Mitski: Be the Cowboy

Mitski's carefully composed songs have often been portrayed as emotionally raw, overflowing confessions of a feverish girl, but in her fifth album, Be The Cowboy, Mitski introduces a persona that has been hinted at before but has never been so present until now - a woman in complete control. "For this new record, I experimented in narrative and fiction," says Mitski. Although she hesitates to go so far as to say that she has created fully-fledged characters. She reveals: "a very controlled icy repressed woman who is starting to unravel. Because women have so little power and showing emotion is seen as weakness, this 'character' clings to any amount of control she can get. Still, there is something very primordial in her that is trying to find a way to get out." In "Be The Cowboy", Mitski explores the loneliness of being a symbol and the loneliness of being someone who feels like a nobody. The lead single "Geyser" introduces us to a woman who can no longer hold it all in. She is about to unleash a flood of desire and passion that has built up inside her. Recorded with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland, there's plenty of vivid swagger on this album, but just as much listening into the mythology of the self. In these 14 songs, the music swings from cheerful to plaintive. Sad piano ballads turn into deceptively uptempo songs. "I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski."