Chords for ALBUM REVIEW: Mitski "Be The Cowboy" is one of 2018's BEST ALBUMS!
Tempo:
77.1 bpm
Chords used:
E
Em
D
G
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
So far in 2018, the best new albums are coming from new and independent artists.
Be the Cowboy by Japanese-American alt-rocker Mitski not only continues the trend,
it takes a commanding lead.
My review is coming up next on Track by Track.
Hey everybody, my name's Kyle and this is Track by Track, music reviews, news and commentary.
Thanks for tuning in today, and if this is your first time here, please take a second to click
subscribe so you won't miss future reviews and more.
In 2016, singer-songwriter Mitski first hit my musical radar with a huge blip that was her
single, Your Best American Girl.
That song came from her excellent and cheekily titled album,
Puberty II, an album that I ended up ranking in my top ten for the year.
In the time that's
passed since that release, though, I've found that my affection for the album seems to have
faded a little.
I don't find myself returning to it as often as I expected I might.
Nevertheless,
I've remained of the opinion that Mitski is one of the most promising new artists that I've heard
in recent years.
That sentiment was certainly reinforced with the release of her newest album.
Be the Cowboy is a remarkable exercise in musical efficiency.
Mitski manages to cram 14 tracks into
this album's lean 32 and a half minute run time.
With nearly every track clocking in at well under
three minutes in length, there's not a second of wasted sound to be found.
At a high level,
what we have on Be the Cowboy is a collection of songs that ruminate on common themes like
relationships gone bad or feelings of self-doubt.
Now, I know that probably sounds depressing as
hell, but rarely have such topics felt so exhilarating.
That's due in no small part to
the brisk pace of this album.
On every song, Mitski gets right to the heart of the matter,
lays her soul bare, and then quickly moves on to the next gut-wrencher before we even have time
to catch our breath.
From a lyrical perspective, I don't want to get into a bunch of quoting and
analysis here, because [E] I think that would be a disservice to the music.
Mitski is working with
such efficiency of language on this album that, [Em] to quote, even a couple of lines from any song
feels as if it's giving too much away.
On top of that, I also find that the majority of the lyrics
achieve a level of poetic expression that makes them [E] feel like they stand on their own, apart from
the music.
That's a rare feat, even for the most celebrated of songwriters.
One point of comparison
I do want to make on these lyrics, though, is to one of my favorite female singer-songwriters,
Liz Phair.
Mitski shares Phair's confessional storytelling style on many of the songs on the
album, and especially on [N] tracks like Why Didn't You Stop Me and Old Friend.
It's as if Liz Phair
taught a master class on songwriting and Mitski was her star student.
From a musical perspective,
I can hear plenty of Liz Phair in Mitski's sound as well, but no more than I hear a number of
other possible influences, all in perfect balance with each other.
In almost every song, I'm reminded
of the vibrancy and energy of St.
Vincent or the quirkiness of the magnetic fields.
I also get a
strong Pixies vibe on songs like Remember My Name, Blue Light, and A Pearl, with guitars that go from
a menacing drone to a ferocious muscularity.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mitski seems
to channel her more feminine muses.
Pink in the Night is one of several tracks that recall
Haunting Twin Peaks singer Julie Cruz, while A Horse Named Cold Air could have easily fit
on one of Tori Amos's early albums.
Then there's the sheer audacity of some of the album's musical
left turns, tonal shifts that on paper should never work, but remarkably they do.
Lonesome
Love is a country folk, I Can't Seem to Quit You kind of anti-love song in the style of She and Him
with Zooey Deschanel and Em Ward.
Early in the song, she sings about feeling empowered in her
high heels, certain that this time she'll break things off.
But later, the song closes with the
sound of those same heels echoing across his floor as she makes the walk of shame to catch a taxi.
Two tracks later, we get the almost Beatle-esque piano stomper Me and My Husband, a song with a
similar I Can't [D] Quit You sentiment, but at least here she's trying to make the relationship work,
for better or worse.
That's followed shortly after by the disco stylings of Nobody, a song
that features Mitski's boldest and most confident vocal performance on Be the Cowboy.
Then on
Washing Machine Heart, she practically [N] switches to industrial mode with deep, beefy synths and
a pulsing beat that seems to simulate the song's title.
Speaking of synths, another noteworthy
element of the album is the frequent use of synthesizers that give many of the songs on the
album an almost retro feel.
Come Into the Water, for example, features an organ sound that's
clearly electronic rather than organic, and it lends the track a feeling of being almost kitsch,
if that makes sense.
Everything I've highlighted so far is sandwiched between the two fantastic
bookends on this album.
Be the Cowboy starts off brilliantly with Geyser, a slow burn that builds
into a musical fury that calls to mind the majestic sensation of many Florence and the Machine
songs.
Fourteen tracks later, Mitski closes the album with Too Slow Dancers, a tender piano-based
ode to love and aging.
It's as beautiful an ending as Geyser was an epic start, and as the last note
fades, it's hard to believe that barely half an hour has passed.
I think it's fair to say that
this album surpasses Her Puberty Too in nearly every way.
It's easily a more consistently strong
collection of music, song for song.
That being said, there's no outright standout, stuck in your
head earworm song on this album the way Your All-American Girl was on the previous album.
But where that was a song for the ages, perhaps [E] this is an album for the ages.
And along the same
lines, I'm feeling like this one will have more staying power as well.
Like, I'll definitely be
drawn back to this music a year from now.
So I'm giving Be The Cowboy by Mitski a strong X rating
of 8 out of 10.
This one comes highly recommended and is currently a frontrunner for Best Album of
2018.
Don't miss it.
Once again, my name's Kyle and this has been Track by Track.
If you like this
video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, plus check out some [G] of these other videos below that I think
you might also enjoy.
And of course, be sure to click subscribe, because true music fans always
want new releases the day they come out.
Thanks for watching and I'll
Be the Cowboy by Japanese-American alt-rocker Mitski not only continues the trend,
it takes a commanding lead.
My review is coming up next on Track by Track.
Hey everybody, my name's Kyle and this is Track by Track, music reviews, news and commentary.
Thanks for tuning in today, and if this is your first time here, please take a second to click
subscribe so you won't miss future reviews and more.
In 2016, singer-songwriter Mitski first hit my musical radar with a huge blip that was her
single, Your Best American Girl.
That song came from her excellent and cheekily titled album,
Puberty II, an album that I ended up ranking in my top ten for the year.
In the time that's
passed since that release, though, I've found that my affection for the album seems to have
faded a little.
I don't find myself returning to it as often as I expected I might.
Nevertheless,
I've remained of the opinion that Mitski is one of the most promising new artists that I've heard
in recent years.
That sentiment was certainly reinforced with the release of her newest album.
Be the Cowboy is a remarkable exercise in musical efficiency.
Mitski manages to cram 14 tracks into
this album's lean 32 and a half minute run time.
With nearly every track clocking in at well under
three minutes in length, there's not a second of wasted sound to be found.
At a high level,
what we have on Be the Cowboy is a collection of songs that ruminate on common themes like
relationships gone bad or feelings of self-doubt.
Now, I know that probably sounds depressing as
hell, but rarely have such topics felt so exhilarating.
That's due in no small part to
the brisk pace of this album.
On every song, Mitski gets right to the heart of the matter,
lays her soul bare, and then quickly moves on to the next gut-wrencher before we even have time
to catch our breath.
From a lyrical perspective, I don't want to get into a bunch of quoting and
analysis here, because [E] I think that would be a disservice to the music.
Mitski is working with
such efficiency of language on this album that, [Em] to quote, even a couple of lines from any song
feels as if it's giving too much away.
On top of that, I also find that the majority of the lyrics
achieve a level of poetic expression that makes them [E] feel like they stand on their own, apart from
the music.
That's a rare feat, even for the most celebrated of songwriters.
One point of comparison
I do want to make on these lyrics, though, is to one of my favorite female singer-songwriters,
Liz Phair.
Mitski shares Phair's confessional storytelling style on many of the songs on the
album, and especially on [N] tracks like Why Didn't You Stop Me and Old Friend.
It's as if Liz Phair
taught a master class on songwriting and Mitski was her star student.
From a musical perspective,
I can hear plenty of Liz Phair in Mitski's sound as well, but no more than I hear a number of
other possible influences, all in perfect balance with each other.
In almost every song, I'm reminded
of the vibrancy and energy of St.
Vincent or the quirkiness of the magnetic fields.
I also get a
strong Pixies vibe on songs like Remember My Name, Blue Light, and A Pearl, with guitars that go from
a menacing drone to a ferocious muscularity.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mitski seems
to channel her more feminine muses.
Pink in the Night is one of several tracks that recall
Haunting Twin Peaks singer Julie Cruz, while A Horse Named Cold Air could have easily fit
on one of Tori Amos's early albums.
Then there's the sheer audacity of some of the album's musical
left turns, tonal shifts that on paper should never work, but remarkably they do.
Lonesome
Love is a country folk, I Can't Seem to Quit You kind of anti-love song in the style of She and Him
with Zooey Deschanel and Em Ward.
Early in the song, she sings about feeling empowered in her
high heels, certain that this time she'll break things off.
But later, the song closes with the
sound of those same heels echoing across his floor as she makes the walk of shame to catch a taxi.
Two tracks later, we get the almost Beatle-esque piano stomper Me and My Husband, a song with a
similar I Can't [D] Quit You sentiment, but at least here she's trying to make the relationship work,
for better or worse.
That's followed shortly after by the disco stylings of Nobody, a song
that features Mitski's boldest and most confident vocal performance on Be the Cowboy.
Then on
Washing Machine Heart, she practically [N] switches to industrial mode with deep, beefy synths and
a pulsing beat that seems to simulate the song's title.
Speaking of synths, another noteworthy
element of the album is the frequent use of synthesizers that give many of the songs on the
album an almost retro feel.
Come Into the Water, for example, features an organ sound that's
clearly electronic rather than organic, and it lends the track a feeling of being almost kitsch,
if that makes sense.
Everything I've highlighted so far is sandwiched between the two fantastic
bookends on this album.
Be the Cowboy starts off brilliantly with Geyser, a slow burn that builds
into a musical fury that calls to mind the majestic sensation of many Florence and the Machine
songs.
Fourteen tracks later, Mitski closes the album with Too Slow Dancers, a tender piano-based
ode to love and aging.
It's as beautiful an ending as Geyser was an epic start, and as the last note
fades, it's hard to believe that barely half an hour has passed.
I think it's fair to say that
this album surpasses Her Puberty Too in nearly every way.
It's easily a more consistently strong
collection of music, song for song.
That being said, there's no outright standout, stuck in your
head earworm song on this album the way Your All-American Girl was on the previous album.
But where that was a song for the ages, perhaps [E] this is an album for the ages.
And along the same
lines, I'm feeling like this one will have more staying power as well.
Like, I'll definitely be
drawn back to this music a year from now.
So I'm giving Be The Cowboy by Mitski a strong X rating
of 8 out of 10.
This one comes highly recommended and is currently a frontrunner for Best Album of
2018.
Don't miss it.
Once again, my name's Kyle and this has been Track by Track.
If you like this
video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, plus check out some [G] of these other videos below that I think
you might also enjoy.
And of course, be sure to click subscribe, because true music fans always
want new releases the day they come out.
Thanks for watching and I'll
Key:
E
Em
D
G
E
Em
D
G
So far in 2018, the best new albums are coming from new and independent artists.
Be the Cowboy by Japanese-American alt-rocker Mitski not only continues the trend,
it takes a commanding lead.
My review is coming up next on Track by Track.
Hey everybody, my name's Kyle and this is Track by Track, music reviews, news and commentary.
Thanks for tuning in today, and if this is your first time here, please take a second to click
subscribe so you won't miss future reviews and more.
In 2016, singer-songwriter Mitski first hit my musical radar with a huge blip that was her
single, Your Best American Girl.
That song came from her excellent and cheekily titled album,
Puberty II, an album that I ended up ranking in my top ten for the year.
In the time that's
passed since that release, though, I've found that my affection for the album seems to have
faded a little.
I don't find myself returning to it as often as I expected I might.
Nevertheless,
I've remained of the opinion that Mitski is one of the most promising new artists that I've heard
in recent years.
That sentiment was certainly reinforced with the release of her newest album.
Be the Cowboy is a remarkable exercise in musical efficiency.
Mitski manages to cram 14 tracks into
this album's lean 32 and a half minute run time.
With nearly every track clocking in at well under
three minutes in length, there's not a second of wasted sound to be found.
At a high level,
what we have on Be the Cowboy is a collection of songs that ruminate on common themes like
relationships gone bad or feelings of self-doubt.
Now, I know that probably sounds depressing as
hell, but rarely have such topics felt so exhilarating.
That's due in no small part to
the brisk pace of this album.
On every song, Mitski gets right to the heart of the matter,
lays her soul bare, and then quickly moves on to the next gut-wrencher before we even have time
to catch our breath.
From a lyrical perspective, I don't want to get into a bunch of quoting and
analysis here, because [E] I think that would be a disservice to the music.
Mitski is working with
such efficiency of language on this album that, [Em] to quote, even a couple of lines from any song
feels as if it's giving too much away.
On top of that, I also find that the majority of the lyrics
achieve a level of poetic expression that makes them [E] feel like they stand on their own, apart from
the music.
That's a rare feat, even for the most celebrated of songwriters.
One point of comparison
I do want to make on these lyrics, though, is to one of my favorite female singer-songwriters,
Liz Phair.
Mitski shares Phair's confessional storytelling style on many of the songs on the
album, and especially on [N] tracks like Why Didn't You Stop Me and Old Friend.
It's as if Liz Phair
taught a master class on songwriting and Mitski was her star student.
From a musical perspective,
I can hear plenty of Liz Phair in Mitski's sound as well, but no more than I hear a number of
other possible influences, all in perfect balance with each other.
In almost every song, I'm reminded
of the vibrancy and energy of St.
Vincent or the quirkiness of the magnetic fields.
I also get a
strong Pixies vibe on songs like Remember My Name, Blue Light, and A Pearl, with guitars that go from
a menacing drone to a ferocious muscularity.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mitski seems
to channel her more feminine muses.
Pink in the Night is one of several tracks that recall
Haunting Twin Peaks singer Julie Cruz, while A Horse Named Cold Air could have easily fit
on one of Tori Amos's early albums.
Then there's the sheer audacity of some of the album's musical
left turns, tonal shifts that on paper should never work, but remarkably they do.
Lonesome
Love is a country folk, I Can't Seem to Quit You kind of anti-love song in the style of She and Him
with Zooey Deschanel and Em Ward.
Early in the song, she sings about feeling empowered in her
high heels, certain that this time she'll break things off.
But later, the song closes with the
sound of those same heels echoing across his floor as she makes the walk of shame to catch a taxi.
Two tracks later, we get the almost Beatle-esque piano stomper Me and My Husband, a song with a
similar I Can't [D] Quit You sentiment, but at least here she's trying to make the relationship work,
for better or worse.
That's followed shortly after by the disco stylings of Nobody, a song
that features Mitski's boldest and most confident vocal performance on Be the Cowboy.
Then on
Washing Machine Heart, she practically [N] switches to industrial mode with deep, beefy synths and
a pulsing beat that seems to simulate the song's title.
Speaking of synths, another noteworthy
element of the album is the frequent use of synthesizers that give many of the songs on the
album an almost retro feel.
Come Into the Water, for example, features an organ sound that's
clearly electronic rather than organic, and it lends the track a feeling of being almost kitsch,
if that makes sense.
Everything I've highlighted so far is sandwiched between the two fantastic
bookends on this album.
Be the Cowboy starts off brilliantly with Geyser, a slow burn that builds
into a musical fury that calls to mind the majestic sensation of many Florence and the Machine
songs.
Fourteen tracks later, Mitski closes the album with Too Slow Dancers, a tender piano-based
ode to love and aging.
It's as beautiful an ending as Geyser was an epic start, and as the last note
fades, it's hard to believe that barely half an hour has passed.
I think it's fair to say that
this album surpasses Her Puberty Too in nearly every way.
It's easily a more consistently strong
collection of music, song for song.
That being said, there's no outright standout, stuck in your
head earworm song on this album the way Your All-American Girl was on the previous album.
But where that was a song for the ages, perhaps [E] this is an album for the ages.
And along the same
lines, I'm feeling like this one will have more staying power as well.
Like, I'll definitely be
drawn back to this music a year from now.
So I'm giving Be The Cowboy by Mitski a strong X rating
of 8 out of 10.
This one comes highly recommended and is currently a frontrunner for Best Album of
2018.
Don't miss it.
Once again, my name's Kyle and this has been Track by Track.
If you like this
video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, plus check out some [G] of these other videos below that I think
you might also enjoy.
And of course, be sure to click subscribe, because true music fans always
want new releases the day they come out.
Thanks for watching and I'll
Be the Cowboy by Japanese-American alt-rocker Mitski not only continues the trend,
it takes a commanding lead.
My review is coming up next on Track by Track.
Hey everybody, my name's Kyle and this is Track by Track, music reviews, news and commentary.
Thanks for tuning in today, and if this is your first time here, please take a second to click
subscribe so you won't miss future reviews and more.
In 2016, singer-songwriter Mitski first hit my musical radar with a huge blip that was her
single, Your Best American Girl.
That song came from her excellent and cheekily titled album,
Puberty II, an album that I ended up ranking in my top ten for the year.
In the time that's
passed since that release, though, I've found that my affection for the album seems to have
faded a little.
I don't find myself returning to it as often as I expected I might.
Nevertheless,
I've remained of the opinion that Mitski is one of the most promising new artists that I've heard
in recent years.
That sentiment was certainly reinforced with the release of her newest album.
Be the Cowboy is a remarkable exercise in musical efficiency.
Mitski manages to cram 14 tracks into
this album's lean 32 and a half minute run time.
With nearly every track clocking in at well under
three minutes in length, there's not a second of wasted sound to be found.
At a high level,
what we have on Be the Cowboy is a collection of songs that ruminate on common themes like
relationships gone bad or feelings of self-doubt.
Now, I know that probably sounds depressing as
hell, but rarely have such topics felt so exhilarating.
That's due in no small part to
the brisk pace of this album.
On every song, Mitski gets right to the heart of the matter,
lays her soul bare, and then quickly moves on to the next gut-wrencher before we even have time
to catch our breath.
From a lyrical perspective, I don't want to get into a bunch of quoting and
analysis here, because [E] I think that would be a disservice to the music.
Mitski is working with
such efficiency of language on this album that, [Em] to quote, even a couple of lines from any song
feels as if it's giving too much away.
On top of that, I also find that the majority of the lyrics
achieve a level of poetic expression that makes them [E] feel like they stand on their own, apart from
the music.
That's a rare feat, even for the most celebrated of songwriters.
One point of comparison
I do want to make on these lyrics, though, is to one of my favorite female singer-songwriters,
Liz Phair.
Mitski shares Phair's confessional storytelling style on many of the songs on the
album, and especially on [N] tracks like Why Didn't You Stop Me and Old Friend.
It's as if Liz Phair
taught a master class on songwriting and Mitski was her star student.
From a musical perspective,
I can hear plenty of Liz Phair in Mitski's sound as well, but no more than I hear a number of
other possible influences, all in perfect balance with each other.
In almost every song, I'm reminded
of the vibrancy and energy of St.
Vincent or the quirkiness of the magnetic fields.
I also get a
strong Pixies vibe on songs like Remember My Name, Blue Light, and A Pearl, with guitars that go from
a menacing drone to a ferocious muscularity.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mitski seems
to channel her more feminine muses.
Pink in the Night is one of several tracks that recall
Haunting Twin Peaks singer Julie Cruz, while A Horse Named Cold Air could have easily fit
on one of Tori Amos's early albums.
Then there's the sheer audacity of some of the album's musical
left turns, tonal shifts that on paper should never work, but remarkably they do.
Lonesome
Love is a country folk, I Can't Seem to Quit You kind of anti-love song in the style of She and Him
with Zooey Deschanel and Em Ward.
Early in the song, she sings about feeling empowered in her
high heels, certain that this time she'll break things off.
But later, the song closes with the
sound of those same heels echoing across his floor as she makes the walk of shame to catch a taxi.
Two tracks later, we get the almost Beatle-esque piano stomper Me and My Husband, a song with a
similar I Can't [D] Quit You sentiment, but at least here she's trying to make the relationship work,
for better or worse.
That's followed shortly after by the disco stylings of Nobody, a song
that features Mitski's boldest and most confident vocal performance on Be the Cowboy.
Then on
Washing Machine Heart, she practically [N] switches to industrial mode with deep, beefy synths and
a pulsing beat that seems to simulate the song's title.
Speaking of synths, another noteworthy
element of the album is the frequent use of synthesizers that give many of the songs on the
album an almost retro feel.
Come Into the Water, for example, features an organ sound that's
clearly electronic rather than organic, and it lends the track a feeling of being almost kitsch,
if that makes sense.
Everything I've highlighted so far is sandwiched between the two fantastic
bookends on this album.
Be the Cowboy starts off brilliantly with Geyser, a slow burn that builds
into a musical fury that calls to mind the majestic sensation of many Florence and the Machine
songs.
Fourteen tracks later, Mitski closes the album with Too Slow Dancers, a tender piano-based
ode to love and aging.
It's as beautiful an ending as Geyser was an epic start, and as the last note
fades, it's hard to believe that barely half an hour has passed.
I think it's fair to say that
this album surpasses Her Puberty Too in nearly every way.
It's easily a more consistently strong
collection of music, song for song.
That being said, there's no outright standout, stuck in your
head earworm song on this album the way Your All-American Girl was on the previous album.
But where that was a song for the ages, perhaps [E] this is an album for the ages.
And along the same
lines, I'm feeling like this one will have more staying power as well.
Like, I'll definitely be
drawn back to this music a year from now.
So I'm giving Be The Cowboy by Mitski a strong X rating
of 8 out of 10.
This one comes highly recommended and is currently a frontrunner for Best Album of
2018.
Don't miss it.
Once again, my name's Kyle and this has been Track by Track.
If you like this
video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, plus check out some [G] of these other videos below that I think
you might also enjoy.
And of course, be sure to click subscribe, because true music fans always
want new releases the day they come out.
Thanks for watching and I'll