The Daily Spin, September 25
Mitski | The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We (2023)
Artist: Mitski
Link:
As a sparse examination of love in all its forms, I find The Land Is Inhospitable to be a remarkable work - with little else to be said around what Mitski has accomplished through this record.
Though it doesn’t always hit - beyond the sound of this album not generally being super to my liking, there are a couple choices that feel a little baffling. Take ‘When Memories Snow’, which feels like it incorporates the old-timey swells of Americana to a frustratingly incomplete cadence - whereas the next song down, ‘My Love Mine All Mine’ takes those same beats and at least pulls something together with them.
The dreamy blues that come out of this album are simultaneously haunting and comforting, the sort of album that leaves me with an odd lump in my throat that I don’t think I could ever explain - if Beach House met Kacey Musgraves, the sort of combination that I wouldn’t ever ask for yet, listening to this, I’m pleased, touched, and a little bit heartbroken. I think that’s the point.
Rating: 7.9/10
Best Tracks: I Don’t Like My Mind; My Lone Mine All Mine
Worst Tracks: When Memories Snow