NEWER MITSKI !!!

    A second new Mitski song has been released. It's called "I'll Change For You".

    This one is a little more straightforward than the last one, which was more metaphorical (and I wrote about it here). Since the release of that first song we got more information about the new album, including its title and cover art. It's called "Nothing Is About To Happen To Me," and the album art depicts a cat that has absolutely nothing about to happen to it.
    When I first saw it, it kind of reminded me of this one comic by tumblr user catcrumb:
    So, some of the lyrics from I'll Change For You called to my mind some lyrics from Mitski's Nobody. Here, we have the lines "Bars, such magic places. You can be with other people without having anyone at all." It's like that meme of Al Pacino in Godfather 2.
    And Nobody had the lines "My God, I'm so lonely, so I open the window to hear sounds of people" and "I don't want your pity, I just want somebody near me." In both of these songs the narrator feels this deep loneliness, this lack of understanding from other people. And they surround themself with a superficial semblance of company just to have something, anything. Being around other people at bars, hearing sounds of people from the window, having someone near you.

    Nobody also has the lyrics "Give me one good honest kiss" in its first pre-chorus, but in the second half of the song, when we get to the pre-chorus again, it has changed to "Give me one good movie kiss." This want for genuine, earnest emotions and connection has been downgraded into settling for a fake, superficial gesture out of desperation. The narrator wants something real, they want to have somebody, but they are so deprived of it and it seems so impossible to achieve now that they'll settle for less.

You can be with other people without having anyone at all
Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody

    Mitski went on an interview on BBC Radio 1 to premiere I'll Change For You and talked about her thoughts on it. She said that she meant for this song to be sort of humorous. It is about drunk calling your ex in the middle of the night. "I kind of wanted to approach it with a sense of humor, be like 'Yes, everything is dark. Let's be our messed up selves. Let's be dark. Let's actually acknowledge the darkness that we're in, but also laugh at it. Find humor in it. Find the fun in it. The fun of the mess of it all.' "
    She had previously gone on Genius Verified to talk about Nobody. There she talks about the line "Venus, planet of love, was destroyed by global warming. Did its people want too much, too?" She says that her inspiration for that line was that she read about Venus going through global warming eons ago and thought it would be funny if it was because there were people on it and they used up all the resources. So, it seems some of the lyrics she writes are from when she thinks of something funny. They're jokes.
    There's actually a line in Working or The Knife that I kind of find hilarious. It does read like a joke. It goes, "I always thought the choice was mine. And I was right, but I just chose wrong." I've always found this line really funny. Like yeah, the choice really was mine, I just chose wrong! It sort of subverts what you might expect such a lyric to say. Of course it's a harrowing situation to be in , but it feels like she was also tackling it with a sense of humor.


Links:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I saw Jupiter the other day

Image
 The other day I was walking home from a walk when I saw Jupiter. I didn't know that it was Jupiter when I saw it. You'll agree that it's difficult to tell the planets apart when they're so far away. But I saw that it was this big bright glowing thing in the sky, and it wasn't twinkling, so it couldn't have been a star. So I went to get my phone where I have this app installed that shows you where the planets are using your phone's gyroscope. And I learned that it was Jupiter. I took a picture of it, and some pictures with it. It's not every day that you get to take a selfie with Jupiter. It's like running into a celebrity. You hear about it basically your whole life. I can't even remember the first time I learned about Jupiter, I was probably 3 or something. And then one day, you're just walking on the street, and it's there in front of you. I was starstruck. Or rather, planetstruck! Jupiter in the distance, taken by me So then I decided...
Read more

The Tragic Story of Gelert, the Loyal Hound

Image
I was browsing online when I came across a post about a painting, which prompted me to look deeper into the story it is based on. It was a painting by Gourlay Steell, called "Llywelyn and His Brave Hound." It's based on a Welsh fairy tale. There was a prince called Prince Llywelyn. He had a dog called Gelert. Gelert was very loyal to him. Llywelyn loved going hunting, and he and Gelert went hunting together. Llywelyn was married and lived with his wife and Gelert in a cabin in the forest. After some time, he and his wife had a baby. One day, Llywelyn and his wife went out for a stroll and a hunt, leaving the baby and Gelert at home. I think Llywelyn meant to bring Gelert along, but the dog couldn't be found in that moment, so they went without him. When they came back home, the house was a total mess! All of the furniture had been toppled over, there were random items tossed all around, pots broken, everything was a mess. And out came Gelert, happily, to greet his o...
Read more

The Film That You Can't Watch

Image
The film in question is A Midsummer Night's Dream (1967). So, I was browsing online when I came across these promotional pictures for a ballet from the '60s. It was A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a ballet by George Balanchine, based on the play by William Shakespeare. The promotion worked so well that I wanted to see the ballet despite it having been about 60 years since then and despite living nowhere near New York.  So, I started searching. The play was first put on in 1962 by the New York City Ballet. In that, the role of Titania was played by Melissa Hayden. That is not the person in these pictures. The person here is Suzanne Farrell, and this version of the play is from 1966. The thing that impressed me the most about these pictures was the costuming and the stage design. It looks like a Renaissance painting. So, if possible, I would like to see this specific production of the ballet. I went online to see if I could find a taped version of this play. That is somet...
Read more