Today Mitski released a new 10th-anniversary edition of her landmark album Puberty 2, complete with new merch, videos, and a pair of unexpected covers: “Fireproof” by One Direction and “I’m a Fool to Want You” by Frank Sinatra. The new merch includes two different “I Bet on Losing Dogs” tees, as well as a limited-edition vinyl.
Despite the eclectic source material, both new covers fit seamlessly with the original album. Mitski fits 1D’s “Fireproof” with her signature distortion, blowing out the original’s soft guitar to form a fuller, heavier track. Meanwhile, Sinatra’s “I’m a Fool to Want You” becomes cosmically tense, Mitski numbly repeating “I’m a fool to want you” amidst suspended chords that slowly unravel.
Puberty 2 arrived in 2016 as a gut-wrenching self-portrait of raw angst, confusion, and adolescence. “I Bet on Losing Dogs” is pitifully honest, “Your best American Girl” is painfully longing, and then there are the viscerally pressurized tracks like “My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars,” for when the only thing that makes sense is strumming a D-major power-chord as hard as you fucking can.
The new material strikes a "balance in unevenness," as Mitski told The FADER in her 2016 Gen F interview. You can see that balance in the new covers, as well as her January single "Where's My Phone?" from her February album Nothing's About to Happen to Me, which The FADER's associate editor Tobias Hess characterized as a more straight-forward rock song in the vein of Puberty 2; read his full track review here.
Mitski in 2016 for her GEN F photoshoot with The FADER following the original release of Puberty 2.
Cait Opperman / The FADER
