When we ponder happiness and how we'd like it to fit in to our lives, we often willfully ignore that behind each proverbial sunlit mountain face lies an opposite side drowned in shadow. It's an act of self-preservation. We all know the feeling: the plunge after the summit, the comedown after the dopamine high, the void fleeting bliss leaves in its wake -- but should we acknowledge its inevitability?
Mitski masterfully deals with this question in her latest single "Happy," the second taste of what's to come on June 17 when she releases Puberty 2 via Dead Oceans.
The song rides along the arc of a relationship between Mitski and "Happy," who visits her bearing cookies to enjoy over tea as the two are first joined in a sexual congress so euphoric it's almost haunting. This beginning stage creeps along by the muffled patter of a subtle drum machine beat taking cautious steps forward like the ones we take when something or someone new seems too good to be true. Sure enough, it is, as Mitski is soon left to clean up "all the cookie wrappers and the empty cups of tea" Happy has left her after an abrupt exit.
Perhaps the most satisfying way this track unfolds the complex nuances of happiness, though, is how it builds to an empowered, inspired, saxophone blasting climax despite the emotional drain of its lyrics. Maybe Mitski is almost celebrating these kinds of lows, steering us towards strength to be found in the rebound?
SIMILAR SONGS
