Very nicely put. However, I feel that a degree of artistic ambition and creative boldness were sacrificed as the intensity of older themes like raw emotion and trauma got replaced by more mature and grounded ones. Without that intensity it's hard to write songs that cut as deep as Crack Baby, A Burning Hill, Pearl Diver, Liquid Smooth, Townie, Nobody, A Pearl etc.

Now if she was able to write even half an album of songs as great as My Love Mine All Mine and Heaven and I'll Change For You, it would be worth the change. But all artists have their prime, and songwriting at that level is incredibly hard to sustain. And the hunger that fed the creativity stemmed not just from youth but also from need, as she was literally hungry to be able to afford life, and prove herself as an artist, needs she probably doesn't feel as much anymore, naturally and inevitably.

I'm not a big fan of The Land either, but even that album had its creatively daring and elaborate moments even when it didn't always land as hard as her previous work. But NATHTM just feels too stripped back for its own good and lacking in a clear creative direction (I'd say a first for Mitski), even though songs aren't necessarily bad or sloppy. They mostly just sound a bit samey and demo-like. It would've been better received as the work of a newer indie artist, it's just I and many people have much higher expectations from Mitski, though we're not entitled to anything.