Two years ago, the prospect of another Mitski album seemed unlikely at best. In September 2019, the indie singer-songwriter announced during a show in Central Park that she was going on indefinite hiatus, and as she told Rolling Stone, she had every intention of quitting music entirely. Fortunately, she had a change of heart, and she returns today with her sixth album, Laurel Hell.
Parts of the album focus on Mitski’s complicated relationship with her career. That’s the subject of “Working for the Knife,” the album’s lead single, released back in October. She followed that song with “The Only Heartbreaker,” “Heat Lightning,” and “Love Me More.” Mitski wrote most of the songs in 2018 and finished them up in 2020, amid the COVID-19 quarantine.
“Laurel Hell is a soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, can all be seen as worthy of acknowledgment, and ultimately, love,” Mitski says in a press release. “I accept it all,” she adds. “I forgive it all.”
