Mitski's "Happy": One of her best songs to date!

Can you imagine that? Mitski Miyawaki is happy! Yes, she is going to release her fourth album “Puberty 2” via Dead Oceans on June 17. In order to share her joy, she released the opening track off the LP. “Happy”, which is the follow-up to the first single “Your Best American Girl“, is simply amazing! But does it make Mitski happy? Not really! She just answered us “Happiness f**ks you!”

In the track, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter describes the typical and awful case where your ~~sexdate~~ new lover comes with a present to entice you. Once you think that he is full of good intentions, you let him crawl into your bed. Then, he pretends to go out to buy cigarettes or discreetly disappear from the room while you’re still sleeping or when you’re in the bathroom for some minutes. And you finally realize that he is gone, only the melancholy remains… and “all the cookie wrappers and the empty cups of tea” that you will have to clean.

So, what is the goal of searching for happy so strongly if sadness is inescapably coming just after? Let’s admit it, her reflection is quite defeatist or jaded, but it is also part of Mitski‘s charm. As the artist explains in the press release announcing her upcoming album:

“Happiness is up, sadness is down, but one’s almost more destructive than the other[…]When you realize you can’t have one without the other, it’s possible to spend periods of happiness just waiting for that other wave.”

Mitski‘s ironic track “Happy” also shows a subtle change in her musical direction!

With “happy”, Mitski proposed a subtle change in her musical direction. She notably lets some room to electronic drum machines that are, by the way, perfectly used in the intro of the song. They totally fit the effects on her voice. The song sweetly and softly starts like a lo-fi hug, to further become a powerful wave where her famous and catchy guitar riffs are exploding with the amazing sound of a saxophone. The chorus is catchy as hell and the whole rendition is probably one of her best-delivered work so far.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/262142124″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

You can pre-order “Puberty 2” here and get the two first singles of the album. This LP is her first one to be released via Dead Oceans and is the follow-up to 2014’s effort “Bury Me at Makeout Creek“.

You can check her upcoming tour via her Facebook page. She will notably play at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on September 28. Get your tickets here.