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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Mitski's seventh record is a brutally honest chronicle of the struggle to find self-love.
100
Playing country-inflected orchestral pop with sardonic wit and deep feeling, Mitski underlines why she’s one of the very best singer-songwriters working today.
100
US artist bolsters raw country narratives with an orchestrated melodrama.
100
There are plenty of artists who make music occupying the same space as Mitski – reflective, weepy, introspective – but she stands alone in her lyricism and heart; on this album, she also seems less frightened by the potential fruits of her own talent.
100
In a decade where female singer songwriters, once misunderstood, are becoming recognised as The Greats (see: Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey), Mitski can’t be far behind. A disregard for the mainstream proves again to be Mitski’s strongest armour, as ‘The Land…’ becomes her most sonically interesting full-length yet.
92
While it’s certainly a comedown from the synth-pop sugar rush of 2022’s Laurel Hell, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We is easily Mitski’s most impressive record to date.
90
The commendable combination, as well as the new musical directions, reestablishes her artistic identity the same way Bury Me at Makeout Creek and Be the Cowboy did. This time, she is a crestfallen wanderer in a desolate desert, looking for bygone felicity.
90
The singer’s ability to pack so many gut-punches and inspired ideas into half an hour remains uncannily impactful.
90
She flies past her own mark in this record, creating something more multifaceted than ever before.
90
Mitski has not only created her most cohesive, accessible, musically diverse album yet, but also an arresting work of substantial beauty.
90
This isn't a treatise on our southern neighbours' noxious political battlefield or collective structural woes; there are no grand statements or calls to arms. Instead, it's a record about the vastness and depth of American isolation.
90
There are so many moments of sheer beauty – musically and in the vivid imagery Mitski conjures in her lyrics (“Now I bend like a willow, thinking about you”) – which makes you want to delve deeper into every minute detail of the songs.
90
Feeling like something of a reset, the follow-up to Laurel Hell, like all the best albums, keeps you on edge, never quite knowing what’s coming next.
90
No other record today sounds so beautiful and full while being quite so sparse.
89
On her stirring and orchestral seventh album, Mitski blazes a glorious new trail and sounds freer than ever.
85
With The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, Mitski seems to have regained her footing and created a laser-focused album, filled with sadness and hope and defeat, all with the brilliant backdrop of organic Americana and bombastic orchestral passages.
81
After contemplating retirement, Mitski returns with a new album that’s warmer, quieter, and more organic-sounding. For the first time in a while, she sounds like she has space to breathe.
80
Mitski has left the twang in the mud-specked rearview mirror by the time the album closes on the simmering rocker "I Love Me After You," in which she refers to her lover as "king of all the land," making the point that, for her, love pervades everything, including the terrain.
80
There’s not a weak moment here, though the aforementioned “I Don’t Like My Mind” and “The Deal”, with its sudden percussive tumult, shine brightest.
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2w
80
The end of the album feels like a perfect summary of all the themes that Mitski has explored: self-deprecation, love, hope, and disappointment. The final challenge? Self-love.
80
The US artist's second post-hiatus record does away with the glossy sheen and favours hushed intimacy.
80
Mitski explores a new space somewhere between Rufus Wainwright and Angel Olsen. She writes with the early aggression of the former, wielding scenes of seemingly content domesticity as prompts for questioning her beliefs, mortality, and ambition. And sliding from torchy countrypolitan laments to Carnegie-sized grandeur, she invokes the versatility of the latter, folding a world of doubt, affirmation, and equivocation into 32 minutes.
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1mo
80
One of indie rock’s most ambitious songwriters goes deeper than ever on 'The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We'.
80
In stepping back from her commercial flirtation, during which she supported Harry Styles, the album embraces a quieter ambition that makes inhospitality sound strangely inviting.
80
Bops on top of sad indie bops.
80
The Japanese-American singer-songwriter sounds deceptively sweet on this lush, contemplative album largely recorded in Nashville.
80
The land here is bleak and sorrowful, yet it is beautiful as it is compelling and relatable.
80
If she tried playing those songs to Harry Styles’s stadium screamers she’d lose them instantly, but on headphones, ideally in the dark, she can mesmerise.
72
It’s a double edged knife we’re working for here - the good-not-great quality of much of The Land… is at once its strong and weak point, enhancing the highlights but exposing concrete shortcomings.
The girlies are finally calm now, but also pretty damn depressed.
The ultimate mother of super depressed teenage/slightly grown girls is back, after last year's controversial Laurel Hell. The expectations for the new album were high, even mine. The singles were absolutely amazing, and they certainly set the bar high. So did it meet the expectations? For me, motherfucking yes.
Mitski is an artist that I had a complicated relationship with. She is a fantastic songwriter and an incredible ... read more
My introduction to Mitski, and while it's not my cup of tea, I can still appreciate the great musicality.
The epic cinematic production is really beautiful, the strings are also arranged absolutely beautifully. The vocals aren't super my thing, but they are still really good, her singing is pretty impressive.
The project is pretty slow and Chamber-y, which maybe deters me from it a little bit, but I'd say I still enjoyed this. Quite an eloquent exquisite listen if I do say so myself. Not ... read more
Emotions are riding strong once again!
Mitski's music career is fascinating to see how she's evolved since started over a decade ago. From making her debut album LUSH while still in college, she's managed to prove herself as an artist whose level of talent knows no bounds.
Her way of approaching several themes like anxiety, heartbreak, the fears of youth, sex and growing up was always presented with such a beautiful aura, as if she knew how to cut deep and drive you to tears with how down to ... read more
This one's not doing as much for me as it is for others, but it is very pretty throughout
YO YO YO YO YO YO YO, THIS IS A FUCKING AMAZING ALBUM. I never heard her music before, but I knew who she was. I'm definitely checking out the rest of her discography, this is a fantastic album, My Love Mine All Mine is for sure one of the best songs this year.
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Track List
| 1 | Bug Like an Angel 3:32 | 87 |
| 2 | Buffalo Replaced 2:40 | 83 |
| 3 | Heaven 3:44 | 91 |
| 4 | I Don't Like My Mind 2:25 | 86 |
| 5 | The Deal 3:52 | 88 |
| 6 | When Memories Snow 1:44 | 85 |
| 7 | My Love Mine All Mine 2:17 | 89 |
| 8 | The Frost 2:48 | 85 |
| 9 | Star 2:59 | 90 |
| 10 | I'm Your Man 3:29 | 88 |
| 11 | I Love Me After You 2:48 | 88 |
Total Length: 32 minutes
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6d
My Love All Mine is one of her strongest songs melodically, and that’s saying a lot cuz she’s really good at crafting excellent memorable melodies that enhance the mood and emotion of the song
Added on: July 23, 2023