r/mitski

Like not trying to be mean but Mitski is egregiously sloppy at guitar, but honestly she pulls it off and it adds a lot of charm to her songs that even the studio versions don’t fully convey (patrick plays the guitar in a way that sounds bad on purpose and it sounds annoying, no offence to him (more noticeable in the live versions though). Especially with really thrash-heavy songs like My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Star, Townie, I Don’t Smoke; and my favourite, Cop Car. It just sounds so desperate like she’s trying to get her point across while ultimately failing but still trying over and over again. This is very prevalent in the solo versions of First Love/Late Spring, I Want You and I Will. Not only does the shakiness in her voice present anxiety but the brashness and uncoordinated playing of the guitar gives such a great introspection into already amazingly written songs. What were once somewhat calm, quiet tunes now sound arrantly wobbly; and that’s so satisfying to me.

I had to share this because Washing Machine Heart has somehow become this weird meeting point of so many songs and memories for me.

I watched the Studio Ghibli movie The Tale of the Princess Kaguya almost a decade ago, and I became completely obsessed with this piece of music, Warabe Uta:

There’s this haunting rhythm that I associate so deeply with grown-up Kaguya and that aching pull of the Moon. There is so much longing and sadness, and something about the music just stayed with me.

From around 0:30 from this track which is from the movie, it moves into that part I associate so strongly with adult Kaguya’s longing. That particular feeling. The pull, the sadness, the sense of being drawn somewhere whether you want it or not has stayed with me for years.

Then I started listening to Washing Machine Heart.

It felt SO familiar, but I could not figure out why.

Like any Mitski-obsessed fan, I obviously listened to it about a gazillion times, and somewhere along the way I caught myself unconsciously humming Warabe Uta over Washing Machine Heart.

That was when it clicked.

WHAT EVEN.

A piece of music I had been obsessed with almost a decade ago was apparently still sitting somewhere in my brain.

They obviously aren’t the same song, but something about the rhythm, the repetition and the way the melody keeps circling back gives me such a similar feeling. There is this haunting quality in both of them that hits me in exactly the same place. Once my brain connected the two, I genuinely couldn’t unhear it.

And then there is the beat.

The opening beat of Washing Machine Heart takes my brain straight to Time Is Running Out by Muse:

Muse-obsessed will probably get what I mean. That pulsing rhythm is just THERE.

So now Washing Machine Heart somehow carries all these completely different things in my head. Warabe Uta, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, music I loved almost ten years ago, and my all time Muse obsession.

And all of this has somehow made Washing Machine Heart so much more beautiful and meaningful to me personally.

Maybe most songs are like that.

They remind us of something. Another song. A movie we watched years ago. A person. A place. A particular time in our lives.

Sometimes we don’t even consciously remember what they are reminding us of until something suddenly clicks.

And maybe that is part of why music feels so personal. We are never only listening to the song that is playing now. We are also hearing little pieces of everything we have heard, loved and felt before it.

Sometimes a new song feels strangely like coming back to somewhere you have already been. <3

Just wanted to share my first (of soon many) mitski tattoo!

Edit: This seemed to upset some people, and I understand it’s a silly title to get,
but the song means a lot to me as an actual crack baby (very literally- no joke. both my parents were constantly under the influence while I was in the womb)

But also the metaphor of constantly longing for something and feeling like you can’t figure out it how to fill this emptiness, is very real to me.

I love the tattoo, it means a lot to me and it is a little ridiculous but so am I lol :) thank you !

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