Mitski - Puberty 2

Mitski
Puberty 2
2016
Spotify

Mitski is like a lot of 25 year olds living in New York and struggling with identity and staying happy. That struggle and sense of unease is what really comes through on her fourth album Puberty 2. There are no frills on this record, no sense of nostalgia or fun really instead Mitski is more concerned with breaking down just what this life we are leading is. The album though titled for the first big change in a persons life is more about that second change of coming into real adulthood where the trivial parts of life take on the essential and everything gets just a little bit more confusing. Often Mitski will find solace in the mundane, creating a routine to get out of her own head but the existential dread of being alone always creeps slowly back in. All of this high minded self exploration is paired with deep almost shoegazey music like on "Once More to See You". This record however is firmly planted in the indie rock camp and any similarities to anything else quickly pass away to allow Mitski's writing take center stage. Happiness is almost an obsession with Mitski (as it probably is with all of us) and she really digs in to any way she can find it and hold on to it. The album almost breathes heavily as she searches and pines for that something that she knows will make life that much better. "Your Best American Girl" powerfully represents this message pushing both the pace and the volume to 11.

The guitar distortion on the record is almost an extension of Mitski herself throughout the record. The sound buzzes or gurgles adding a depth of personality to each of these tracks that otherwise might feel a bit hollow. When you first take a listen to Puberty 2 it begins like any other indie rock album you've heard, but then something switches and you get it. By the time the punk rock influenced " My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars" you are fully in and singing right along when Mitski sings "kill me in Jerusalem!". She is so goo at taking what otherwise might be a mundane or normal track and really elevating it and giving it a life all it's own. This record could easily have fallen squarely on the emo side of things, but instead she just tip toes the line perfectly pouring enough of her heart in a song to make it connect but never to much to make it overly sappy or ridiculous. She also is not afraid to rock out, both vocally and instrumentally, and those moments where she let's loose punctuate the slower sadder moments so well. Puberty 2 is one of the great ones, and the more you listen the more you get. Mitski has taken the complexities of being human and summed them up via song, and that is quite special.

8.9 out of 10