Soft Sounds from Another Planet
On her sophomore album, Japanese Breakfast\'s Michelle Zauner seeks grounding in an unlikely place: outer space. Her evocative metaphors and hefty subject matter find lightness in shimmery, spacey electronics, most potently on the expansive, krautrock-like opener \"Diving Woman.\" She deals with femininity and sexuality in synth-pop reveries like \"Road Head\" and the Auto-Tune-enhanced \"Machinist,\" and cuts deep into trauma (\"The Body Is a Blade\") and grief (\"Till Death\") by finding comfort in ‘90s indie guitar pop, fluttering keyboards, and gentle wafts of mournful horns.
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.
Inspired by the cosmos, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner addresses life on Earth. Her voice shines over melancholic arrangements, evoking Pacific Northwest indie rock as much as shoegaze.
With Soft Sound From Another Planet, Michelle Zauner has moved beyond mourning to a solace far more celestial.
A somber, starry lullaby that results in periods of fitful sleep marked by struggles with fading love and death’s vague…
The first Japanese Breakfast album Psychopomp was the best kind of bedroom pop record; fragile, intimate, and slightly weird.
Moving and inspired, Soft Sounds From Another Planet is yet another lesson in guitar pop perfection from Michelle Zauner.
The first Japanese Breakfast album, Psychopomp, was an anomaly, a necessary funnel for Michelle Zauner's emotions as she tended to her ailin...
When Japanese Breakfast first emerged into the world, it was to deal with the loss of Michelle Zauner's mother. The solo project from Little Big League singer Zauner mourned with impeccable pop style on 2016's Psychopomp.
Review of Japanese Breakfasts' 'Soft Sounds from Another Planet': Japanese Breakfast finds her voice again on her latest album and according to our review:
Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet review: Lost in spaaaaace