Bury Me at Makeout Creek

Rolling Stone - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki's breakthrough LP bubbles with poignant black humor." CMJ - "Its atmosphere is delicate, but stoic; its lyrics are strong, but filled with desire; its imagery is both romantic and macabre." Pitchfork (Website) - "[I]nventive and resourceful in a '90s-indie way. The choruses here soar like power pop, but are subdued by tempo and fidelity, while cheap drum machines are deployed as much for their tone as their rhythm."

The singer and songwriters critical breakthrough and lone album for Double Double Whammy, Bury Me at Makeout Creek was Mitskis first record to be written for guitar after a pair of piano-based collections that she wrote for school projects. Grungy, impulsive, and with memorably acerbic, vulnerable lyrics, Bury Me at Makeout Creek (named for a line delivered by Milhouse on The Simpsons) was the product of a particularly exhausting period that had Mitski presenting those projects and trying to complete her degree while working outside jobs. Her predicament is explicitly mentioned on tracks including "Jobless Monday," in which she doubts the affection of her partner at the same time that she "Cant afford to buy my food/Or the drive I need to go further than they said Id go," and the marching class protest "Drunk Walk Home" ("F*ck you and your money"), a song that ends in repeated screams. First, however, she offers a transition from her previous work on the two-minute, poetry-quoting "Texas Reznikoff," which takes the form of a wispy acoustic guitar song to open the album before exploding into plugged-in cynicism halfway through -- with no looking back until the acoustic closer ("Last Words of a Shooting Star"). In the interim, she delivers swooping melodies and buzzing guitar on "I Dont Smoke" ("So if you need to be mean/Be mean to me/I can take it and put it inside of me"), adopts a mocking, 60s girl group approximation on "First Love/Late Spring" ("So please hurry, leave me, I cant breathe"), and on a highlight among passionate, frustrated highlights, draws on classic, tuneful alt-rock on the rebellious "Townie" while dropping graphic metaphors like, "I want a love that falls as fast as a body from the balcony/And I want to kiss like my heart is hitting the ground." An auspicious if fatalistic label debut, Bury Me was produced by Patrick Hyland, who returned for Mitskis later commercial successes, including her Billboard 200 Top Five debut, Laurel Hell. ~ Marcy Donelson