Mitski: Be the Cowboy (coke bottle clear vinyl) [DEAD OCEANS]

Why you'll love it

This coke bottle clear pressing celebrates five years of Be the Cowboy. It topped year-end lists including Pitchfork's and became Mitski's first album on the Billboard 200, also charting in Canada, Ireland and the UK.

This edition

• Coke bottle clear vinyl
• Stereo mix

About the album

Mitski said she pictured someone alone on a stage, singing with a single spotlight in an otherwise dark room. That image runs through the album, a set of short, sharp character studies where she tried her hand at narrative and fiction, and she and producer Patrick Hyland mostly skipped doubled vocals to keep that solo-performer feeling. The singles "Geyser," "Nobody" and "Two Slow Dancers" all arrived ahead of the album.

Piano returns from her early records alongside synths, horns and her trademark guitar. "Geyser" erupts from a hush, "Nobody" is a glittering disco lament, "Washing Machine Heart" thumps along, and "Two Slow Dancers" closes on a quiet waltz. Fourteen songs, and not a wasted second. "Me and My Husband" and "Old Friend" play like miniature short stories, and "A Pearl" swings from hush to roar.

She called the record a way of reconnecting with her feelings after years on the road. It's also proof that a song about loneliness can fill a dance floor, which we find oddly reassuring.

Also at Kops: more Mitski on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Dead Oceans (cat# doc150), a reissue of the 2018 album.