Review of Laurel Hell: The Soundtrack for Our Cynical Generation

The years following Mitski’s fifth album Be the Cowboy were marked by strife. 2019 had major political issues, 2020 had the world come to halt, and 2021 was learning to live in a near-alien society. Laurel Hell revolves around transformation and growth—something many people underwent during social isolation and the transition online.  Her blend of synthpop, 80s industrial, glam-rock, and nostalgia provide a soundtrack for the distant and stilted generation of 2022.

Mitski is a new-age nihilist and emotionally disturbed poet. The opening track to her album, “Valentine, Texas,” begins with her asking “Who will I be tonight?/Who will I become tonight?” She lays these questions over a slow-increasing track, reminiscent of the opening to her third album Bury Me at Makeout Creek. This slow crescendo lays the groundwork for the rest of Laurel Hell.

“Working for the Knife,” tells of Mitski’s devotion to her career and how she prioritizes what she can do over her wellbeing. Atop the industrial new-wave sound, she laments that “I always knew the world moves on/I just didn’t know it would go on without me.” Disillusionment is something many have felt—and continue to feel—since 2020.

“Academic validation is really, truly, the only thing keeping me going. I would for sure lose a night’s sleep to finish a paper just so I can get a ‘good job!’ written on it, I swear,” said junior Peyton Holden. “‘Working for the Knife’ is so accurate it kind of hurts.” 

But, what is a Mitski album without an upbeat, vintage song about loneliness, heartbreak, or crippling yearning?
“Stay Soft,” “The Only Heartbreaker,” and “Should’ve Been Me” all fit that bill. The first is a peppy, almost bubblegum feeling number with the lyrics “You stay soft, get beaten up/Only natural to harden up” being repeated like a mantra as if justifying the jaded feeling she has. 

“I’ve been trying to get more into my emotions lately. Being stoic and cold-hearted isn’t as romantic as TV shows make it out to be,” Holden said. “You grow up one way or another and sometimes it’s toughening up. You cry too much and it gets taken advantage of.” 

“The Only Heartbreaker,” despite being sung by a presumed-heterosexual artist, is a queer anthem for those in a self-assumed relationship. In the song, the narrator hopes that their partner would give them a valid reason to break things off, as to only have one party be hurt. She says “What a relief that would be.” 

In Laurel Hell, Mitski creates, arguably, the soundtrack for the uber-diverse, disrupted, and contradictory Gen Z: “Should’ve Been Me.”

For the socially challenged, she pens “Well, I went through my list of friends/And found I had no one to tell.”

For the easily replaceable, she writes “When I saw the girl looked just like me/And it broke my heart/The lengths you went to hold me/To get to have me.”

For those stuck in the past, the chorus of “Relive all the ways you still want me/I haven’t given you what you need.”

Despite the bubbly sound and 80s nostalgia of many songs in Laurel Hell, as junior Vanessa Sandoval put it, “Mitski captures both the happiness I feel while being sad and the sadness and rot I feel when I’m happy. That makes no sense, but Mitski is feeling the same way and it shows on this album. I’m not happy and I don’t know who I am, but at least we’re like this together.”