Mitski has shared new details about her upcoming album after initially announcing it through a voice memo on Monday. The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We arrives September 15 via Dead Oceans. Today, Mitski has unveiled the lead single, “Bug Like an Angel,” with a music video directed by Noel Paul. In the clip, a drunk woman stumbles down a street and into the arms of a choir group—one member of which is Mitski, donning an acoustic guitar and a blue robe—to echo the song’s themes of self-destruction and community. Check it out below.
“Bug Like an Angel” is the opening song on The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. Spanning 11 tracks in total, the album was recorded at Bomb Shelter Studios in Nashville and was produced by frequent collaborator Patrick Hyland. Drawing inspiration from everything from Arthur Russell to the spaghetti western scores of Ennio Morricone, Mitski wrote each song during “little bursts over the past few years” while overcome by the details she noticed around her.
“There are a lot of things about working in the music industry, and about being in the public eye, that feels like it goes against my nature,” Mitski wrote in a newsletter update today. “I think you all might have seen me struggle with it, from time to time! But I am also in a miraculously lucky position, to be able to make music with resources and time, and to have an audience like you who give me the opportunity to perform. Ultimately, I recognized that I really want to keep making music, and I’m willing to take the difficult stuff with the wonderful stuff—like any job, or relationship, or worthwhile thing in life. So I renegotiated my contract with my label, and decided to keep making records. Thank you so much for your patience and support while I found my way here. I love you!”
Laurel Hell, Mitski’s fifth and most recent album, arrived in early 2022. In addition to becoming the top-selling album in the United States that same year, its lead single “The Only Heartbreaker” climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart. It was the first time one of Mitski’s songs had landed on a Billboard chart.
Revisit Pitchfork’s 2018 interview “Don’t Cry for Mitski.”
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The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We:
01 Bug Like an Angel
02 Buffalo Replaced
03 Heaven
04 I Don’t Like My Mind
05 The Deal
06 When Memories Snow
07 My Love Mine All Mine
08 The Frost
09 Star
10 I’m Your Man
11 I Love Me After You
