Japanese Breakfast
Soft Sounds From Another Planet
label: Dead Oceans
year: 2017

black vinyl LPwe also have JB’s 2021 album up for pre-order. 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 Orbisons 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.