“Washing Machine Heart”, the twelfth track off Be the Cowboy, is sonically upbeat, but lyrically explores the “manic” nature of Mitski’s protagonist, who, in her words:

…is a person who’s in me. It’s just I’m not this person all the time. It’s this woman who feels powerless and overcompensates by exercising extreme control on herself and on her environment, and just trying to be powerful within her own limits of her body and who she is, but kind of just unraveling a little bit because the amount of control she’s exercising on to herself maybe isn’t healthy or isn’t natural. There’s something more warm and human inside that she’s pushing down in order to appear strong to the world."

The heavy backbeat in the track may represent the clatter of a washing machine and how it parallels the feverish thrum of Mitski (or her protagonist)’s heart.