“At the age of 23 … I’m starting to learn I may never be free,” sings Mitski matter-of-factly on “Drunk Walk Home,” the seventh song on her masterful new record Bury Me At Makeout Creek. “But though I may never be free, fuck you and your money! I’m tired of your money,” she continues over a stomping, marching-band beat headed towards some place presumably quite dark. On paper it might sound like just another anti-capitalist post-punk screed, but on record it’s more affecting, simultaneously confrontational and curious, pissed but vulnerable. The song ends in a patch of wailing and whistling distorted guitar noise that sounds like a mass of screaming voices, the most aggressive moment on the album.
That “Drunk Walk Home” differs so dramatically from the rest of Bury Me isn’t a surprise. The entire record seamlessly covers a vast spectrum of sounds so rarely covered in such a cohesive way: crunchy noise-pop, sweet-sung indie rock, spacious key crescendos. “Texas Rezkinoff” starts out as stripped-down acoustic ballad that turns on itself half-way in, with pounding bass drums and walls of fuzz. “I Don’t Smoke” is another centerpiece; under slow-moving extra-noisy guitars and muffled drum machine beats it includes the buried exclamation, “I am stronger than you give me credit for!” It’s one of the most powerful and devastating moments of Bury Me, a record full of non-stop moments of power and devastation.
Bury Me At Makeout Creek is out November 11 on Double Double Whammy.
