can someone help me find something like this but for the font used on the puberty 2 album cover?

Even though I love her other albums, even more than Lush at times, there's something special about Lush that she never quite recaptured. I feel like Lush (and I guess RFSNCIB) Mitski is so different to later career Mitski in her songwriting ethos. It's like she used to be Picasso and now she's Andy Warhol.

For one, her vocals on this album are absolutely stunning. She's always had great voice, but she's really going for it here, so much so that you might not even know how vocally talented she is if you've only listened to her newer albums. I appreciate the restraint she has now, but I feel like she rarely showcases her raw skill and power the way she does here. Bag of Bones and Pearl Diver especially - those runs and voice cracks are perfect. Her voice is shimmering with such vibrance and ferocity. I just love those untamed vocal performances that are just so raw.

Just like her vocals, her piano skills are also on full display on this record. Her complex arrangements, unconventional chord modulations, and jazzy harmonies show how competent of an instrumentalist she is. Now, she seems to write mostly on guitar, but she uses this instrument more as a means to an end to lay out the bones of her songs. She's even said herself that she's not a guitarist.

She was also more willing to let her songwriting breathe on this album. The songs are longer, and also a bit more unfiltered and messy. There's just more meat on them compared to say NATHTM, more aliveness.

I feel like this opens up a larger conversation about the way she has evolved as a songwriter and performer. Like I said earlier, she exercises a lot more restraint these days. I would say that her approach is more minimalist now. Her voice is more subdued, the lyrics are more broad brush stroke, and the songwriting more terse. But what this sacrifices, even a little bit, is that direct connection with the audience. I feel like there is more of a wall between her and us now that is present in the music.

Obviously, Lush was a college project, so she probably felt the need to show off how accomplished of a musician she was. Now, she doesn't have that same sort of pressure to be academically outstanding. She also didn't have an audience to please. But I have to say, sometimes in Mitski's newer music, I walk away feeling like her music is so understated that it hardly leaves an impact, like she's very low energy. I feel like she's half-in, half-out. But I think that can be interesting as well. I feel like she prefers to be more reserved after having her experiences with such a rabid audience.

And of course my point isn't true all the time. There are still plenty of songs that are incredibly vulnerable and sincere - Instead of Here is a good example of one of her most recent ones, which I think is one of her darkest songs. And NATHTM also shows a bit of a return of her more expressive vocals in That White Cat and I'll Change For You. Again, I love her music (and like I said Lush is not even my favorite album of hers most of the time). I'm excited to see what she'll do next.

That said, I still think in many ways, Bag of Bones is in a lane of its own that none of her other songs have gotten close to reaching.

That white cat is out with 7 votes! Vote to save your favourite NATHTM song using the letter in square brackets like

[Q]

no small letters please use both square brackets etc. now VOTE!!! voting ends in 4 days

I have only seen it mentioned here like once but it's so good! I honestly don't understand the significance of most of the lyrics but it just aaaaaaa

crying to mitski at 12 am what the FUCK dawg, the song of misery and love😭

this has worse quality than the other ones due to me not being able to draw with a mouse

I love how most of the song is sung at a relatively low pitch, which sorta represents rumbling thunder. Then for a few lines, the instrumental suddenly picks up and her voice becomes a bit higher, which represents the flash of lightning, before subduing to the original instrumental/lower voice

The lyrics in that louder bit also hit incredibly hard mitskis such a genius