Mitski - Your Best American Girl

“Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me, but I do, I think I do,” goes the chorus of ‘Your Best American Girl’ - a tipped-open memory box of indecision about a relationship that won’t quite stick, and identities that won’t quite mesh. Mitski was born in Japan, spending her childhood living across the world, and eventually winding up in Brooklyn. Searching for a place to belong, expectations forever looming overhead like a shadow looking down its nose, lyrically ‘Your Best American Girl’ feels deeply personal to Mitski, and much of it is autobiographical. When Mitski talks of wishing she could be a “big spoon’s little spoon,” though, she’s tapping into a more universal thing. Everyone wants to belong to something. There’s also a fearsome side to ‘Your Best American Girl’; sacking off the whole idea of squeezing into molds that won’t fit in exchange for something harder, being yourself. Somehow wrenching a gargantuan wash of intense noise out of gentle, rippling chimes, Mitski sounds hungrily ambitious, and more dangerously brilliant than ever before.