Description
Mitski – Laurel Hell – Ruby and White Bloom Vinyl Record
Rough Trade Exclusive limited to 1500 copies.
Released for Rough trade album of the year No.12
Laurel Hell, released on February 4, 2022, is the sixth studio album by Mitski, and it stands as one of her most layered, conflicted, and emotionally resonant works to date. Written largely in the wake of her 2018 breakthrough Be the Cowboy and during a period when she openly considered leaving the music industry, the album reflects Mitski’s ambivalence about fame, creativity, and human connection. At once glossy and intimate, it uses the language of 1980s synth-pop and dance music to explore themes of disillusionment, longing, and entrapment — creating a contrast between shimmering surfaces and the heavy emotions beneath.
The album’s title is symbolic: a “Laurel Hell” refers to a dense thicket of laurel bushes found in the American South. Beautiful to look at, they are nearly impossible to escape — a metaphor for Mitski’s experience with success, where acclaim and recognition brought both beauty and suffocation. Much of the record grapples with this duality, examining the tension between art as liberation and art as confinement.
Laurel Hell expands Mitski’s sound into a more synth-driven and dance-oriented palette. Collaborating again with longtime producer Patrick Hyland, she leans on pulsing drum machines, shimmering synthesizers, and clean, sharp arrangements that evoke artists like Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, and even early Madonna. Yet the sleekness of the production often hides — or amplifies — the raw emotional intensity of her lyrics. The juxtaposition between upbeat, danceable music and lyrics about despair and alienation creates an unsettling but deeply compelling listening experience.
The album begins with “Valentine, Texas,” a slow, atmospheric track that gradually opens like a curtain, inviting listeners into the album’s surreal emotional world. “Working for the Knife” — the lead single — is one of the record’s defining statements, a stark meditation on the burdens of performance and creative labor. With its mechanical rhythm and bleak imagery, it captures Mitski’s sense of being trapped by the very art form that once gave her freedom.
Elsewhere, songs like “The Only Heartbreaker” and “Love Me More” cloak desperation in pop brilliance. “The Only Heartbreaker,” co-written with Dan Wilson (of Semisonic), is an upbeat, synth-heavy track that could almost be mistaken for a stadium anthem, but its lyrics reveal guilt, failure, and cycles of relational pain. “Love Me More” pulses with urgency, a plea for affection that escalates into near mania. These tracks exemplify Mitski’s ability to transform private anguish into cathartic, communal experiences.
Other songs are more subdued but equally devastating. “There’s Nothing Left for You” and “I Guess” are skeletal, mournful tracks where her voice hovers in near isolation, highlighting her vulnerability. The album closes with “That’s Our Lamp,” an oddly upbeat, almost whimsical track that masks heartbreak with a deceptively cheerful melody — leaving listeners suspended between laughter and tears.
Laurel Hell is suffused with paradoxes: freedom and imprisonment, intimacy and alienation, joy and despair. Mitski has described herself as being both grateful for her platform and suffocated by it, and the album mirrors that conflict. It feels like a dance record for people who cry on the dance floor — cathartic, bittersweet, and strangely communal.
The album was widely praised. Some reviewers noted its accessibility compared to Mitski’s earlier, more indie-rock-driven work, while others admired its emotional sharpness beneath the pop sheen. Commercially, it became her highest-charting album to date, debuting at #5 on the Billboard 200 — a testament to her growing reach and the devotion of her fanbase.
Laurel Hell captures Mitski at a crossroads: weary of the spotlight, yet still compelled to create; skeptical of connection, yet still yearning for it. It’s an album that understands the contradictions of modern life and art, wrapping them in melodies that can make you dance even as they break your heart.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Valentine, Texas
Working For The Knife
Stay Soft
Everyone
Heat Lightning
The Only Heartbreaker
Love Me More
There’s Nothing Left For You
Should’ve Been Me
I Guess
That’s Our Lamp
