And here’s Sam with not one but two artists along those lines…
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Vikram Joseph: Unrequited queer longing, a luxuriant R&B groove, sumptuous strings, a deliciously overwrought Prince guitar solo and a cameo from Mitski at her most wryly captivating? No Christmas song has made me feel this festive this year.
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Sam Gavin: Mitski’s first co-headlining track is the apparent product of an L.A. session with Allie X, the first part of a plan to elude an untenably bright spotlight while scratching an itch for writing for other artists. (There are several other folks in the credits, including CRJ-whisperer Nate Campany.) “Susie Save Your Love” feels like a real swerve for both artists, an elliptically sexy jam that vibrates with dramatic tension, splitting the difference between pining and predatory and sounding exactly like a bad night in the hills. Susie should probably call a Lyft.
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Will Adams: A cool collab and concept on paper, but I don’t know, am I naïve for thinking that a queered “You Belong With Me” would have an arrangement that’s not this plodding?
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Aaron Bergstrom: Enjoy this song in three easy steps! (Advanced students may proceed directly to Step Three.) Step One: Do not judge it against the standard of, “Okay, so this is the only thing Mitski was willing to break her self-imposed hiatus for in all of 2020?” Step Two: Do not ask questions like “Wait, if this is the story of a love triangle involving two women, and the song is a collaboration between two women, why are they both singing from the point of view of the same character?” Step Three: Once you’ve completed Steps One and Two, listen to it again and judge it on its own merits: sleek, shimmering synth-pop tinged with sadness, a fitting soundtrack for driving around late at night while not telling your best friend you’re in love with her.
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Thomas Inskeep: A surprising record that gets more compelling as it progresses. “Susie Save Your Love” starts out sounding like fairly conventional indie-pop (albeit with charming lyrics about a woman in love with her ostensibly straight best friend), but then its chorus unveils some delightful synth-horns, backing vocals from Mitski low in the mix, and most interestingly, a skronking guitar (which is even louder and longer at the second chorus). And then some sparkling circa-1983 new-wave-turning-into-synthpop keyboards come in and stay through the song’s fade, adding something special.
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Katherine St Asaph: Aims for St. Vincent, I think, but ends up in “Baby Come Back” yacht-rock hell. Also, Susie being this drunk is probably not the time to swoop in for the “save your love and take mine” kill? (This song — particularly that “she’s way too drunk to drive, but oh, she’s such a sight to see, someone needs to set her free” bit — would come across very differently from a man, and not just because it’d be hetero.)
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Alfred Soto: The seamlessness with which Allie and Mitski’s voices blend adds sisterly support to a song about a woman who pines for the usual unworthy. The production details — ugly guitar noise here, horns there — are delightful.
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Nortey Dowuona: Drums kick open the door for Allie to walk in. A synth falls off the stairs as Allie begins to climb, mewling echoes in the other rooms as Mitski opens the door. Allie begins excitedly explaining Popeye’s while the mewling echoes lick up the synths.
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Anna Katrina Lockwood: The melodies of this song are plotted in reverse, starting with a high pitch that gets pulled to a lower-pitch chorus. It’s a neat trick in a song packed with sweet little details: the super muted, distorted wah guitar line following the chorus; the elastic yet steady bassline; the narrative lyrics. Unrequited love is a deep well to draw from, and Allie and Mitski balance recounting the situation and conveying the emotional ambience of the subject matter.
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Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The quenchless, throbbing ache of “Your Type,” mixed with the driving, circuitous conceit of “Backseat,” swimming in a bath of queer cosmic energy.
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Samson Savill de Jong: Cruising down the street with your drunk homie (who you’re very in love with) while they bitch about the idiot guy they like for some reason has never sounded so good.
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Rose Stuart: The bass line is killer, the vocals are just the right amount of airy to sound relaxed and wistful, and when the synths and guitar combine for the outro everything falls into place. When the same refrains repeat over and over, almost refusing to build, you can feel the exhausted frustration that the lyrics try to convey. There’s just enough absence to give it the same liminal vibe as being in a car at night. It’s a good song. The problem is that a collaboration from Allie X and Mitski, two of the current “it girls” of indie pop, off an album as good as Cape God should have been great.
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Austin Nguyen: Opens with LÉON, but shifts to a bassline with some blips of Ashe before arriving at midtempo disco fit for crossing the street or tapping your foot on the outskirts of the dancefloor. Reddit user foxygingerr said it best: It’s “catchy and a lil gay”; no more, no less.
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