After her 2022 album Laurel Hell, Mitski’s sights may be set on something higher. The singer-songwriter released “Bug Like an Angel” on July 26, a simply strummed acoustic rumination that comes alive thanks to a 17-strong choir. The title of the song refers to something found at the bottom of a drink: “As I got older / I learned I’m a drinker / Sometimes a drink feels like family,” Mitski sings, the choir echoing her. The song comes with a video tying into the themes, focused on a woman drunkenly stumbling down the street. She comes across a choir singing outside a church (featuring Mitski as a member), before eventually leaving on her own. Mitski ends the song on an equally uncertain note, singing, “The wrath of the devil / was also given him by God.”
“Bug Like an Angel” is the first single off The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, a new album Mitski announced in her newsletter last week. It’s her seventh full-length, coming out September 15, about a year-and-a-half after 2022’s Laurel Hell. The choir features throughout The Land, which was once again produced by Patrick Hyland, as does an orchestra, arranged and conducted by Drew Erickson. In a press release, Mitski called it her “most American album” and said love is a recurring theme. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” she stated. “I wish I could leave behind all the love that I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” Below, The Land’s tracklist — indeed, including multiple songs with love in the title.
1. Bug Like an Angel
2. Buffalo Replaced
3. Heaven
4. I Don’t Like My Mind
5. The Deal
6. When Memories Snow
7. My Love Mine All Mine
8. The Frost
9. Star
10. I’m Your Man
11. I Love Me After You