Laurel Hell

//OLD REVIEW FROM MUSICBOARD//

mitski is one of my favorite artists as of recent, and i think it's for good reason. her music has an incredible range, from cheery-sounding pop ballads, to personal, emotional anthems, to moving ballads that will continue to break my heart everytime i hear them. so how does "laurel hell" live up to those expectations?

on this record, mitski's music remains a rich wonderland of honest lyrics accompanied by endlessly catchy tunes. i've always had an appreciation for mitski's writing, and it's definitely at the forefront here. however, like with her last album, 2018's "be the cowboy", the melodies don't really connect with me here. don't get me wrong, i like the lyricism a ton, and i think that's something mitski has been very consistent with. but there's not much that's memorable about these songs. a lot of them, namely tracks like "stay soft" and "everyone", feel very monotonous and even generic in their worst moments. i wish i could say differently for the majority of the production and instrumentals on this thing, but unfortunately those didn't really catch my eye either. there's plenty of good ideas here, sure, but the way they're presented is very much in the background and doesn't hit me at all. there's only a few moments where i actually felt interested by what was going on with the song. and even though i'm usually a fan of mitski's voice, it also didn't catchy my ear at any time during this listen. to put it simply, i was very bored most of the time. this all just feels like the most cliche mitski music i could ever think of, as if someone else sat down and wrote these songs to sound like something mitski would have done years ago, but without any of the edge or nuance she usually presents.

but do i hate this album? absolutely fucking not. like i said, these songs are very cliche, but the cliches they use are by no means bad. this may not be something i'll come back to often, but it's for sure an enjoyable listen. i'm just getting a little bit tired of the same old mitski sound, you know? but if you like mitski and still want to hear more of what she's been doing on past records, and you don't mind that it's a little bit worse, you'll most likely have a good time with this one.