Mitski returns after two years with “Working for the Knife”

In September 2019, Mitski performed one last show in Central Park (with Lucy Dacus opening, no less) before going on an extended hiatus and going completely black on social media. Two years, 26 days and a global pandemic later, she’s back with “Working For the Knife,” a track that arrives with the kind of energy that sends you back to your scarlet theater seat and nerves you eat pop. -corn, lick the salt the same way Mitski licks the stairs at 2:08 in the video.

Let’s put the music aside for a moment and focus on this video, a strangely gripping short film starring a reluctant performer returning to the limelight. Mitski waltzes through the eerily empty hallways of the Egg, an iconic brutalist venue in Albany, clad in a cowboy hat and royal blue silk, engaging in his slow dance choreography before returning to the stage. “I used to think I would tell stories,” she admits. “But nobody cared about the stories / I had it about / No good guys.”

Which brings us to the song itself. “Working for the Knife” revolves around synths and dense guitar with the kind of subtly menacing rhythm that has always made it so alluring sonically. She came back sharper and wiser than ever, grappling with the age and responsibility that came with her career as one of indie rock’s greatest artists: Although maybe at 30 I’ll see a way to change / That I live for the knife.

The knife metaphor is not new; the single is practically a sequel to Be the cowboy‘s “Blue Light”, where she sang “Out there I’m a sharp knife / Are you that blue light?” But Mitski doesn’t ask for anything more – she knows if anyone is that blue light, it’s her.

“It’s about going from a kid with a dream to an adult with a job, and feeling that somewhere along the way you’ve been left behind,” Mitski said of the track. “It’s being faced with a world that doesn’t seem to recognize your humanity, and sees no way out.”

“Working for the Knife” is Mitski’s first new music after Be the cowboy. She’ll be back on the road early next year, working for The Knife and – hopefully – touring behind a new album.