Indie star and recent pop sensation, Mitski, releases her eighth studio album, ‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me,’ that critics are calling as feverish as it is contemplative.
The music video for the album’s lead single, ‘Where’s My Phone?’ illustrates the narrative of the album: an aloof woman tends to a disheveled home while various motley strangers force their way inside. Directed by Noel Paul, the video hits on the larger themes of the album: isolation, interpersonal fragility and a grave, impending doom.
The music video for ‘If I Leave’ depicts the singer and her band in another dilapidated house as they stare vacantly away from the camera, haunting the halls. The video, directed by Jared Hogan and released with the album, uses imagery classically aligned with horror films: a crack of lightning, the menacing silhouette of a child, rocking chairs moving on their own and peeling wallpaper. Watch the ‘If I Leave’ video below.
‘Nothing is About to Happen to Me’ took literary inspiration from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, both stories of disturbances and perversions of domesticity. NME theorizes the album’s ‘[yearn] for disconnection’ is a ‘reckoning with the reality of her raised profile.’ This references the singer’s explosion into the spotlight with 2023’s ‘The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We.’
Mitski achieved runaway success with ‘My Love All Mine’ from the 2023 album. The song caught virality on TikTok and catapulted the singer to her first Billboard Hot 100 entry. Pitchfork reports there were over 2.5 million videos soundtracked by the song.
Mitski bears little connection to the 70s soft rock, tranquil Americana which enchanted millions on ‘The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We.’ NME states, ‘Nothing is About to Happen to Me’ ‘is, without question, the most musically ambitious album of her career.’ The singer’s latest release is laden with hammering guitar breakdowns and the bludgeoning of punk-inspired drums. Tinny, screaming vocals and a rapid heartbeat drum can be heard on ‘The White Cat,’ as its lyrics depict the narrator’s frustration that the neighborhood cat has claimed her home as their own. Pitchfork calls the music ‘skilfully marshalled: sober and lucid even while hallucinogenic and deranged.’
The album was recorded Sunset Sound and TTG Studios in Los Angeles and features live in-the-room instrumentation from the touring band of ‘The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We.’ Patrick Hyland, longtime collaborator of Mitski, joins her again as producer, and Bob Weston is credited with mastering. Mitski is credited with writing all songs on the album as well as recording all vocals.
Mitski will present ‘Nothing is About to Happen to Me’ in select cities, with residencies few major cities. She will spend six nights at the Shed in New York City, five nights at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles and four nights at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Other cities featured on the tour are Bangkok, Jakarta, Mexico City, Paris, Brussels, Manila and more.
As for UK shows, Mitski will appear in Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol and Kingston this May. She will finish her UK run with a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. More information on her upcoming tour can be found here.
Mitski’s ‘Nothing’s About To Happen To Me’ Tracklist:
1. In a Lake
2. Where’s My Phone
3. Cats
4. If I Leave
5. Dead Woman
6. Instead of Here
7. I’ll Change for You
8. Rules
9. That White Cat
10. Charon’s Obol
11. Lightning
‘Nothing’s About To Happen To Me’ UK Tour Dates
11/05 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow, Scotland
13/05 – Birmingham Town Hall – Birmingham, England
14/05 – Project House – Leeds, England
15/05 – New Century – Manchester, England
17/05 – Electric Bristol – Bristol, England
18/05 – Circuit – Kingston, England
21/05 – Royal Albert Town Hall – London, England
