Mitski is set to release her eighth studio album three years after “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” the record that gave us the single “My Love Mine All Mine” — her first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. She announced the new project with an Instagram video of herself walking into a Victorian-style house, crawling toward the camera, and whispering the title: “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me.” The announcement invokes a sensation that is equally unsettling and intimate — perhaps giving us a tease for what this new era of her music might feel like.

The second single from the upcoming album, “I’ll Change for You,” released on Feb. 3, is a beautifully understated jazz piece built around a simple, elegant melody that is unmistakably Mitski, yet somehow feels brand new. Behind this sound is Drew Erickson, who arranged and conducted the orchestral elements on the album and also contributed to Mitski’s previous record. Erickson plays the piano on this track, delivering a subtle, emotionally resonant performance through a simple melody and slowly moving chords that allow the vocal line to carry the song’s emotional weight.

Mitski is typically praised for creating vivid scenes through her lyrics, and about halfway through the track, the listener can encounter this talent at work. With the lyric “Bars / Such magic places,” one is transported into the bar where Mitski appears to be drinking alone. One can hear the pour of a drink into a glass, a giggle, people talking and moving about. Suddenly, the listener is there with Mitski.

In an interview with BBC Radio, Mitski said she wanted "to write a song about being pathetic.” The lyrics of “I’ll Change for You” reflect this intention, beginning with the title, and Mitski’s melancholic delivery that makes lines like “‘cause I’ll do anything for you to love me again” convey that feeling with striking clarity and intensity.

This being said, she has done this kind of pleading before, and she has done it better. “I Don’t Smoke” from her 2014 album “Bury Me at Makeout Creek” is one such deeper exploration of the lengths women will go to feel loved. While the message in “I’ll Change for You” is clear, and the emotion in her singing is palpable, the song lacks the same lyrical complexity, which makes it feel comparatively shallow.

The release of “I’ll Change for You” was accompanied by another short video on Mitski’s Instagram. In the clip, she sits on a Persian rug, dressed in 19th-century clothing that evokes the New Woman, someone ready for change. She is pictured clutching a red-wired telephone — every element of the frame carefully composed. With nine more songs still to come, it is clear that Mitski is shaping this album with intention, slowly drawing her audience into a world that feels distinctly her own. Still, even with such meticulous construction, one wonders if it will fully live up to what we have come to expect from her.

—Staff Writer LeMonie K. Hutt can be reached at [email protected].