Acclaimed Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski is back with a new single. “Where Is My Phone” was released on January 16th, as an announcement for the singer’s eighth studio album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. According to press releases, this upcoming concept album, due to be released in February, will detail a “reclusive woman in an unkempt house”. This eerie vision is evident in “Where’s My Phone”’s music video, inspired by Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’. Directed by Noah Paul, the MV depicts a paranoid, reclusive woman trying to protect her sister against the horrors of the outside world, keeping them safe in a sinister Victorian-era home.
In “Where’s My Phone”, Mitski laments losing her mobile phone, a familiar stress with which I’m sure we all sympathise. In today’s modern age, these lyrics (“Where is my phone? / Where did it go?”) become an apt metaphor for the singer losing control over her sense of self. The song is anxious and claustrophobic, the grittier sound more reminiscent of Mitski’s third studio album, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, much to many fans’ delight. The instrumentation battles with Mitski’s vocals, clashing forebodingly until her voice is eventually drowned out by the distorted guitars and a chorus of incoherent, wordless voices. The fuzzy guitars and rockier sound are a change of pace from Mitski’s previous ventures into country and folk in the softer The Land is Inhospitable, And So Are We, which featured her first major breakthrough single – My Love Mine All Mine.
The instrumentation battles with Mitski’s vocals, clashing forebodingly until her voice is eventually drowned out by the distorted guitars and a chorus of incoherent, wordless voices.
Despite its harsher sound, Where Is My Phone is not all doom and gloom. The song is playful and witty, featuring an intentional censoring (“If night is like you punched a hole into tomorrow / I would F*** the hole all night long”), and Mitski’s iconic, wry deliveries. I don’t believe the track to be as lyrically moving as some of her other works, but Mitski’s announcement songs usually aren’t – they tend to gravitate towards vaguer, more metaphorical concepts, setting the stage for her other releases. With its eerie, raw sound, I’m excited to see what the rest of the album has in store.
