Mitski - Stay Soft (Official Video) 

the last scene was by far my favourite, mitski is life

I am 45 years old. My daughter introduced me to this artist last year. Great fan of mitski’s work, very talented. Happy to see her continue her artistry.

Mitski, I apologize for all the nasties that gave you shit over you wanting to fully connect to your audience. You got me through really bad times and I’d be lucky to watch you perform and bathe in the moment together

i think this song is an incredibly fucking complex deconstruction of how objectification and violence can shape a woman's relationship with sex. "stay soft" i think refers to wanting to stay away from it, to stay "innocent". but even THAT doesn't work, because there is always someone who will fetishize you even more for it- along with societal shame to get over it, reframing this mistreatment as just a part of growing up. so instead of going at their own pace and comfort, many women feel pushed to sexualize themselves as a way of reclaimation and "empowerment". so trying to explore make sense of what YOU want, outside of what others tell you to like or put up with, can feel terrifying ("open up your heart, like the gates of hell"). and, like others pointed out, can lead to trauma responses like hypersexuality. this has many more layers to it, with Mitski being a Japanese American woman in a society that both fetishizes and shames her for it. as ppl pointed out with the blonde/blue eyed demons, who watch her from afar before attackinh and forcing her to perform with them maybe i'm wrong lol, but this hits harder than any other media i've seen that covers these same themes.

There is no language to express what Mitski's music makes me feel. It's almost like my brain melts with pleasure and comes out with my tears in a best way possible

thank god mitski invented music

"You stay soft, you get beaten/ it's only natural to harden up" damn mitski. I think it refers to the feeling of being quite young and longing to be vulnerable and sensitive without being in danger, and when you do try to do that end up getting manipulated or abused, both physically and emotionally. As a result you find yourself in this cycle of wanting to be vulnerable but every time you are something else happens and you have to built up yet another wall, or even another circle, like the 9 circles of hell. ("Open up your heart like the gates of hell") And overall this song has so many references to other mitski songs, especially with her cutting her hand and her lyrics in 'Real men' and 'Me and my husband' where she finds herself in abusive situations yet wants to gain the validation of both herself and the abuser:(

I love this song, to me it's like she's saying that you are born soft but people beat you up and take advantage of you so you get harder. Opening your heart is like being vulnerable and it's hell. And at the end when she kills it's like she finally snapped and is tired of being used. I'm crying I love this so much.

"Open up your heart, like the gates of hell." ok Mitski, you didn't have to SLAY THIS HARD.

mitski always gives a performance like it's the due date, she's so real and insane

This song hits hard for me. I'm 16 year-old queer teen and lost my virginity to a guy years older than me, and at first, the thought of sexual intercourse, made me agitated, excited and curious, so I said yes. It wasn't a good experience, rather it was traumatizing for me. I was overstimulated. It felt so painful and uneasy, yer all he said is that it's okay and it's normal. After that, I was like a blank paper, just staring at the wall, with regrets why did I even said yes. But with all that, I need to toughen up and pave the way for everyday, I'm just ashamed that I gave myself to a person who never really cared about me. I felt like I have to stay soft. That I have to act the way the society wants me to be, disregarding the conditions I've experienced. It was so dehumanizing and it felt like it will take me a very long time to regain self-worth again. I hope this will be a lesson for all of us.

the bass in the second chorus has the effect of making the piano sound far more aggressive and louder it's very addicting to listen to

Mitski is a master of showing how painful and hard growing up actually is. "You stay soft, you get beaten / Only natural to harden up" she is talking about how now we are just to scared to open up after heartbreak, so we just try to build new relationships under the image of someone who's detached and distant even though we care a lot and just want someone who cares just as much.

that look toward the camera at the end- caught in a moment of defiance; against what is expected of her, what has been demanded, not just defending herself and refusing to be beaten, but violently lashing out in retaliation. my understanding of her look is her asking the audience "what did you expect?" She shows us she will not make herself small anymore, she will lie down and take it no longer. Fuck i love this video

i love this song so much and i don’t think i’ll ever be tired of it. the lyrics themselves have so many meanings while the music video adds an entirely new context. the lyrics describe what it’s like to be sexualized in society despite pressure to stay innocent, but combined with the music video, we see that it involves the fact that Mitski is Japenese and how that has effected her relationship with sex. it’s very common for asian women to either act very timid and be the victim of the story in movies, which is why she is feeding her plants her blood in the beginning and being the innocent caregiver, but when the blonde/blue eyed “americans” capture her and tear off her clothes, it’s like they got tired of her just being an innocent little victim and wanted her sexually as well, despite her trying to please herself earlier (“i am facedown on my bed…”) and being dragged away as punishment for being independent. eventually she kills the monsters and tries to go back to being innocent (feeding the plants blood again at the end) but she’s too far gone, she’s not a victim anymore. there are so many layers to this mitski is a genius the end. i hope i explained this right lol

u can really see mitskis degree in videography when u watch her music videos. she had originally gone to school to study videography but instead chose to change her major to music. love that she did but i cant get over how amazing her videos are

That part when she's being dragged on the floor is such a great marrying of simple camera movement and creative choreography! Love it!

my interpretation of this song is this: the plant is a reference to audrey 2 in little shop of horrors who is a plant that feeds off humans. mitski gives all her love to this thing that is hurting her as a child. this makes her feel vulnerable. these monsters are white and have the feautures she has said that she always wanted(blue eyes and blonde hair like she mentions in other songs) they take advantage of her by stripping her clothes and sexualizing her. she finally kills them and this feeds her self harm more which leads to her feeding them to her plant. as a assualt survivor this speak strongly to me wanting to sexualize yourself which further feeds your self harm. and the need and release you think will happen if you did kill your assaulter.

My interpretation of this video (I have yet to really read through the lyrics) is that Mitski had let herself be "soft", and had been vulnerable in her kindness to the plant (she is seen cutting herself happily in order to keep the plant fed, which could be seen as altruism to the point of self-destruction), which represents just one entity out of a whole garden of those who would take advantage of her kindness, and use it to harm her. I think her realization is that she can't protect herself from people who would take advantage of her and still stay soft. In the end, I think she was feeding bits of the masked people of the garden to the flower as if offering it a taste of its own medicine perhaps.

Fury, pure and silver You grip it tight inside Like a knife It glints in your eye It's why I've arrived, your sex god Here to take you where You need to go To where the dark remembers you Open up your heart Like the gates of hell You stay soft, get beaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get eaten Only natural to harden up I am face down on my bed Still not quite awake yet Thinking of you I tuck my hand under my weight Just tell me what you want to do Tell me what you want To burn away 'Cause I could be your stoker Open up your heart Like the gates of hell You stay soft, get beaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get eaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get beaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get eaten Only natural to harden up

My interpretation of this song is that you become tougher after bad experiences and standards that life throws at you and I feel like the lyric "sex god" and the fact that throughout the video the monsters take her clothes off is a reference to a kind of sexual awakening as a defense mechanism. Also, maybe the carnivorous plant represents her innocent self at the end feeding of the violent death of the monsters

SHE'S GOING TO SLAY EVERYONE OF US AGIAN, LUV THAT

1:00 I dunno why but my favourite part of the song is the dissonant chord smash that happens here, and the lyric "open up your heart like the gates of hell".

I listen to this in the shower with my clothes on after a breakdown and move how I please as if no one is watching, this specific song is so……I have no words it’s just so perfect

She opens up to us, and she is always real. That’s just how she enlightens us to be better beings - whether she intends to or not. Her music makes this world a better place.

The song, the production, the concept, the expressions, the emotion, the editing, everything just FLAWLESS

if mitski didn't exist, i'd probably be dead

Aside from all the heavy themes and stuff, I just wanna say: what did she put in this song? I’m actually addicted to it. Idk why but I’m having a hard time stopping listening, this shit actually hits different

don’t know what to expect from this one but i’m already screaming edit: WHATTHEFUUGFJKJJHJBJBG I AM IN TEAARTSSGSGSSBS

Mitski makes me feel such a full range of emotions it’s absolutely amazing. Such a talented artist. This video was fun, scary and whimsical all at the same time. Every song and music video associated with this album release has been absolutely incredible. All are instant classics.

I can't explain it but this song just sounds the most mitski to me like the way her voice here just voices yk like like her voice does that little thing where it voices LIJRE YK TK TGE THINGY IDK MAN I CANT EXPLAIN ITTT

Imo this song is about how a very common response to rape, sexual assault or even just being sexualized is sexualizing yourself, internalizing all of what's happened as something you ""wanted"". Becoming her abuser's "sex god", masturbating thinking of him, how the chorus (you stay soft, get beaten, only natural to harden up) could be interpreted as sexual arousal, are all common responses from survivors, which leads to guilt because you feel like you "deserve" it. At the same time, the chorus themselves can be interpreted as how, after so much trauma, you've internalized it and dissociated yourself from it.

Obrigada por existir mitski, Linda perfeita

incredible song

She's so creative and talented. I love when artists aren't afraid of trying new things and expressing themselves in ways that are true to themselves.

All this time I thought it was "Stay soft- get eatin'", and having Mitski passionately telling me to eat food genuinely helped with my ED- I only just actually googled the lyrics and realised it was "get eaten", but *fuck it*, if it works it works- thanku Mitski for helping me feed myself lol 🖤🖤

I personally interpret this as disobeying society’s beauty standards. I just feel like the blond blue eyed girl looking monsters represent social accepted beauty standards and the ideal “sexy” body. The monsters try to take down Mitski and force her to do their dance (play by society’s beauty rules) but in the end she won’t diminish the beauty of her own uniqueness and let’s her beauty (the flower) grow, but it takes being able to give in a part of yourself to stay strong in your own unique beauty, that’s why mitski feeds the flower blood? Anyway great music and video as always!

WOW this is her best MV to date, it's truly amazing. In a way, I think that we (her audience) are the "Venus Flytrap". She makes a sacrifice for us, she bleeds for us to "feed us". She feels as it has become an obligation to make music just to please us, as she fights her own deamons/struggles as we see in the video, to reach the ultimate goal of realising an album that keeps up with the high expectations due to her previous work. Her entire career has been dictated by how we as the public react to her "confessional" lyrics/songs; methaforically we've become dependant of her and her music in a way that's not healthy for neither of us. I truly (but sadly) believe that this will be her last album.

mitski's acting is underappreciated

theres so little that i love as much as i love watching mitski perform, it pulls me in like nothing else, i wonder if she makes up the choreography because it looks so so good with the way its shot, and i think she directs her music videos, maybe idk, but anyway i love how she dances and i love her facial expressions shes such a fun person to watch shes so theatrical i hope she knows how fucking cool and incredible she is

i swear its impossible for mitski to make a bad song, she's so talented

Hooooly shit. I am going to go on a ramble to an audience of zero here because this album is insane. More of a twitter guy and that site doesn't really do long-form thought streams but if I don't vent some of this shit then thinking about this record is going to make me explode. Laurel Hell is of the harder listens in her catalogue and I mean that in the greatest, most thought-provoking way. Every song is like this conscious address to camera. It wrestles with fame and fandom in an uncomfortably real way. Obviously all these songs are multi-layered but I cannot shake the feeling that there's a certain resentment for the audience. Not out of malice or disrespect to the fans but because performing feels like exploitation. The camera flashes during the stage scene, the smize down the lens as she's dragged away - we are complicit as listeners and viewers in the commodification of her, either her trauma or her stories or just her in general. Even after she grants us our wish - dramatic violence, revenge, catharsis - the camera lingers. The sincerity of the moment with the plant is soured, we are still intruding, and she stares right at us for doing so. And it's very much not just this song, the other MVs (except maybe Heartbreaker) are so deeply rooted in this same thinking. That making music is a messy, perilous act of submission and exploitation, that her art is something she gives up to us because she has to and she is pulled back in line to make more no matter how hard she tries. The closest I can get to a positive on this is on I Guess and That's Our Lamp, where we reflect on the times we had with Mitski the artist and how much we loved her. Goddddd. I'm very glad to hear new music from her but it scares me when it feels so laser-focused on how miserable this cycle is making her. But truly she is peerless for managing to present that in a way that speaks to more than just her experience, that connects with all of us. Fandom is parasocial. We feel we love her and that she sees and speaks for us when she sings but we do not know her. We are not owed access and that's obviously okay but it's bizarrely discomfiting to hear so deeply meditated on in pop form. A lovely little contradiction. I'll be a little sad if this is her last album but I understand as best a fan can. Hearing her so cynical about music makes aspiring to be on her level of art deeply terrifying. This is like the corniest overanalytical text blob I've ever written I swear but like holy shit

i love how her music is so artistically written that everyone has their own theory as to what not only the song is portraying, but also this beautiful music video. her lyrics are historic

Maybe music already existed, Mitski just perfectionated it.

Just when this song was published I was going through a difficult situation because my dad has cancer and I was in the hospital all that day and the simple fact that my favorite singer published a music video made me very happy, the song is beautiful and the video too. ❤

**crying** **screaming** **smiling** *laughing* **dancing** i donno how to describe what i feel when i'm listening to mitski, but it's a unique very pleaser feeling !!!

This video has me, I can't stop thinking about it and its representation, the rhythm and the lyrics make me vibrate and every time I return to see this masterpiece, without a doubt I could see it and listen to it forever.

mitski i love you

This is giving me such Emotion (1966) by Nobuhiko Obayashi vibes... Living for the new visual era of Mitski so much. So refreshing to see her grow after the years. I'm certainly growing together.

Fury, and silver You grip it right outside Like a knife it glides in your eye It's why I've arrived, your sea god Here to take you where you need to go To where the dark remembers you Open up your heart Like the gates of hell You stay soft, get beaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get eaten Only natural to harden up I am face down on my bed Still not quite awake Thinking of you I touch my hand under my wright You tell me what you want to do Tell me what you want to burn away I could be your anchor Open up your heart Like the gates of hell You stay soft, get beaten Only natural to harden up You stay soft, get eaten Only natural to harden up

I was searching for gardening videos. Not disappointed.

TE AMO MITSKI OBRIGADO POR EXISTIR 🫂🫂

as always, the direction and choreography are on top. mitski is the creator of everything beautiful

The way she moves is so natural, we can feel her, mitski, ur my everything, thanks for existing

ty for existing

the flower it so cute ahhh

Hey queen. Girl, you have done it again, constantly raising the bar for us all. And doing it flawlessly. I'd say I'm surprised but I know who you are, I've seen it up close and personal. Girl, you make me so proud, and I love you :,)

Im in love with all of Mitski's songs, they're all perfect 💗

she's so beautiful

Im very happy that Mitski exists

Mitski releasing her album on my birthday is a blessing from the gods

Time to replay it until the full meaning sets into me. You can never just listen to the songs once.

ALWAYS ATE

mitski is killing it in that dress, literally

Было неожиданно увидеть очередной великолепный трек за такой короткий промежуток времени. Это так чудно, что не описать словами. Я рада, что такая исполнительница живёт со мной в одно время. Обожаю всё её существующие произведения!!

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE, the song is beautiful and the production and concept is a work of art, Mitski you are amazing

my 4 year old niece really likes this video for whatever reason

THE LYRICS AND MV ARE SO BEAUTIFUL I CANT 😭😭😭😭😭

i cannot believe mitski created the feeling of softness. what a powerful woman.

thanks mitski for writing these wonderful songs that touch my soul, you make my life better with your songs, you have no idea how much you have helped me with your songs, I had never felt so identified, thanks for existing and for create your music

TE AMO MITSKI CARAJO

I listen to this song almost on a daily, it makes me feel like I’m listening to myself in a musical format, and the fact that’s another person makes me feel comforted.

1:57 me on my way to fall back into my mitski phase after laurel hell

mitski i haven’t recovered from ‘love me more’ yet, go easy on us queen.

I LOVE THIS SONG ITS MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIMES

My favorite Mitski song. Can listen to this for hours and hours. Absolute masterpiece!

mitski perfeita nunca errou

Every song that Mitski makes is amazing and touches my soul

Mitski is so mother I remember the exact moment this came out and this song remains an absolute masterpiece a whole year and 3 months later

i absolutely love how this mv was kind of like a “horror-ish” type. especially at 1:01 with those keys!! 😻

Esto se ve como el nuevo éxito del año , QUE GANAS

her art is hard to make sense of sometimes but it’s beautiful, as is her music

Oh my God, I didn't get tired of hearing this 🌷

SHE WAS SO REAL FOR THIS ONE!!! OOMGGGGGG

mitski linda perfeita 0 defeitos nunca errou me atropela

every piece of your music makes me feel less alone and less scared to live my experiences! thank you so much for this

MITSKI ILY SO MUCHHHH

I love this song. My interpretation is that you are doing fine on your own and let your walls down to let people in and they take advantage of you, the flower is a interpretation for the people you let in. The creatures are your walls trying put them selves back up as you encounter more toxic people. “Stay soft” refers the want to keep those walls down and able to be vulnerable with people. I fought my creatures and lost but I’m slowly turning my walls into a fence that I can look over.

tomorrow is gonna be the oficial day of " listening to the mitski's calm voice to forget all my sadness and problems ".

I know these recent songs probably have a different, more fantastic meaning than how I'm interpreting them, but at the moment during one of my lows, they're really speaking to me and how I'm feeling--especially about my experiences and how it affects everything around me and how I feel about them--all things that are hard to describe, yet she nails them. love you and your work mitski, thank you💕

Toda la música de Mitski es arte puro! realmente me encanta como canta, la escenografía de sus videos, su música, etc... gracias Mitski por existir!!

I really like this song cause it tells a lot. It describes the fear I have of being too “open” with yourself, you say things that you shouldn’t and everything goes to hell. Also the fact that you grow up in a safe environment, when suddenly reality hits you like a rock and makes everything beat you up in the long run if you don’t protect yourself.

0:25 I love her smile 😭

MITSKI!!

I luv you mitski

this song is amazing live, i’m so glad I got the chance to see her

Mitski es una de las mejores cosas que me pasó en la vida 🛐🛐🛐 pd: gracias Mitski por existir

I missed the premiere but I just have to say, your music is glorious Mitski. It just stands out and I love it for that.

The song is amazing and I really enjoy the way that this was shot. The way the camera moves and Mitski is being dragged creates such an interesting effect.

i love you so much mitski. you're saving me from a bad time, i don't know how to thank you. I find myself a lot in your songs, you give me comfort