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Mitski made her bold return last month, presenting “Working for the Knife” and announcing a world tour, with all North American dates selling out instantly. Today, Mitski has announced Laurel Hell, her new album, out February 4th on Dead Oceans, and has shared a new single/video, “The Only Heartbreaker.”
Laurel Hell is a soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, can all be seen as worthy of acknowledgment, and ultimately, love. “I accept it all,” she promises. “I forgive it all.” It cements Mitski’s reputation as an artist who possesses the power of turning our most savage and alienated experiences into the very elixir that cures them. “I wrote what I needed to hear. As I’ve always done.”
Exhausted by this warped mirror, and our addiction to false binaries, Mitski began writing songs that stripped away the masks and revealed the complex and often contradictory realities behind them. “I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost,” she explains. “I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don’t want to put on a front where I’m a role model, but I’m also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that gray area.”
The songs that resulted embody that space. New single “The Only Heartbreaker,” co-written with Dan Wilson, and the first such song in her discography, pairs soaring pop swells with deceptively straightforward lyrics whose sincere refrain turns ironic as it depicts “the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame,” and implicitly wonders if “the reason you’re always the one making mistakes is because you’re the only one trying.”
Listen to “The Only Heartbreaker” and watch the video for it below:
Mitski wrote many of these songs during or before 2018, and the album was finished being mixed in May 2021. It is the longest span of time Mitski has ever spent on a record, and a process that concluded amid a radically changed world. She recorded Laurel Hell with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland throughout the isolation of a global pandemic, during which some of the songs “slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower.” The album as a whole evolved “to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk.” Mitski explains. “It’s time, we’re going to dance through this.”
Lauren Hell artwork & tracklist:
1. Valentine, Texas
2. Working for the Knife
3. Stay Soft
4. Everyone
5. Heat Lightning
6. The Only Heartbreaker
7. Love Me More
8. There’s Nothing Left For You
9. Should’ve Been Me
10. I Guess
11. That’s Our Lamp
Mitski Tour Dates
Thu. Feb. 17, 2022 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel – SOLD OUT
Fri. Feb. 18, 2022 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz – SOLD OUT
Sat. Feb. 19, 2022 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern – SOLD OUT
Mon. Feb. 21, 2022 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City – SOLD OUT
Tue. Feb. 22, 2022 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre – SOLD OUT
Thu. Feb. 24, 2022 – Houston, TX @ The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall – SOLD OUT
Fri. Feb. 25, 2022 – Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum – SOLD OUT
Sat. Feb. 26, 2022 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at Moody Theater – SOLD OUT
Mon. Feb. 28, 2022 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren – SOLD OUT
Wed. March 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Exposition Hall – SOLD OUT
Thu. March 3, 2022 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Exposition Hall – SOLD OUT
Fri. March 4, 2022 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater – SOLD OUT
Sat. March 5 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater – SOLD OUT
Mon. March 7, 2022 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall – SOLD OUT
Wed. March 9, 2022 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre – SOLD OUT
Thu. March 10 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre – SOLD OUT
Sat. March 12, 2022 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
Mon. March 14, 2022 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre – SOLD OUT
Tue. March 15, 2022 – Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre – SOLD OUT
Thu. March 17, 2022 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Theatre – SOLD OUT
Fri. March 18, 2022 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall – SOLD OUT
Sat. March 19, 2022 – Montreal, QC @ St-Jean-Baptiste Church – SOLD OUT
Mon. March 21, 2022 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner – SOLD OUT
Tue. March 22 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner – SOLD OUT
Thu. March 24, 2022 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall – SOLD OUT
Fri. March 25, 2022 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall – SOLD OUT
Sat. March 26, 2022 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem – SOLD OUT
Sun. March 27 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem – SOLD OUT
Tue. March 29, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE – SOLD OUT
Wed. March 30, 2022 – Louisville, KY @ Old Forester’s Paristown Hall – SOLD OUT
Thu. March 31, 2022 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium – SOLD OUT
Thu. April 21, 2022 – Bristol, UK @ Marble Factory – SOLD OUT
Fri. April 22, 2022 – Leeds, UK @ University Union Refectory – SOLD OUT
Sat. April 23, 2022 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom – SOLD OUT
Mon. April 25, 2022 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street – SOLD OUT
Tue. April 26, 2022 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy – SOLD OUT
Thu. April 28, 2022 – London, UK @ The Roundhouse – SOLD OUT
Fri. April 29, 2022 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton – SOLD OUT
Sat. April 30, 2022 – Brussels, BE @ Les Nuits Botanique Festival – SOLD OUT
Mon. May 2, 2022 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix – SOLD OUT
Tue. May 3, 2022 – Paris, FR @ L’Olympia
Wed. May 4, 2022 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso – SOLD OUT
Fri. May 6, 2022 – Zurich, CH @ Kaufleuten
Sat. May 7, 2022 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
Mon. May 9, 2022 – Berlin, DE @ Metropol – SOLD OUT
Tue. May 10, 2022 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega – SOLD OUT
Wed. May 11, 2022 – Stockholm, SE @ Fållan
Thu. May 12, 2022 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
Sat. May 14, 2022 – Hamburg, DE @ Fabrik – SOLD OUT
Sun. May 15, 2022 – Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria – SOLD OUT
Tue. May 17, 2022 – Vienna, AU @ WUK – SOLD OUT
Wed. May 18, 2022 – Prague, CZ @ Archa Theatre – SOLD OUT
Thu. May 19, 2022 – Munich, DE @ Strom – SOLD OUT