Love Is Yours: Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” Meaning
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Celeste MacMurray. Find her on Instagram at @clsmsanchezx. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The end of the summer was abuzz with one thing: Mitski’s upcoming album release. Only a year after the release of her most recent album, Laurel Hell, Mitski announced in a newsletter that a new album was coming. Not too long after this newsletter was sent out, her first single “Bug Like an Angel” was released on July 26th.
The guitar-centered ballad of “Bug Like an Angel” has an enigmatic, quiet nature, but when the choir joins in the chorus you’re hit with its secret power. From this single alone fans could tell The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We would be so distinctly different from Laurel Hell. These suspicions were confirmed once she released the two follow-up singles, “Star” and “Heaven,” on August 23rd.
“Star” is a somber and all-encompassing track that builds and builds with intensity as it continues, while “Heaven” is delicate and gentle with your heart. Both songs explore similar themes of love and the cosmos like “My Love Mine All Mine” while their sounds each paint their own unique pictures.
“My Love Mine All Mine” wasn’t a single released alongside the previous three, but it still managed to draw the most attention. This song and others were released on YouTube on September 14th, and the next day the album was released alongside with the music video for the aforementioned track. Every second of “My Love Mine All Mine” is a smooth lullaby that flows like honey into the soul. The track also balances a folksy and indie mix with heavy country influences that really make its atmosphere what it is. Shortly after the album’s release, the song began to trend on TikTok as many people were enamored by the tenderness the song captured. At first people were mainly sharing their thoughts on the song’s idea of love, but over time people began to post about their partners and the beautiful moments they’ve experienced in their relationships. Due to all the buzz surrounding the song, it even debuted at seventy-six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—the artist’s first song to do so. The album itself also debuted at twelve on the Billboard 200.
Art, of course, is always open to interpretation. You are free to attach your own meaning to every lyric you hear, conjure up your own images and let the music carry you away. You can make your own meaning for “My Love Mine All Mine,” but Mitski also posted a behind the song video explaining what the purpose behind the song was and what message she was trying to convey. She also released similar videos like this for several other songs from this album.
In the video, she expresses the song is meant to celebrate love and the beauty of it. She explained that while contemplating what things we truly own in this world, she realized that every material thing we own is temporary and will eventually be lost in some way. She then wondered if there was anything we actually owned that couldn’t be taken away from us or tarnished. The answer she came up with was love; it’s something we have deep inside us that we can keep for as long as we want. The song also shares her desire to leave behind the beautiful love she’s curated in her life so that even after death it can live on without having to end with her. The imagery she creates of the moon holding her love after death so it can shine by its side is just so beautiful and unforgettable.
The most stunning quote she shares in this video is when she says, “To love is the best thing I ever did in my life. Better than any song I’ve ever written. Better than any achievement by far. To love is truly the best and most beautiful thing I ever did.”
The artist also later went on Genius to explain the lyrics of her song as well. She reiterates similar points as she did within her behind the song video, but she does expand on them further than she was able to in the previous video. That being said, if you’d like a detailed, lyric-by-lyric breakdown, this video would be the one for you.
What makes the lyrics in “My Love Mine All Mine” so beautiful is their ambiguity. The song poses itself as a love song, which it very much is, but there are multiple layers to be deciphered within it. Is the “love” she’s referring to her lover or love itself? Do you think she’s rejoicing in the love she has for another person or the love she harbors within herself?
What do you think the Mitski My Love Mine All Mine meaning is? How do you interpret it? Let us know!