Dec 11

Dec 11 17.

Mitski - Puberty 2

[Dead Oceans]

Japanese-American singer Mitski Miyawaki has released 3 albums prior to this year’s Puberty 2, but for her step up to renowned indie label Dead Oceans she has produced her best album to date, and one that has proven to be quite a breakthrough. This is for a number of reasons. Mitski has always brought an adolescent-like honesty and melodrama to her music, which has won her plenty of adoring fans. On Puberty 2 she has sharpened her lyrical ability even more, giving them more heft and getting more in touch with her own situation politically; as a woman, as a second generation immigrant, and just overall as a human. With the extra production help she’s received from Patrick Hyland she has also bolstered her power-punk-rock sound into something muscular – and learned where to leave things stripped back and atmospheric too.

The thing that keeps Puberty 2 most entertaining on repeat listens is Mitski herself; the way she represents herself lyrically and the way she delivers the lines. This is evident right from the very first track, “Happy,” which takes the story of a pleasant afternoon visit (“he brought cookies on the way”), which turns x-rated (“I felt happy come inside of me”), a humorous self-effacing twist (“I was in the bathroom, I didn’t hear him leave,”) and ultimately heartbreak of the locomotive chorus ("when you go take this heart, because I’ll make no more use of it when there’s no more you”). This spikiness that Mitski can bring to her songs makes them particularly cutting, and makes sub-2-minute pop punk jams “My Body Is Made Of Crushed Little Stars” and “A Loving Feeling” all the more barbed.

Sometimes it seems as though Mitski can drift towards being too dramatic, but her delivery and the way it’s backed up by the instrumentation makes it pay off. Both “I Bet On Losing Dogs” and “Crack Baby” make heavy-handed metaphors of love, but Mitski is singing her guts out throughout, and the lack of irony in either instance makes them all the more poignant and affecting. She brings together all of these strengths together magnificently on Puberty 2’s centrepiece (and song of the year contender) “Your Best American Girl.” Here Mitski tells the story of a seemingly-ideal relationship starting with the confession “if I could, I’d be your little spoon and kiss your fingers forever.” From this intimate scene the song spirals out into her vision of their ultimate demise as a couple due to the differences in their upbringings and worldviews. It culminates in the battering chorus where Mitski confronts her mother: “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me, but I do – I finally do.”

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Below you can see my top 50 albums of the year list.