After nearly three years since her previous album, Mitski has finally found her phone and announced, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me,” out Feb. 27. With this album underway, Mitski has released two singles “Where’s My Phone?” and “I’ll Change for You,” along with music videos, officially commencing the fanbase into this new era. This new album is set to be indie pop and rock blended with a lot of experimental sounds.
“Where’s My Phone?” kicked off this chapter and while it may be getting warmer outside, these lyrics sure make you run cold. This song explores anxiety in the digital age, with themes of disconnection and identity loss in a time of social media and technology codependency. Mitski uses phones as a metaphor for anxiety, escapism, and social comparison.
The repetition of the lyrics “Where did it go?/Where’s my phone?” encapsulates this well, especially with the songs rock genre and bursts of guitar, creating a sense of ascending anxiety. Mitski expresses a dependency to her phone as a way to escape reality, the lines, “I just want my mind to be a clear glass” highlight the universal experience of using doomscrolling as a way to numb our minds and the anxiety that comes with it.
These themes are made even more evident in the “Where’s My Phone?” music video, which portrays a presumably reclusive woman in a gothic home whose life is being constantly interrupted by people, presumably representing technology, and the protagonist of the video experiences paranoia while searching for an escape. The video is shot with an up-close, shaky camera, which helps depict the theme.
The next single Mitski released was “I’ll Change for You” and this one stings. This song explores a failing relationship, where the speaker is willing to change themselves, and discard their identity, in an effort to save it.
“’Cause I’ll do anything/For you to love me again” captures this desperate willingness to change perfectly. This song focuses heavily on twisting your identity to fit into someone else’s life, “If you don’t like me now/I will change for you.” This theme of self-sacrifice is heartbreaking, and this is only heightened by the song’s slow instrumental and light, almost whisper-like vocals. It feels like an intimate confession and plea. The music video portrays this identity distortion beautifully, as it depicts Mitski, isolated in a bedroom, making efforts to alter herself.
In an interview with BBC, Mitski shared that she wrote these songs because she believes that there should be songs “about being pathetic.” Mitski explains that in your darkest moments, whether that is in the throes of a breakup or melancholic day, people should be able to find a song and “get the chance to be in their feelings” and it’s safe to say, these songs have done just that.
Similar to her other works, these songs emulate Mitski’s renowned vulnerability and themes of anxiety and depression. Mitski has never been afraid to be pathetic or honest in her songwriting, and that’s what makes her music so great. It isn’t made just to hit the charts—it’s curated for connection and understanding. Her themes of mental health, self-alteration, emotional exhaustion and desperation may be dark, but they provide representation for those in the same boat.
In addition to these, the new album will have 11 songs total and estimates around 34 minutes and 27 seconds. Mitski also announced performance dates in 14 cities, including six nights in New York. These performances are set to be in the “tansy house,” which is an immersive fictional setting where the album takes place. The album information thus far, seems to be a narrative that fits the world of the two music videos, her battle with solitude vs. public life.
As a long-time Mitski fan, I am sure this album will be just as heartbreaking as the rest, and I am so excited to see where this narrative goes. Make sure to find your phones and mark your calendars for Feb. 27, because this is a release you don’t want to miss.
