Mitski has always appealed to me as an artist. Her songwriting, singing, and music videos are all uniquely intimate, a view into her headspace performed in a blunt yet poetic manner. She expresses the struggles of almost every artist, both in “Working for the Knife,” which focuses on the pressure she feels to create, and her newest single, “Love Me More,” which expresses the irrational yet desperate feelings that being an artist in a capitalistic society builds. 

While “Love Me More” could be about a romantic relationship, it is more likely that it focuses on her relationship with both the music industry and her fans. In the song, the lyrics “But when I’m done singing this song / I will have to find something else / To do to keep me here” are particularly evocative. Often, when you are an artist in a society that demands you to be constantly marketable, it feels as if your art is the only reason you have to exist. 

As Mitski stated in a recent profile, “You can’t be a human being. You have to be a product that’s being bought and sold and consumed, and you have to perceive yourself that way in order to function.” 

In “Love Me More,” Mitski states how irrational what she wants is:  “There’s the itch / But I’m not supposed to scratch.” As toxic as it is knowing you are making yourself consumable, it’s hard to stop. There is a euphoria to being loved for your art, even at the cost of dehumanizing yourself. 

In the last few lines of the chorus, Mitski sings, “Love enough to drown it out / Drown it out, drown me out.” There are parts to every person that remain ugly to outsiders, pieces that even Mitski can not form into art. Capitalism demands consumption, and it demands that one becomes a product rather than a person. 

Mitski said in the same article, “I am a foreigner to myself now.”

She demands to be loved, demands that her fans drown what seems “ugly” to her and love her as a product. 

The music video for “Love Me More” seems reflective of this message as well. Throughout the video is imagery of herself as a doll, as well as her human self watching those reflections. Later, when she sees her own image as drawings, she copies the actions of those drawings desperately. 

Mitski spoke about her experience in performance, stating, “In my daily life, my head is just crowded with thoughts, my past, the future. But when I’m onstage, it’s just that moment, and I feel so connected to other people and to the world and to myself.”

In the music video, she seems to be expressing that when she is outside of the stage, she searches for that authenticity to sell back, attempting to copy her own performance. 

“Love Me More” precisely expresses the desperation that comes with being an artist. If “Working for the Knife” shows the pieces of herself that she had to cut into consumable pieces and the burnout of being an artist, “Love Me More” shows the path that leads to that burnout. Mitski shows her genius in both songs by making a distinction between the two processes, and the emotions she sings into being always feel intimate and honest in a poignant and refreshing way. 

Just as I stated in my review of “Working for the Knife,” it feels wrong to speak about what is next for Mitski in a world that pressures her into art. Nonetheless, her recent announcements remain exciting. Her next album, Laurel Hell, will be out on February 4th, and the lineup and names of the songs are already released to the public. She is coming here to Pittsburgh, but tickets have been sold out for months. I sincerely hope that the rising COVID-19 cases and new variants don’t stop her performances, especially with the newfound knowledge that Mitski thrives onstage. 

But most of all, I hope that at some point, Mitski will be happy creating, able to divorce herself from the pressures surrounding her.