We won’t get a proper Mitski album for a while, since she’s technically still on hiatus, but, thankfully, Mitski has a new project out now. Last year, it was announced that the musician was working on the score for sci-fi Western graphic novel This Is Where We Fall. Yes, it’s a bit unusual for a graphic novel to have a full soundtrack, but fuck it, it’s a great excuse to get new Mitski music. On Friday, the musician shared a This Is Where We Fall track with Rolling Stone, filling the Mitski-less void.
Given how the novel is a Western, Mitski truly becomes the cowboy in this track, titled “The Baddy Man.” It’s a legit country song, showing a new side to her—and it’s absolutely excellent. As for working on such an unusual project, Mitski told Rolling Stone that writing a soundtrack for a comic book “allowed me to work outside of my usual songwriting form and try to approach it like a score, but without any of the cues that come with working alongside a moving image, which ended up being both freeing and challenging. I hope the end result helps to immerse you in the story!”
The graphic novel came out today, March 5, and you can buy a hardcover edition that includes Mitski’s This Is Where We Fall songs on cassette. There will also be a limited deluxe edition of the graphic novel that includes an exclusive vinyl soundtrack—but that’s only limited to 1,000 so you better act fast.