Mitski reveals her 10 favourite books
Mitski has been riding a steady wave of success for the past decade, redefining indie songwriting through carefully crafted, often painstakingly devastating albums. Sonically, her music moves through different variations of pop, indie rock and folk. However, Mitski’s true strength is her songwriting, which hones in on themes of love, sadness, femininity, family and identity, particularly her experience as an Asian-American woman.
When Mitski moved to New York to study film, she quickly realised she wanted to pursue music, transferring to a studio composition course. During this time, the musician wrote and self-released two albums, 2012’s Lush and 2013’s Retired from Sad, New Career in Business. After graduating, she temporarily became the lead singer of a prog-metal band, Voice Coils, before focusing on her third album, Bury Me At Makeout Creek. The album marked a shift in Mitski’s music, which became more abrasive and confrontational.
However, 2018’s Be the Cowboy signified a breakthrough period for Mitski, attracting a wealth of new fans through the album’s accessible yet complexly written tracks. Drawing inspiration from pop, disco, and indie rock, Be the Cowboy contained unforgettable cuts such as ‘Me and My Husband’, ‘Washing Machine Heart’, and ‘Nobody’. With its catchy instrumentation juxtaposing melancholic lyrics, the latter was a viral sensation.
The apparent simplicity of the lyrics to ‘Nobody’ reveals a complex meditation on loneliness and longing. Subtle word choices and phrase changes highlight Mitski’s increasing desperation, attempting to mask feelings of isolation with disco-infused beats. Mitski is an intricate wordsmith, possessing a knack for conveying emotion with admirable honesty. This skill has attracted many listeners to her work, finding comfort in her relatability. Even Iggy Pop declared Mitski the “most advanced singer-songwriter I know”.
Although interest in literature has helped shape Mitski’s lyrical talents, the musician has rarely given fans an insight into her literary tastes, beyond one Instagram post. However, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the musician discussed how Elfriede Jelinek’s book The Piano Teacher inspired Be The Cowboy, stating: “[the protagonist, Erika] already opened up, so she doesn’t know how to close it”. In 2018, an Instagram post revealed a collection of books she had recently read, writing, “these r a few from the past few months that I’m especially glad I read.”
In her collection was Cowboys Are My Weakness: Stories by Pam Houston, which potentially inspired the name of her album Be the Cowboy. Furthermore, several of Mitski’s picks reflect themes explored in her music, such as Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, which studies the experience of being an Asian woman in America. Furthermore, she enjoyed All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva, a haunting collection of short stories which explore themes of isolation, longing, and fate.
Mitski’s book pile also included several non-fiction works, such as Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer and Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci.
Check out the complete list below.
Mitski’s favourite books:
- Sour Heart – Jenny Zhang
- A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories – Lucia Berlin
- Cowboys are My Weakness: Stories – Pam Houston
- All the Names They Used for God – Anjali Sachdeva
- Don’t Cry – Mary Gaitskill
- Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest – Zeynep Tufekci
- Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone – Richard Lloyd Parry
- All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror – Stephen Kinzer
- Hangsaman – Shirley Jackson
- The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
