Japanese Breakfast’s last album Jubilee came out in 2021, soon after the publication of their frontwoman Michelle Zauner’s memoir Crying in H Mart. The album was an indie hit, but the book was a mainstream bestseller. It is about Zauner’s relationship with her Korean mother, who moved to Oregon after marrying Zauner’s father, a US citizen. She died of cancer in 2014.
Following the memoir’s success, spending more than a year in the book charts, Zauner must now juggle the different demands of album and publishing cycles. She is working on a follow-up to Crying in H Mart, about the year that she recently spent in South Korea learning to speak her mother tongue properly. Meanwhile, her band is back in action with its fourth studio album.
Japanese Breakfast formed in Philadelphia’s DIY music scene in 2013, a milieu of part-time jobs and shabby shared apartments. (Zauner’s mother disapproved of her daughter’s life choices. “You want to be a starving musician?” she says in Crying in H Mart. “Then go live like one.”) For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) marks a step-up in status.
Produced by Blake Mills, it was recorded in Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, a fabled location in rock history. The arrangements feature a wide variety of instrumentation, including gamelan, sarod, celeste, cello and pedal steel guitar. In contrast to Zauner’s autobiographical literary work, and also the memoiristic quality of earlier Japanese Breakfast records, the songs are about fictional scenarios.
Lasting just over 30 minutes, the 10 tracks are loosely linked by themes of dissatisfaction. “Here is Someone” is a shimmering vision of a stagnant relationship, sung in a hazy voice by Zauner, but with clear phrasing. The song’s lack of structure fits with the protagonist’s acceptance of their lot. “Honey Water” is a gripping shoegaze number about infidelity that builds towards the controlled anger of a distorted guitar solo.
Other songs are underpowered. “Mega Circuit” is breezy indie-pop with opaque verses about incels and toxic men, a mismatch between tone and topic. “Men in Bars” is a country duet about a collapsing relationship, featuring the actor Jeff Bridges; inspired casting, until he starts singing in a low, strangulated voice that sucks energy from the surroundings. Despite its handsome musical textures and thematic design, this brief album leaves a feeling of slightness, like a series of sketches.
★★★☆☆
‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ is released by Dead Oceans
