Listen: Mitski - "Your Best American Girl"

photo by Daniel Dorsa

Perhaps one of my favorite things about singer/songwriter Mitski Miyawaki is the fact that while she harnesses the power of so much heartache, her songs, though often melancholy, often invoke a sense of empowerment. At their heaviest and most stirring, Mitski's enduring message is similar to that of the lighthouse in the storm guiding you safely back to dry land.

And that's essentially where we find her now on "Your Best American Girl", the first single from her upcoming album Puberty 2. Similar in sound to bury me at makeout creek, "Your Best American Girl" manages to cover a lot of ground and it's amazing how skilled Mitski has become at saying so much with relative little exposition. Mitski's songs have functioned as a sort of cathartic addressing of issues with herself, how she was raised, and just being apart of the human experience and she manages to slip little references to the work she's been doing in here. "Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me but I do, I finally do" Mitski croons and it's no mistake that those lines are delivered at the track's climax. They're no doubt therapeutic to sing but also help to make it another life-affirming gem of Mitski's emotionally charged rock pop.



Mitski's fourth full length album Puberty 2 is out June 17th on Dead Oceans. Preorder is available now.