Girl Crush: Mitski

BY: PROVOKR Staff

The half-Japanese, half-American singer has a knack for writing searing lyrics. “I want a love that falls as fast as a body from the balcony,” she sang on “Townie,” a track off her 2014 album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek. Inspired by artists like Björk and M.I.A., Mitski also has a knack for drama. During a performance at New York’s Knitting Factory, she ended her set with a seething song titled “Drunk Walk Home,” spewing lyrics like “You know I wore this dress for you / These killer heels for you,” and then blew the audience away by crescendoing to a plaintive wail that lasted for almost 30 seconds. On her newest album—Puberty 2, due out June 17—the poetic singer continues to give a voice to the disaffected. In the song “Happy,” Mitski explores the connection between joy and misery. “When you realize you can’t have one without the other, it’s possible to spend periods of happiness just waiting for that other wave,” she said. It’s Mitski’s ability to mix beautiful vocals with an intelligent, heart-wrenching worldview that makes her a perfect PROVOKR girl crush.