Posts Tagged ‘Japanese Breakfast’

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” Soft Sounds From Another Planet “

Posted: July 29, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Michelle Zauner introduced the arrival of “Soft Sounds From Another Planet”  the new album from Japanese Breakfast, with short video, that hinted at an intergalactic theme. Fittingly, she had initially set out to write a sci-fi concept album about a woman who, after falling in love with a robot and experiencing heartbreak, enlists in the Mars One project.

The plan only carried through to the lead single, “Machinist,” but the theme of exploring the great beyond prevails throughout the album. The concept allowed Zauner to play with new elements that vastly differ from her punk roots in Little Big League throughout the record, autotune and synthesizers create an otherworldly ambience. Even the re-worked version of a Little Big League song, “Boyish,” sounds like something entirely new.

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What started as a fantastic theme gradually became a metaphor for the fear of death. Zauner explores that idea in full on “Till Death,” a hauntingly beautiful song that details the aftermath of losing someone dear: “Haunted dreams / Stages of grief / Repressed memories / Anger and bargaining.” On her debut as Japanese Breakfast, “Psychopomp” Zauner had grappled with losing her mother to cancer. Now, on Soft Sounds, she reflects on the person she’s become, after surviving through the pain.

Japanese Breakfast’s ‘Soft Sounds From Another Planet’ is less of a concept album about space exploration so much as it is a mood board come to life. Over the course of 12 tracks, Michelle Zauner explores a sonic landscape of her own design, one that’s big enough to contain her influences. There are songs on this album that recall the pathos of Roy Orbison’s ballads, while others could soundtrack a cinematic drive down one of Blade Runner’s endless skyways. Zauner’s voice is capacious; one moment she’s serenading the past, the next she’s robotically narrating a love story over sleek monochrome, her lyrics more pointed and personal than ever before. While ‘Psychopomp’ was a genre-spanning introduction to Japanese Breakfast, this visionary sophomore album launches the project to new heights.

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” Jane Cum “

Posted: July 15, 2017 in MUSIC
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Photo by Phobymo.

Japanese Breakfast is Michelle Zauner’s first solo project since fronting the Philadelphian bands Little Big League and Post Post . The songs on Psychopomp were written over the past six years, some after the passing of her mom.

Her song, “Jane Cum,” is a dark meditation on love lost. The video, directed by Adam Kolodny, captures that longing—bright headlights cut through black woods, a chip of quartz sparkles in the sun, and a coven of witches carry out a clandestine ritual. Premiering today, “Jane Cum” offers a peek at the delicate balance of Japanese Breakfast’s last album: sometimes light as a feather, other times dark as night.

Sometimes the only way to deal with devastating tragedy is to turn it into something beautiful, and Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner does exactly that on the gorgeously dream-hazed Psychopomp. With soft-focus drum loops and gauzy synths, the former indie rocker pays tribute to a mom who was claimed by cancer, while, in the larger picture, reminding us that the pain one day fades but the good memories don’t.

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” Boyish “

Posted: July 9, 2017 in MUSIC
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Japanese Breakfast, aka Michelle Zauner, has released a new single, “Boyish,” from her forthcoming album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, which is set to release on July 14th via Dead Oceans. The song is a slow-paced plea for love with a melodic, chorus-filled guitar solo and despondent lyrics.

“Craig Hendrix and I wanted to produce this sort of grandiose Roy Orbison-esque ballad,” said Zauner. “We wanted the chorus to have big arrangements, lots of harmonies and synth strings, to create a really sweeping, melancholic effect that mirrored the nature of the lyrics. The song is about jealousy and sexual incompetence. It’s about feeling ugly.”

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” Psychopomp ” Best Albums Of 2016

Posted: December 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Grief hangs over Psychopomp like a dark cloud, but as the year goes on, what stands out on Michelle Zauner’s debut full-length as Japanese Breakfast are the intense moments of euphoric happiness that play out on the sidelines: the joyous high of “Everybody Wants To Love You,” “Heft”‘s glorious fuck-you to the encroaching darkness, the resolute power in the album’s closing lines, “But in the night, I am someone else.” More than a depiction of loss, Psychopomp stands as a testament to finding your strongest self in situations of monumental sadness, taking comfort in the unpredictable and unknown

Soaring vocals and dreamy instrumentals, this album has so much heart. This band knows how to translate sugary pop, rock, and folksy music into a glowing, lofi dreamscape. There is a fun blend of hooky-ness and surreal, often amusing lyricism that keeps the whole album vibrant and exciting.

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Released April 1st, 2016

“at once cosmically huge and acutely personal, Zauner captures grief for the perversely intimate yet overwhelming pain it is. Long may she keep at this music thing.” -Pitchfork ,
“a stunning debut” -Rolling Stone
“overwhelmingly colorful and joyous; while her words betray grief and frustration, she turns the pain into power.” -NPR
“Psychopomp is exemplary, finding joy in sadness and despair in the brightest of lights…It’s an immaculately crafted debut, and you should listen” -Stereogum

JAPANESE BREAKFAST – ” In Heaven “

Posted: November 7, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Michelle Zauner’s music as Japanese Breakfast plunges headfirst into some of the darkest experiences in human life and finds glimmers of bright light around the fringe. trying to  describe its genre, but trying to pin down Zauner’s style can be as fruitless as attempting to make sense of the sadness and loss that inspired her new album “Psychopomp” . As with those sensations, it might be more productive to just let this music wash over you than to understand its inner workings. It’s as fluid, expansive, and gorgeous piece of work as its subject matter demands.

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