“Honestly, the first one would be, ‘oh dear.’” Having turned 26 last year, Mitski Miyawaki is choosing appropriate terms to describe the experience of her mid-twenties. The theme of millennial anxiety is central to many of the Philadelphia-based artist’s songs, and her rapidly-expanding fanbase respects her for exploring that clumsy stumble into adulthood with sharp wit. “And then the second one would be… ‘settling’,” Mitski says over the phone. “Because between the really messy parts of your early twenties, you are settling down. You suck a bottle of water with dirt in it, and the dirt is settling to the bottom.” The heady narrative of surviving the ‘dark side of your twenties’ has inspired plenty of great indie rock albums, but few other contenders in recent years have propelled these quarter-life crises anywhere close to the heights reached on Mitski’s fourth full length Puberty 2. Released mid-summer last year, the album tells tales of love, loss, hurt and heartbreak, guiding us through life’s hidden vulnerabilities with self- deprecating humour, anthemic choruses and magnificent low-tempo ballads.

© Teddy Fitzhugh / Plinth

While not all of Puberty 2’s ideas felt particularly new, Mitski galvanised traditional indie rock tropes with enough personality and relatable vulnerability to charm even those who doubt the genre’s continued relevance, and the LP was rated highly among many credible publications’ end-of-year round-ups. Detailing the day-to-day power struggles with your internal voice that accompanies the strive for happiness, across Puberty 2 Mitski laments the complications of casual relationships, drags her unwilling body to a party, and clears up after a lover who legs it while she’s in the bathroom. The album’s most jarring moment comes in the form of My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars – a blast of pure anxiety. “I wanna see the whole world,” she sings one moment, full of wanderlust-fuelled agitation. But then, all of sudden, she can’t help but be worried about her finances: “I don’t know how I’m gonna pay rent,” she panics.





© Teddy Fitzhugh

© Teddy Fitzhugh

© Teddy Fitzhugh