Mitski: What’s Happening in the Tansy House?
Mitski is firmly establishing herself as the queen of surprise drops. Her last two albums, The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We and Laurel Hell, shocked both her own fanbase and indie music at large when they were announced. Prior to both albums, it was assumed that Mitski would retire from publicly making music. In the case of Laurel Hell, this was due to a hiatus she mentioned at the tail end of her tour of Be the Cowboy, whereas for The Land, her previous contract with Dead Oceans had expired. While it certainly seemed like Mitski was open to releasing and performing new music at the end of her tour for The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, many thought she would at least take a break as her last two albums had been released a year apart from each other. It seems that Mitski does not slow down. If anything, the album cycle for her upcoming EP, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, may be one of her most interesting album promotions to date.
Promo image of Mitski for Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. Image by Lexie Alley.
The first true teaser fans received that another album may be in the works was at the end of Mitski’s concert film, Mitski: The Land. In an at most twenty second long clip, Mitski is asked if she’s about to release a new album by a voice off-screen. “Album? What album?” Mitski asks. “The one’s that’s coming out in the winter… Right?” The voice replies. “Am I forgetting something?” Mitski responds. This coy exchange excited viewers and signalled that something was definitely coming soon, as Mitski: The Land was released in October 2025.
More questions arose in early January, when Mitski posted a cryptic teaser of her in a strange plaid jacket and hat, humming a song in a kitchen that definitely wasn’t hers. This was eventually followed up by a second video of her walking into the same house, following on the floor, and whispering to the camera “Nothing’s about to happen to me.” On January 15, it was revealed that these cryptic words would be the title of her upcoming album. The next day, fans would learn that the tune Mitski was humming in the first teaser was the album’s first single, “Where’s My Phone?”.
An album name wasn’t all that fans received on January 15. Another clip, albeit less cryptic, was posted to her Instagram, of a hand punching in numbers into a calculator. This revealed the album’s release date of February 27, 2026. Merch for Nothing’s About to Happen to Me was also quickly uploaded to Mitski’s retail store. Fun items include a Catnip Grinder (nudge nudge, wink wink), a deck of Found Objects Playing Cards, the Abyss Tea Towel which seems to hint at lyrics on the album, and a lilac Raining Cats Umbrella. That last item is particularly noteworthy, as it captures two of the main features of the aesthetic for Nothing’s About to Happen to Me: lilac and cats.
Like with her bright scarlet and stark orange promotions for Laurel Hell and The Land respectively, the core color for Nothing’s About to Happen to Me is clearly purple. Her entire website is swathed with it, not just in pieces of her merch like the aforementioned umbrella or in vinyl variants, but in the background of the website itself. There is no obvious direct tie between the color and any of the tracks on Nothing’s About to Happen to Me as of writing. However, the cats depicted on the front of the album seem to have a notable importance in the lore of the album.
Based on the tracklist of the album, there will be at least two songs about cats on Nothing’s About to Happen to Me: “Cats” and “That White Cat.” The latter track may reference the heterochromania cat lazily lounging on the front of the album. An orange cat is shown pouncing on the unbothered feline, clearly a reference to the album’s title. A shirt released for this album on Mitski’s website is titled “Victorian Cat Tee,” which clearly harkens to the art style of the album. However, other parts of the Nothing’s About to Happen to Me harken to a Victorian, and even turn of the century, era.
Turn of the century actually feels like a more apt description of many of the aesthetics present in Nothing’s About to Happen to Me so far. The rapid rate at which the camera moves in the music video for “Where’s My Phone?” is reminiscent of early filmmaking, in which actors would sometimes appear to be moving at two-times speed. Many of the appliances featured in the mysterious Tansy House, central to this upcoming album, seem to be turn of the century rather than Victorian. Perhaps Tansy House was built in the Victorian era, as looking up the mysterious building lists an address in England. Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that the aesthetics of Nothing’s About to Happen to Me are distinct.
Tansy House is the center of Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. In fact, prior to its announcement, many fans thought that Tansy House was the name of Mitski’s upcoming album. The home has been mentioned several ways, such as being the code to access Mitski’s new merch at launch. This has led some to speculate that Nothing’s About to Happen to Me may be a full concept album rather than an album with some highly heightened aesthetics. While Mitski’s latest releases have certainly had distinct identities, giving any of them the title “concept album” feels wrong. None of them have been long storied works, like Green Day’s American Idiot, though each album has of course had a central focus on different lyrical themes. Ultimately, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me seems to be a step in a new direction for Mitski, though she seems to be returning to some of her old sonic palette. We discussed this in a review of “Where’s My Phone?” which you can read here.
A new untitled single, as of writing, and music video from Nothing’s About to Happen to Me will debut on February 3. You can listen to Mitski’s next album everywhere starting February 27.
