Live Review: Mitski teases forthcoming record with new single, 'Heat Lightning'

US singer-songwriter Mitski has today released her new single, 'Heat Lightning', taken from her forthcoming record, 'Laurel Hell', set for release on the 4th of February next year. The single closely follows a pair of singles from Mitski, October's 'Working For The Night' and most recently, 'The Only Heartbreaker'. The new single today, comes along an animated music video by Alex Mo.

'Heat Lightning' is an ethereal take on indie pop music, crossing a range of sonic and genre boundaries. For Laurel Hell, Mitski “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.”

The single channels this middle ground of space. It's hypnotic and melodic elements act as an ode to insomnia, before blossoming into a sensual R&B ballad across its second half.

'Laurel Hell' is produced by longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, and acts as the longest time that Mitski has worked on a singular body of work. The album evolved naturally as the world around them drastically changed. The concluding ideology of the record for Mitski was “to be more uptempo and dance-y. I needed to create something that was also a pep talk.”

This ethos is championed by the singles so far, as they highlight a tension between her intricate lyrical abilities a distinct 1980s aesthetic all wrapped in contagious dance worthy beats.

Image via Ebru Yildiz

Words by Parry Tritsiniotis

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