Mitski: Be the Cowboy review – thrillingly dark bait-and-switch pop

(Dead Oceans)Halfway through Mitski’s fifth album, the 27-year-old sighs heavily. It casts a grim pallor over the jaunty show tune that follows, Me and My Husband, an effect akin to dining with a couple who were obviously tearing each other to shreds seconds before you arrived. Despite her insistence that they’re “doing better”, plates could fly at any moment. Be the Cowboy is rich with this thrilling disquiet, accentuating and distorting Mitski’s masked inquiries i