#365songs (137 / 365)

Mitski has said that she wrote this song to give voice to "the patriarch in [her] head" and so between that and the self-deprecation that I love so much it was almost inevitable that it would be my favorite song on The Land Is Hospitable and So Are We. I'm into the lyrics, of course: "you believe me like a god / I destroy you like I am," hell yes, a cautionary tale about seeing your own power, that you never asked for, and how it can destroy both you and the ones you love if you let it, put it directly in my fucking veins. But musically, also, what starts out as a pretty straightforward minor-key acoustic guitar + low thumpy drums ditty turns into something much more impressionistic by the end, with the help of barking dogs, a choir, insects, and apparently some kind of toad. It's eerie and kind of inscrutable in a way I love: it has an almost redemptive sound to it despite that there's little redemption to be found in the lyric. Fantastic, affecting, mysterious song.