Thank the higher power of your choice that Mitski didn't follow through on her threat to abandon the music industry altogether after 2018's Be The Cowboy left her with a bad taste of nascent pop stardom in her mouth. Because, frankly, she's only gotten better -- and more Mitski -- since.

The Land Is Inhospitable & So Are We takes a pronounced step back from the gauzy electro-textures of Mitsuki Miyawaki's 2022 "comeback" LP Laurel Hell, settling into a dreamy, acoustic-leaning soft-rock space that could have wafted in from Laurel Canyon in the 1970s. It's still a Mitski record, of course, so there's plenty of emotional turmoil, existential dread and self-skewering wit to go around with the strings and the choir she welcomes into the subdued, occasionally P.J. Harvey-esque proceedings here and there. But seven albums into her fascinating career, Mitski finds a way to surprise us once again, this time by laying it all out there in an intimate and unadorned space. She might be uncomfortable with being an outlier pop star, but we need pop stars like Mitski to keep us believing.

TRACKLISTING:

01. Bug Like an Angel
02. Buffalo Replaced
03. Heaven
04. I Don’t Like My Mind
05. The Deal
06. When Memories Snow
07. My Love Mine All Mine
08. The Frost
09. Star
10. I’m Your Man
11. I Love Me After You