Mitski appreciation post
Lyrics from Mitski's "Working for the Knife"
Of all Mitski's albums, I probably listened to Laurel Hell the least. Which was still a lot — but there's a certain sadness to this album. Before you point and laugh at me because "all of her music is sad," I feel this way because the main single, Working for the Knife is about feeling like a prisoner to her label; meeting the demands and expectations of being a working musician. I imagine, due to demands from her label to ride the success of Be the Cowboy (and Nobody specifically). It gives me the same sort of conflicted feeling as listening to SZA's CTRL, which is in my opinion a perfect album, even knowing how little creative control she felt while making it.
I've always felt so seen by Mitski's lyrics, more than any other artist. I was so young when I behaved twenty-five / And now I find I've grown into a tall child felt so true to me at 25. Revisiting Laurel Hell, my breath was practically taken away listening to the verse at the beginning of this post. It's so topical for me right now — I've been feeling a certain dissatisfaction in my field of work and looking for ways to feel more creatively fulfilled. I don't want to go into more detail than that due to privacy reasons, but suffice it to say that those lyrics are exactly how I feel right now. As a depressed teen, frankly, I didn't think I'd make it to 20. At that point, I just couldn't imagine a future beyond that. Astrologically, 29 is supposed to be your "Saturn returns," or when Saturn returns to the position it was when you were born, and that's supposed to bring a ton of revelations about your career and long-term goals. And it has, since I turned 29 in April. To this day, I waver on my thoughts about astrology, but I can't deny the accuracy here. I think and hope by thirty, I will have found a way to change — to have actualized the future I want.