Be the Cowboy by Mitski

Be the Cowboy, Mitski's fifth album, arrived on Dead Oceans on August 17, 2018, the follow-up to Puberty 2 and another collaboration with her longtime producer Patrick Hyland. Where she had built her name on guitar, here she opens the toolbox wide: the piano from her first two records comes back, joined by synthesizers and horns, and the songs flit between styles like someone trying on costumes in a hurry.

The effect is precise and a little uncanny, big feelings delivered in tight, controlled little bursts. "Geyser", "Nobody" and "Two Slow Dancers" went out ahead of it, and "Nobody" in particular has kept its grip on the countdowns for years. Critics fell hard and piled it onto their best-of-2018 lists, and it became the first Mitski album to reach the Billboard 200, with chart runs in Canada, Ireland and the UK as well. Laurel Hell followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.