Although she’s been on the indie scene for several years now, singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki’s profile really began to rise with the release of her 2014 album Bury Me At Makeout Creek, praised by critics—including The A.V. Club, where this writer recommended it for fans of “Mirah, Angel Olsen, tape fuzz, [and] smoking cigarettes in the rain”—as one of the standouts of the year. And if you haven’t gotten on the bandwagon yet, now’s the perfect time, as her label announced today that a new Mitski album, charmingly titled Puberty 2, is on its way.
Described as “similar in sound, but a direct growth from” Bury Me At Makeout Creek, the album promises to bring a powerful new confidence to Mitski’s forlorn-yet-expansive sound. This is evident in the lead single, “Your Best American Girl,” where Mitski tackles the complicated intersection of love and ethnic identity over a sweet synth line and dynamic layers of gentle acoustic and screeching electric guitars. “I wanted to use those white-American-guy stereotypes as a Japanese girl who can’t fit in, who can never be an American girl,” Mitski says in a press release.
Puberty 2 is due on June 17. You can hear “Your Best American Girl” and see Mitski’s European and North American tour dates, which begin at SXSW and end with a pair of Canadian dates this July, below.
Mitski tour 2016
March 12—Galax Z Fair V at Yerberia—McAllen, TX
March 16—Hype Hotel—Austin, TX (3pm)
March 17—Barracuda—Austin, TX (10pm)
March 18—PEN—Austin, TX (6:30pm, solo show)
March 18—Hole in the Wall—Austin, TX (9:30 PM)