Mitski’s forthcoming album Be The Cowboy is out Aug. 17, and she has just released its second single, “Nobody,” with a surreal accompanying video.
The video, directed by Christopher Good, seems to have spurted out of a nightmare alongside the song. The lyrics, “Still nobody wants me, and I know no one will save me,” convey heartache and a fear of being alone forever, which can appear in a nightmare sequence, but the song takes it and spins it into a danceable track. Still, the video infuses the song with the mysterious and eerie—Mitski is alone in the video joined by cardboard cutouts, arms attached to the walls that will hold her hand, and a threatening figure that possesses her face on a screen (and then erases it). The facelessness and namelessness that permeate the video are captured in the word “nobody” that repeats throughout the song.
“I’ve never been able to take this much time to shoot a video,” Mitski said in a statement, “so it was wonderful to have the space to get the details right, as well as actually hang out and have fun with everyone involved.”
For this new record, “the image of someone alone on a stage, singing solo with a single spotlight trained on them in an otherwise dark room,” consistently influenced its production. This choice appears in “Nobody” through the music swelling over the main vocals, not editing out vocal errors and, in the video, the almost garishly colored isolation.
You can preorder Be the Cowboy here and read about Mitski’s last record Puberty 2, which was on our list of the 50 best albums of 2016, here.
Mitski is on tour this summer and fall—you can find the details of that run here. See her full tour slate, with just-added August shows, and watch the video for “Nobody” below. While you’re at it, you can also listen to Mitski’s 2015 Daytrotter Session.
Mitski Tour Dates:
June
30 – Woodstock, N.Y. @ Colony % – solo
August
12 – Providence, R.I. @ Columbus Theatre ^
13 – Portsmouth, N.H. @ 3S Artspace ^
14 – Portland, Maine @ Space Gallery ^
15 – Burlington, Vt. @ Higher Ground Showcase Lounge ^
16 – Holyoke, Mass. @ Gateway City Arts ^
September
19 – Manchester, U.K. @ Manchester Gorilla *
20 – Glasgow, U.K. @ Saint Luke’s *
22 – Dublin, Ireland @ Tivoli Theatre *
24 – Leeds, U.K. @ Brudnell Social Club *
25 – Bristol, U.K. @ Trinity Arts Centre *
26 – London, U.K. @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire *
28 – Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie *
29 – Antwerp, Belgium @ TRIX *
October
01 – Cologne, Germany @ Gebäude 9 *
02 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Noord (Tolhuistuin) *
04 – Berlin, Germany @ Musik & Frieden *
05 – Vesterbro, Denmark @ Vega *
06 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich *
19 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer &
20 – Boston, Mass. @ House of Blues &
21 – Montreal, Quebec @ L’Astral &
22 – Toronto, Ontario @ Opera House &
23 – Detroit, Mich. @ Magic Stick &
25 – Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre &
26 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue &
30 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Imperial &
31 – Seattle, Wash. @ The Showbox &
November
01 – Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom &
03 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Warfield Theatre &
07 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ The Wiltern &
08 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Crescent Ballroom &
10 – Austin, Texas @ Emo’s Austin &
11 – Dallas, Texas @ Trees &
13 – Nashville, Tenn. @ The Basement East &
14 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Masquerade: Hell Stage &
16 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club &
30 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Steel
December
01 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Brooklyn Steel
(^ = w/ Sidney Gish)
(% = w/ Caroline Rose)
(* = w/ EERA)
(& = w/ Jessica Lea Mayfield)