When the line between music video and short film starts to blur, a musician has reached a new level of artistry And with her recently released video, Mitski surpassed this achievement.
Known for her heart-wrenching lyrics and hard-hitting melodies, Mitski is one musician who can truly be called an “artist.” Her song “My Love Mine All Mine” alone is one display of this categorization, but what is remarkable is that she develops a symbolic masterpiece of the song in its music video.
In “My Love Mine All Mine” from her recent album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, Mitski sings about her journey toward reclaiming the idea of love for herself. Mitski sings about how love is the only thing that belongs to her.
“Nothing in the world belongs to me / But my love, mine, all mine, all mine,” she sings.
As a result of this new acceptance, Mitski then wishes that her heart—her love—be sent up to the moon when she is inevitably gone.
“My baby here on earth / Showed me what my heart was worth / So, when it comes to be my turn / Could you shine it down here for her?” she sings.
Listeners might think it would be difficult to depict such gut-wrenching, stand-alone lyrics, but what her music video does is not just reflect what the song means but add to its significance tenfold. The video shows Mitski placing chairs on top of one another to form a rickety, unstable stack as she sings about claiming love for herself. Her actions symbolize her precarious journey toward self acceptance and finding love for others.
While some may be turned away by the deep thinking its pure symbolic nature induces, this introspection is where the video’s beauty lies. Each image shown is its own “wow moment.” The video’s 2,000 comments each provide their own interpretation or expression of admiration for Mitski’s artistry. While many musicians can paint a picture with their lyrics, it takes a special talent—like Mitski—to create an accompanying video that is a work of art in and of itself.
The video for “My Love Mine All Mine” is so simple, yet so impactful—it almost cannot be called something as simple as a music video. A short film? A work of art? A magnum opus? Mitski sets a whole new standard for music videos going forward.
