Mitski Miyawaki has a complicated relationship with fame. She withholds intimate details in interviews – one journalist was requested not to reveal the name of her cat – and retreated from social media in 2019. The same year, she announced her retirement onstage. She subsequently reconsidered, although a persistent online rumour suggested the ensuing album, her sixth, was another farewell. Pop-facing, trailed by Working for the Knife, a single that seemed to be about not really wanting to return to music, and packaged in a sleeve that depicted her trapped by lines meant to represent her own songs, Laurel Hell was held to be a contractual obligation that, once fulfilled, spelled the end.
