''Be the Cowboy'' is the fifth studio album by Japanese-American
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
musician
Mitski
Mitski Miyawaki (born Mitsuki Laycock; September 27, 1990), known professionally by the mononym Mitski, is a Japanese-born American singer-songwriter. Mitski self-released her first two albums, '' Lush'' (2012) and '' Retired from Sad, New Caree ...
, released on August 17, 2018, through
Dead Oceans
Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...
. Produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, the album widens Mitski's palette with a return to the piano featured on her first two records alongside synthesizers, horns and the guitar that became her signature instrument. Upon its release, ''Be the Cowboy'' received widespread acclaim from music critics, who later ranked it among the best albums of 2018. It was preceded by the singles "
Geyser
A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in ...
", "
Nobody
Nobody may refer to:
* Nobody, an indefinite pronoun
Nobody may also refer to:
Fictional characters
*Nobody (Kingdom Hearts), Nobody (''Kingdom Hearts''), a race of beings in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' video game series
*Nobody, a character in the ...
", and "Two Slow Dancers". ''Be the Cowboy'' was Mitski's first album to chart on the
Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...
, and also entered the charts in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Writing and recording
In a statement, Mitski said she experimented in narrative and fiction for the album, and said she was inspired by "the image of someone alone on a stage, singing solo with a single spotlight trained on them in an otherwise dark room."
She recorded the album with longtime producer Patrick Hyland, and stated that "for most of the tracks, we didn't layer the vocals with doubles or harmonies, to achieve that campy 'person singing alone on stage' atmosphere." She also said the album is about her reconnecting with her feelings: "I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski."
Composition
''Be The Cowboy'' has been characterized as a "genre-defying"
pop,
pop-punk
Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...
,
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
,
art pop
Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's ...
,
electrowave,
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
, and
alt-pop
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...
record, with elements of
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
chamber pop
Chamber pop (or Chamber rock; also called baroque pop and sometimes conflated with orchestral pop or symphonic pop) is a music genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of string section, strings, horn section, horns, piano, and voca ...
,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
-
surf,
country rock
Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...
, and
Eurodisco
Eurodisco (also spelled as Euro disco) is the variety of European forms of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the late 1970s, incorporating elements of pop and rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Eurodisco ...
.
Release and promotion
The album was made available for pre-order on May 14, 2018, without prior announcement. "Geyser" was released as the lead single from the album on the same day along with a music video directed by Zia Anger, who also directed the music video for "Your Best American Girl" from ''
Puberty 2
''Puberty 2'' is the fourth studio album by Japanese-American indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski, released on June 17, 2016, the first release through Dead Oceans. It was produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland. Upon its release, ''Puber ...
'' (2016).
The song was previously performed in 2014 on
WNYU Radio and
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
. On June 26, Mitski released "Nobody" as the second single alongside a music video directed by Christopher Good which was shot over five days in
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
. The third and final single to precede the album, "Two Slow Dancers", was released on August 9.
In support of the album, Mitski embarked on a tour including North American and European legs called
Be the Cowboy Tour
Be the Cowboy Tour was a concert tour by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski, in support of her fifth studio album ''Be the Cowboy'' (2018). The tour began on August 12, 2018, in Providence, Rhode Island, United States and concluded on Se ...
.
Critical reception
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, ''Be the Cowboy'' received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 87, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Critics praised Mitski's ability to deftly move from the personal lyrics on her previous album ''Puberty 2'' to more conceptual themes.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
writer Marcy Donelson stated that "rather than being a disappointment, ''Be the Cowboy''s point of view provides a brilliant twist, one that channels all the unease, unpredictability, and intuitiveness of Mitski's previous work—even for those who don't take in the lyrics."
Laura Snapes similarly commended the album in a review for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''; "Mitski's songwriting trademarks are strong enough to transcend the stylistic revamp – arrangements that are rich without being precious (Pink in the Night), plus her terrifically mordant worldview."
''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''s Quinn Moreland called the album Mitski's greatest to date, stating that "she's never sounded so large, even in the record's quietest moments."
''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s
Will Hermes
Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to ''Rolling Stone'' and to National Pu ...
wrote, "There may be nothing explicitly political in the songs on ''Be the Cowboy''. But there's plenty implicit, from the DIY American mythology of the title, to the way the songs validate voices that are shaky, hurting, irrational, and damaged, while also being smart, wry, powerful, and deserving of love."
''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' critic Katie Rife said, "Although ''Be The Cowboy'' sees Mitski fully transformed from her lo-fi beginnings in terms of production, her post-
Pixies
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas arou ...
guitar-rock tendencies still come through strong, albeit now more lush and kaleidoscopic than buzzing and raucous."
Sarah Murphy from ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'' applauded the album, saying "The album is all the more impressive because her words and music are meticulously calculated, expertly arranged and still filled with feeling."
Accolades
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Be the Cowboy''.
*
Mitski
Mitski Miyawaki (born Mitsuki Laycock; September 27, 1990), known professionally by the mononym Mitski, is a Japanese-born American singer-songwriter. Mitski self-released her first two albums, '' Lush'' (2012) and '' Retired from Sad, New Caree ...
– performance
* Patrick Hyland – performance, saxophone solo
* Philly Phatness – horns
** Thor Espanez
** Ian Gray
** Vince Tampio
* Evan Marien – bass
* Ted Jensen – mastering
* Ryan Smith – lacquer cutting
* Mary Banas – album design
* Bao Ngo – photography
* Carl Knight – lighting
* Annika White – styling
* Marika Aoki – makeup
Charts
Certifications
Release history
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Be the Cowboy
2018 albums
Dead Oceans albums
Mitski albums
Art pop albums
Synthwave albums
Pop punk albums by American artists
Pop punk albums by Japanese artists
Disco albums by American artists
Disco albums by Japanese artists