Typically, when a publicist sends you an advance copy of an album, it’s accompanied by anecdotes from the musician as context for your first listen. For Mitski’s latest, though, I was given two quotes—one from Big Edie of Grey Gardens and one from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House—and a series of New Yorker cartoon-style illustrations, many of which feature cats. At first glance, I was both delighted and mystified, as these charming, unique materials seemed designed to simultaneously pique my interest and keep me at arm’s length.
After hearing her latest album, I see that contradiction is the point. A tight, half-hour-ish concept album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me centers on a woman struggling to find balance between her internal and external worlds… a woman who may or may not be a stand-in for Mitski herself. The singer-songwriter has previously expressed how uncomfortable she is with the increased visibility and pressure that comes with being one of modern indie rock’s most beloved and TikTok-approved artists. Is this “character” Mitski’s way of making her feelings public while retaining some sense of privacy?
More from Spin:
- Radiohead Decries ‘Let Down’ Use In ICE Video
- Nine Inch Nails Reimagine ‘Tron: Ares’ Soundtrack
- Codefendants Rage Against The Algorithm With Jakob Nowell
Whether that’s the case or not, this is a melancholic yet gripping album that highlights Mitski’s gift for marrying beauty and horror. Her incredible talent as a singer-songwriter is on full display, as her gorgeous voice can make the darkest thoughts sound tender and sweet while her lyrics turn from witty to shattering on a dime. She also captures that sharp dynamic sonically. Opener “In A Lake” explores the wonderful promise of lonely anonymity in a big city. It builds from a gentle folk song about the dangers of living in a small town—“You gotta write your book early, or it gets written up in your place”—to eventually explode into a cacophony of drums, brass, and car horns.
Songs pair off and play against each other in this way, too. Early on, the pedal steel on “Cats” practically purrs as Mitski turns to her feline allies to find solace from a dying relationship. Later, though, “That White Cat” describes a stray who rules her life and murders the local birds amidst a wiry guitar and meow-ish chants. (Also, quick praise for the cat-centric album cover, which perfectly captures the theme of the album in a single image.) Elsewhere, “If I Leave” and “Dead Women” share contrasting speculative fictions on what happens to a man this woman might leave behind, with the former offering self-deprecating reassurance (“Somebody else will find you but nobody else could see me”) and the latter a portrait of toxic possessive love (“Would you like me better if I’d died, so you could tell my story, the way it ought to be.”) Are these also two different views from Mitski on her own fandom? You decide!
The songs’ volatile emotions allow for a more expansive musical palette than Mitski’s last album. Some of 2023’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We country flavors are back, but so are the fuzzy guitars of Bury Me At Makeout Creek (particularly on first single, “Where’s My Phone?”), the distorted orchestrations of Puberty 2, and the smooth pop arrangements of Be the Cowboy. It all adds a jolting unpredictability to the mournful melodies, acting as the repressed emotions that the outside world rarely gets to see.
Personally, I found myself craving more of these outbursts, as catharsis for both the character and myself… but that’s not what Mitski’s going for. Nothing’s About to Happen to Me is a rewarding gem of an album for the introverts, for the cat people, for the artists who are uncomfortable with the world staring at them.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.