Your Best American Girl (single)

## Overview

**Your Best American Girl** was the lead single for the album *Puberty 2*, released on March 1, 2016 through the label Dead Oceans. It did not have any artwork specific to it as a single, but was released alongside the announcement of the album's release date.

The song's lyrics describe Mitski's experience as a Japanese-American woman, and:

> “wanting so badly to fit into this very American person’s life, and simply not being able to, just fundamentally being from a different place and feeling like I would just get in the way of their progression in their life”.
>
>

As such, many reviews focused on the political nature of the lyrics, leading Mitski to comment on the coverage via a Facebook post that she hadn't written the song to “stick it to ‘the white boy indie rock world’ [...] I wasn’t trying to send a message. I was in love.” She also spoke about the song in an interview with NPR when she was asked;

> I want to ask about another song on the album, called ‘Your Best American Girl’. It plays like a pretty straight-ahead indie rock single, but when you get into it, you realize that there’s something else going on. Where does this song come from?
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>

Mitski responded, explaining that the song is about:

> "...just a feeling of loving someone so much, and yet being from completely different backgrounds and not being able to do anything about it. You watch movies where the couple loves each other so much but can’t be together because of their fate or whatever, and when I was younger I thought that was so stupid. I just thought, 'They love each other, why can’t they be together? This is ridiculous.' But then as I got older, it’s like, 'Oh, I see.' Sometimes life or your backgrounds just kind of get in the way, and there’s nothing you can really do about it."
>
>

Again highlighting the powerful emotion conveyed by the song over its political nature.

## Music video

*Main article: Your Best American Girl (single)/Music video*

Directed by Zia Anger, starring Tyler Gardella (as 'Bro'), Candace Bryant (as 'Babe'), and Mitski (as Mitski).

Premiered April 13th 2016.

## Lyrics

[Verse 1]

If I could, I'd be your little spoon

And kiss your fingers forevermore

But, big spoon, you have so much to do

And I have nothing ahead of me

[Verse 2]

You're the sun, you've never seen the night

But you hear its song from the morning birds

Well, I'm not the moon, I'm not even a star

But awake at night I'll be singing to the birds

[Pre-Chorus]

Don't wait for me, I can't come

[Chorus]

Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me

But I do, I think I do

And you're an all-American boy

I guess I couldn't help trying to be your best American girl

[Bridge]

You're the one

You're all I ever wanted

I think I'll regret this

[Chorus]

Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me

But I do, I finally do

And you're an all-American boy

I guess I couldn't help trying to be the best American girl

[Outro]

Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me

But I do, I think I do

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170818072720/http://deadoceans.com/blog/2016/03/album-announce-mitski-announces-puberty-2-out-june-17th-on-dead-oceans/
2. ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/03/01/468690106/new-mix-music-from-m-ward-nothing-marissa-nadler-a-chat-with-mitski-more?utm\_source=twitter.com&utm\_medium=social&utm\_campaign=nprmusic&utm\_term=music&utm\_content=20160301#playlist
3. ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-misreading-of-mitski?verso=true
4. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2016/06/19/482375750/mitski-on-puberty-2-and-the-nature-of-happiness
5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u\_hDHm9MD0I&list=PLVlMM20GjzDI7JV2YZbpXg5BI61OfX4ro&index=3
6. ↑ https://genius.com/Mitski-your-best-american-girl-lyrics

**Puberty 2**