Mitski

Renowned for an utterly miserable song called "Happy," the New York artist Mitski specialized in compellingly downcast indie pop. Describing herself as "half Japanese, half American, but not fully either," Mitski Miyawaki was biracial; she was born in Japan and lived with her Army parents in numerous countries before settling in Turkey at age 18. She then came to New York and studied film at Hunter College, then music at SUNY Purchase. She made her first album Lush while still at SUNY. True to its title it was the most lushly produced album in her catalogue, as she accompanied herself with layers of keyboards and overdubs of her own voice. By her third album Bury Me at Makeout Creek she'd moved toward a rockier, guitar-based sound, yet the haunting melancholy remained. That album's title was a dark joke; it's a line said by a dying character in an episode of "The Simpsons" (Fox 1990- ). The album got her first mainstream attention, including what may be the first Rolling Stone review to reference both Liz Phair and Black Sabbath. Her 2015 show at Austin's South by Southwest conference drew further acclaim, as she took the stage in a basement club during a rainstorm, sporting a hot-pink guitar, and won over a punk crowd with an emotionally intense set; Spin magazine proclaimed it one of the conference's best. She then signed to the indie label Dead Oceans which released her fourth album, Puberty 2, in June 2016. Playing all the instruments with co-producer Patrick Hyland, she mixed introspective ballads with punkish outbursts, and even a relatively upbeat pop flavor on "Dan the Dancer." While many of the songs concern lost love (or love that was never found in the first place), the first single "Your Best American Girl" drew from her nomadic childhood, and "Crack Baby" was full of surreal, ominous imagery. With her indie acclaim at a peak, Mitski began a U.S. tour behind the album in November 2016.