Be The Cowboy
by Mitski

Well you cannot say this album plods along (14 songs in 32 minutes), but it also doesn’t rush or feel half-baked (think “Disciples” from Tame Impala’s “Currents”). I did feel a little wanting after a couple songs, but have sunk into the expectation a bit more. Mitski has great range throughout the songs - both in terms of vocal performance and in overall musical genre.
You can find electronic, grunge, disco, dream pop, alt-country, and indie pop in this record and, magically, it doesn’t stray far from a central musical feeling. Accompanied with strong songwriting, this seems to be a very tough feat to accomplish or replicate. The song strengths are a bit varied, but there really aren’t any duds on here and the album isn’t front-loaded.
Just very well done even if it doesn’t have obvious bops.

87/100 (Edited)

From arturguerra 03/25/2024 17:00 | #302680

I felt that this album has absolutely boring and uninspiring music. It was really sad to go through an album and feel like there was nothing to feel or learn from it as an art form. (Edited)

This short and sweet style of alt pop is perfect for the modern day audiences and I can see exactly why this record does well. Every song flies by with only 2 songs being longer than 3 minutes which keeps us entertained for the full run time and is great in a world today where people really struggle to maintain concentration. When you combine this with some simple but effective instrumentation and a beautiful vocal performance you get a record that feels sweet and leaves a happy feeling behind once its finished. This record does have faults though and one of them is the sheer number of songs they are trying to cram onto here. I feel like there is no real time to connect to some of the tracks before they are gone and so some of the songs feel incomplete or like there is more of a story to tell there. I feel that the song structure could do with a little more variation as well and the instrumentals do sound a bit basic on tracks such as A Horse Named Cold Air amongst others. Overall, there are quite a few things that hold this record back for me but if I was looking for an enjoyable record to play without focusing on in depth then this would work quite well.

Great alt-pop. A lot of music about being kissed. Really catchy love music, and self inflective love, as well.

Yeah the songs could be longer, but it also means there's a ton of great tunes in a short space. Both fun and solid.