Laurel Hell’ is a big album that demands to be known, full of indie-pop wonders and most of her most moving ballads yet.
80
After exploring the isolation of feeling like a “nobody“, Mitski’s explorations of being somebody prove just as compelling.
80
Just as every upbeat song is a chase or journey, Laurel Hell as a whole is a march, working toward that which hurts you for the little rewards it offers.
80
With upbeat tempos and buoyant melodies uplifting the hopeless heartbreak of being alive, Laurel Hell is surely destined to end up filling gay club dancefloors everywhere.
80
On her sixth album, rather than respond to those heightened expectations, the Japanese-American songwriter chooses to confound them.
80
Laurel Hell, Mitski’s bold return to music, brings enchanting beats, gut-wrenching honesty, and even more wisdom.
80
Almost as if to mimic her life in the spotlight, the album consists of many catchy, upbeat songs with heavier lyrics expressing her inner discontent at this heightened success.
80
On Laurel Hell, Mitski pauses just beyond the horizon, uncertain of what is to come.
78
Mitski’s sixth album is an austere, nuanced, and disaffected indie-pop record that, in part, addresses her turbulent relationship with her own career.
75
Following the almost-vignette style storytelling of Be The Cowboy, Mitski’s new album is more centralised around romantic and professional displacement.
70
While the focus makes for a more compact listen that homes in on her themes and provides plenty to enjoy, it also feels like she’s reached the natural end of this particular road.
70
Mitski’s Laurel Hell possesses a kind of weird timelessness. The album seems like an artifact from the past that somehow seems relevant in the present.
70
Even on Laurel Hell’s more heartbreaking new wave belters, Mitski contrasts her flair for melodrama with a matter-of-fact nonchalance that’s far from the pleading of Your Best American Girl or Lonesome Love.
70
While Laurel Hell isn’t able to live up to her highest points, it still showcases why Mitski is one of the finest songwriters working today.
70
The master lyricist is having fun exploring the beauty of her life’s entanglements, much like being trapped yet being in awe of Laurel Hell’s flowers.
67
While Laurel Hell takes the singer-songwriter in new directions, the music loses its potency.
60
Apart from a fair share of lyrical highlights, Laurel Hell doesn't do much to write home about with its strains of pop music.
60
In terms of songwriting, Laurel Hell is classic Mitski – in its incisive lyricism, its slow-burning dread and its crushing portrayal of modern living.
60
Mitski’s adoption of the decade’s tropes on Laurel Hell comes across as muddled and at times mismatched to her songwriting.
60
Mitski wrote Laurel Hell to distance herself from her past works’ characters. She walks in nobody’s shoes but her own. It’s little surprise then that she sounds tired, given that she conceived these songs amidst her fatigue.
50
Mitski’s latest batch of songs feels undercooked, unsatisfactory, and a little too perfect for your local Starbucks.
"Laurel Hell" is probably one of her most ambitious albums, as it seeks to portray the torment of its author in an often very mechanical atmosphere. Despite the handful of high quality singles and songs, the whole thing doesn't reach the level of her previous project "Be The Cowboy", which was supposed to embody a promising new artistic direction.
The last 10 years of Indie Rock were mainly marked by 3 artists, Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest), Jeff Rosenstock and finally ... read more
There’s a few gems scattered throughout this new Mitski LP, and the production on every song is immaculate. That said, a lot of this is somewhat forgettable, and despite it all sounding crisp, I likely won’t be revisiting the album anytime soon.
Na arte de transmitir emoções em forma de música, Mitski é uma das artistas mais expressivas da sua geração.
Aplicando o seu lirismo de um modo acessível, a artista consegue, assim como ninguém, transitar entre diferentes espaços sem se perder. E mesmo partindo de uma abordagem mais comercial nesse álbum, sua fórmula única de fazer música e transformar quem ouve, continua a mesma.
Melhores faixas: ... read more
ehh... The synthpop performance by Mitski is not at all to my taste. Much of Mitski's identity in instrumental issues is given up in Laurel Hell in favor of something more approachable, although this doesn't have the same effect as any of her earlier work.
I adore synthpop, but this album isn't for me. It's a focus move that clearly didn't sit well with her, and the same attempts to include periods of reflection, sorrow, or dancing that she made on her previous five albums don't even remotely ... read more
Valentine, Texas: 7.8
Working for the Knife: 8.6
Stay Soft: 8.3
Everyone: 6.7
Heat Lightning: 7.6
The Only Heartbreaker: 9.6
Love Me More: 8.8
There's Nothing Left for You: 7.5
Should've Been Me: 8.2
I Guess: 6.2
That's Our Lamp: 7.9
Contributions By
Alejandro González, Novell_sx, domvic, anztec, ThomYorke2, Ahmadkm_, lipefork, jewelbreak, MangumOpus97, OPENblinds, ElectricMess, hbear, riquitrefe, JakNadzwyczajnyBecome a Donor
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Track List
| 1 | Valentine, Texas 2:35 | 79 |
| 2 | Working for the Knife 2:38 | 85 |
| 3 | Stay Soft 3:16 | 80 |
| 4 | Everyone 3:47 | 66 |
| 5 | Heat Lightning 2:51 | 79 |
| 6 | The Only Heartbreaker 3:04 | 87 |
| 7 | Love Me More 3:32 | 85 |
| 8 | There's Nothing Left for You 2:52 | 74 |
| 9 | Should've Been Me 3:11 | 79 |
| 10 | I Guess 2:15 | 70 |
| 11 | That's Our Lamp 2:24 | 76 |
Total Length: 32 minutes
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | The Observer: Kitty Empire |
| #4 | / | The Forty-Five |
| #10 | / | Gigwise |
| #11 | / | Under the Radar |
| #12 | / | Rough Trade (UK) |
| #12 | / | Sound Opinions: Jim DeRogatis |
| #14 | / | The Independent |
| #17 | / | Far Out Magazine |
| #17 | / | Gaffa (Sweden) |
| #19 | / | A.V. Club |
More Lists
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2mo
The first Mitski album I would call MIDski cause wow, these songs are so uninteresting outside of the singles
4mo
For me, this was one of those albums where the 2nd half is better than the 1st half (other than Working for the Knife)
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Added on: November 9, 2021