Both the song and video speak to a feeling of paranoia, and, per its title, can be thought of in terms of the diminishing effects of phone usage. “I just want my mind to be a clear glass/Clear glass with nothing in my head,” she sings on the song’s quickened verse.
The song and forthcoming album were made using the same process as 2023’s The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We — both recorded using a live band and chamber ensemble arrangements.
Though the new single has a similar sense of loud granduer as The Land, its sonics are comparatively bare-bones. Most of The Land sounds like it slowly descended from a cloudy stratosphere while “Where’s My Phone?” feels like it emerged from the rocky soil, brash and unvarnished.
The new single is likely to compel listeners to think of earlier-era Mitski. There are strong reminders of 2014’s Bury Me At Makeout Creek or her breakout album, 2016’s Puberty 2.
Like both projects, “Where’s My Phone?” finds the often compositionally shifty singer and songwriter foregoing roundabout musical journeys for a clean straight shot. This song is condensed and thunders ahead at full speed the entire time.
