Hi, everyone. Stillthony Sicktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Mitski album, Nothing's About to Happen to Me.

This is the newest and eighth full-length album from indie circuit phenom and singer-songwriter, Mitski, who has been recording, writing, and releasing music for a long time now. But for frame of reference, it's been about 10 years since she's had a considerable buzz coming out of the underground, building what is truly one of the strongest fandoms in indie music today, going viral multiple times over off the back of tracks like "Washing Machine Heart", "I Bet on Losing Dogs", and of course, "My Love Mine All Mine", all of which have raked in, collectively, billions of streams across all platforms.

As Mitski's success continues to blur the lines between what is truly alternative and what is mainstream, much more than any other songwriter to come out of the sad girl indie wave of the mid-2010s. A trend that has held strong for so long now that not only is Mitski, in my eyes, pretty much the crowned queen of it, but I feel like we're also hearing the echoes of her influence today, not just through new buzz-worthy bands that also back their tortured alternative tunes with country instrumentation.

But for the last few years, I feel like we've been seeing more and more sad indie folk slop reverberating back at us through platforms like TikTok from songwriters who really only bring a fraction of the lyrical and musical talent that Mitski has in her pinkie, which again, I feel like is very much made possible by the success of records like The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, Mitski's last LP from 2023, that honestly was so good that it even had me impressed despite pretty much being a Mitski skeptic up until that point.

Because while I do think Mitski writes great songs and is a wordsmith, no doubt, sometimes her vocal delivery does land a little flat or one-dimensional for me. Sometimes the instrumentals on more recent records can run a little bit bland, too. And of course, you also continue to get the occasional song or song structure that's a little brief, a little too scant. But that is part of the Mitski magic. She really is an artist who knows how to leave you wanting more.

And in true Mitski fashion, Nothing's About to Happen to Me is a very trim 11 tracks in 34 minutes, and really doubles down on the success of her last record, too, continuing to pull inspiration instrumentally from her new home base in Nashville. Though on a notable number of tracks, Nothing's About does seemingly go for something that is a bit louder and more aggressive than some of the country tones that have defined Mitski's music lately.

Take, for example, the lead single to this album, "Where's My Phone?", as clearly with this song, we were getting a forecast of an album that was going to be a bit more rock-oriented. And while this is certainly not the first time Mitski has put out some music that was on the louder side of the indie spectrum, it has been a minute, and this track almost has like a '90s grunge flavor going for it. And while I wasn't impressed with it at first, the contrast it brings in terms of volume and vibe in the tracklist itself is very nice. And I appreciate the humor in the song the more I listen to it, too. The absurdism and how Mitski portrays herself as being overwhelmed and tortured by these nagging thoughts, wants, desires, and social pressures that she just wishes to be free of. Also, the hilarious self-censor beep that opens up a line in the second verse.

And speaking of interesting reference points, I also love the opening track on this LP, "In a Lake". For me, personally, every Mitski album has that song or two that is so powerfully sad and incredibly heart-wrenching that just makes me want to replay it over and over and over again. And I feel like this is that song for me from this album. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this has to be the most Mitski has ever worn The Magnetic Fields on her sleeve before. As this is a very theatrical ballad with some very witty lyricism and storytelling as we hear about the dangers of small town love. It's really the funny little details of it that make this song work, likening it to a single brand of soap being sold in town with Mitski saying, "Because anyone you can get close to / Smells like your first time around." (Like... her mind, really!) Of course, to this, Mitski prefers the freedom that a big city allows because you can always start over framing herself, continuing to frame herself as a lover who tends to make mistakes.

So yes, while there are some interesting side streets in this record for sure, I do feel like the bulk of it is spent with Mitski doing what she does best, just with a few extra notches of volume, like with the raw, angular rhythm guitars and heavy drums all over "If I Leave", which echoes a lot of sentiments that were explored on the opening track with lyrics like, "If I leave, somebody else will love you / but nobody else could forgive me / quite as often as you." As this track really expresses the stress of, I guess, not having your cake and eating it too in a way. Because in one breath, while the song here is contemplating an exit from this relationship, it also fears losing what makes this love comfortable and familiar.

This is not the only track on this album that goes into the difficulty of cutting things off once a love or relationship has reached a certain point where you're building a life, you've gone down the road, a particular distance. So, yeah, there are songs here that are essentially building off of the symbols of that life together, like with cats, as the two cats that are being sung about on this track are like the residuals left to comfort Mitski once the other person in the relationship has left.

The cat symbolism continues on to the second half of the album, too, with "That White Cat", a song that brings maybe a little bit of St. Vincent vibes, I would say, with its driving drums and guitar, as well as very tense wailing lead vocals, and lyrics that start with a cat pretty much intruding upon her house, her personal space, in a way that she does not consent to. But then the view of the track broadens out into basically all of these different organisms that are parasitically existing off of her existence. She just continues to accept and live with it with a very explosive finish.

But as impressive as moments like this are on the album, there are a handful of other tracks that I just wish had stronger performances and instrumentation, like "Dead Women", for example, a track that is just sonically so breezy, which is unfortunate because this track really does contain some of the most unhinged lyricism on the entire record, as Mitski muses about how her partner would think about her, remember her, or rifle through her old things once she was dead. Almost wondering if she would be more attractive in memory than in actuality. She also expresses fear on this track of being taken advantage of, which is a pretty consistent theme in a lot of Mitski songs, but in this instance, it's in death, which honestly is an all too truthful reality in the way artists are often treated in the internet age, even if the commentary on this particular track is more personal. But still, I am similarly underwhelmed by the instrumentation on instead of here.

However, I do think this record picks up on "I'll Change for You", which not only matches Mitski's words with some really beautiful, loungey pianos and tasteful arrangements, too, it's a sound and vibe that fits Mitski's vocals really well, and I wouldn't mind hearing more tracks like this into the future. I also love the theater of the mind element with the different found sound snippets popping up here and there in the recording, reflecting on what is being sung about in the song.

Then the last leg of the record, in my opinion, is a bit of a mixed bag. We have "Rules", which is a jaunty indie country number with some big playful horn sections and funny lyrics that are built around this counting routine. But damn if it doesn't lead to the most tedious and obnoxious chorus on the entire record, that I just can't wait for it to be over. But at least it self-destructs in the last few seconds of the song.

And the closing track, "Lightning", which I think in and of itself is a fine rock song. Another moment on the record where Mitski actually contemplates her death, but this time in the context of reincarnation. Still, regardless of how thoughtful the lyrics and themes of this song are, musically, it just ends so abruptly in such an unceremonious fashion. So it's hardly the finale I was hoping for. But I suppose by this point, that's just the Mitski way. She comes in with a record and she jars, she confuses, she confounds, puts you through the emotional ringer so hard and gives you so little time to make heads or tails of it, to process, to get even a cathartic resolution out of any of it. And then she just dips, which is always sad.

But I'm still left with a very sizable handful of songs that are going to be haunting me for the next few years, for sure, which there's definitely something to be said for.

So yeah, sadly, while I did not find this record to be quite as strong as Mitski's previous, there were still a lot of great highlights on it. And even when I wasn't blown away by what was going on musically, the thought put into the lyricism was still pretty gripping, which is why I'm feeling a light to decent seven on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Mitski, Forever.