Mitski's carefully composed songs were often portrayed as the emotionally harsh, overflowing confessions of a feverish girl, but in her fifth album "Be The Cowboy" Mitski introduces a persona who was previously hinted at but has never been so present - a woman with complete control. For this new record, I experimented in narrative and fiction," says Mitski. Although she hesitates to go so far as to say that she has created full-fledged characters. She betrays: ,a very controlled icy repressed woman who is starting to unravel. Because women have so little power and showing emotion is seen as weakness, this `character' clings to any amount of control she can get. Still, there is something very primordial in her that is trying to find a way to get out." In "Be The Cowboy" Mitski explores the loneliness of being a symbol and the loneliness of being someone who feels like nobody. The lead single "Geyser" introduces us to a woman who can't hold on to everything. She is in the process of triggering a flood of desire and passion that has accumulated within her. On the album recorded with their long-time producer Patrick Hyland there is a lot of lively bravado, but just as much listening into the mythology of the own self. In these 14 songs the music varies from cheerful to lamenting. Sad piano ballads turn into deceptive up-tempo songs. I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski."
