Mitski has shared a new single called ‘Heat Lightning’ – listen below.
- READ MORE: Mitski – ‘Be The Cowboy’ review
The song will appear on the US singer-songwriter’s sixth album ‘Laurel Hell’, which is set to arrive on February 4 via Dead Oceans.
“I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself…I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that grey area,” Mitski explained of ‘Heat Lightning’, a cut that started out on the piano.
However, the single eventually transformed into a hypnotic R&B-influenced number that is an ode to insomnia and the “sleeping eyelid of the sky”.
“And there’s nothing I can do/ Not much I can change/ Can I give it up to you/ Would that be okay?/ There’s nothing I can do/ Not much I can change/ I give it up to you/ I surrender,” Mitski sings on ‘Heat Lightning’.
Mitski’s previous single ‘The Only Heartbreaker’, meanwhile, appears at Number 32 in NME‘s ’50 best songs of 2021’ run-down. It followed October’s ‘Working For The Knife’, the artist’s first major release since her 2018 album ‘Be The Cowboy’.
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Opening up about ‘Laurel Hell’, which was recorded with longtime producer Patrick Hyland during COVID-enforced isolation, Mitski explained how its tracks “slowly took on new forms and meanings, like seed to flower”.
The project ultimately evolved into a “more uptempo and dance-y” collection. “I needed to create something that was also a pep talk”, Mitksi said.
Mitski will showcase ‘Laurel Hell’ during a UK and European headline tour next April/May – see the full schedule here.