| "Working for the Knife" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Mitski | ||||
| from the album Laurel Hell | ||||
| Released | October 5, 2021 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:38 | |||
| Label | Dead Oceans | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Mitski Miyawaki | |||
| Producer(s) | Patrick Hyland | |||
| Mitski singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Working for the Knife" on YouTube | ||||
"Working for the Knife" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mitski. It was released on October 5, 2021, through Dead Oceans, making it her first major release since her hiatus following the release of her 2018 studio album Be the Cowboy, and her subsequent tour in 2019.[1] Written by Mitski and produced by her longtime collaborator Patrick Hyland, it is a dark, midtempo rock, and electro-industrial song led by synths and percussion. Lyrically, it revolves around "the knife", a metaphor for the expectations placed on Mitski to continue laboring over her music.[2]
Upon release, "Working for the Knife" received critical acclaim and peaked at number 27 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. The song's Zia Anger-directed music video shows Mitski dancing around in The Egg, a performing venue in Albany, New York, before eventually going on stage, where she dances and writhes around in silence to an empty crowd.
- ^ ""Working For the Knife" by Mitski". Pitchfork. October 5, 2021.
- ^ Lorusso, Marissa (October 5, 2021). "Mitski, 'Working for the Knife'". NPR. Retrieved October 5, 2021.