Wild women don't get the blues. There is a thrill to being carefree and giddy, alluring and strong, the kind of woman who faces her obstacles head on, knows how to apply a perfect cat eye, and never lets anyone put her down. But what about women who aren't wild? Or the times that wild women don't feel wild? Where are their songs? Everyone is flawed, scared, irrational, and insecure by virtue of being a human, but women are seen as weak and hysterical when we show these sides of ourselves. I want to be wild and beautiful and confident, sure, but I need to talk about the ways I am lonely, angry, hurt. When indie-rock singer-songwriter Mitski follows up that line about wild women by saying she's been crying like a tall child, she rips off that façade of propriety, nonchalance, and obedience that are so often imposed on women, and shows us her jagged, evolving, tender insides. And yet, at the same time that she is this vulnerable, she reminds us in another song, over thrashing, unapologetic guitar, that her body is made of crushed little stars, those cosmic balls of energy that shine so brightly and so consistently they cannot be ignored. — Vrinda Jagota (Photo via Mitski)