Mitski and the paradox of fame

Some thoughts on the irresistibly endearing Laurel Hell

I’ve been captivated by Mitski’s album Laurel Hell. Unfamiliar with her previous music and suspicious of anything with an outsized cultural footprint in the mainstream, I dove in after reading this compelling profile in The New York Times Magazine. The tension between her desire for artistic expression and her rejection of being praised for it makes Laurel Hell feel like cursed, haunted music, a monkey’s paw that generates good will and adoration in anyone who handles it.

Her pop songs are effortlessly timeless, irresistibly endearing in a way that magnetizes the listener to her. I was struck by an urge to befriend the artist after listening, which doesn’t often happen to me. I’m sure we all wish we had a little more Mitski in us, awed by the way that her stark vulnerability transmogrifies into something massive and powerful.