{"id":665,"date":"2025-04-03T00:16:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T00:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/japanese-breakfast-and-growing-pains-on-fourth-studio-release\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T00:16:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T00:16:47","slug":"japanese-breakfast-and-growing-pains-on-fourth-studio-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/japanese-breakfast-and-growing-pains-on-fourth-studio-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Breakfast and growing pains on fourth studio release"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Japanese Breakfast stepped into the sunlight, seemingly for the first time ever, after the release of 2021\u2019s bright and vivacious Jubilee<\/em>. Soaking in sun and cherubic extraversion, lead vocalist Michelle Zauner shimmered as she was launched into the mainstream and cemented herself into indie-pop stardom with the release of her novel \u201cCrying in H Mart.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in the adolescence of their fame, Japanese Breakfast returns to the gloom that defined their first two albums with 2025\u2019s studio release, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)<\/em>. The 2025 record greets us with a newfound polish \u2014 being the first of their four-album-wide discography to be produced in a professional studio setting. They are accompanied by producer Blake Mills, whose extensive resume includes the likes of Bob Dylan and Fiona Apple. Changes are stirring for Zauner\u2019s quartet! Japanese Breakfast is growing up, settling in and coming into their own \u2014 but not without growing pains.<\/p>\n

In a press release<\/a>, Zauner stated the album was inspired by the \u201cpsychic state of poets on the verge of inspiration,\u201d and indeed, the album borders upon an apparent reach-to-the-divine. Japanese Breakfast is perfectly dreamy and enveloped in a whimsical haze. This is most apparent in the gossamer of Zauner\u2019s vocals, soaring over the twee guitar chords and twinkling synths patterned across the album. The magic Japanese Breakfast alludes to in the title of the album\u2019s concluding track, \u201cMagic Mountain,\u201d is stored in her voice, in the barren sensitivities and vulnerabilities she is now broadcasting before the world.<\/p>\n

But often, this melancholic whimsy is not enough to bring the album to life. Something stiff haunts the tracks, and despite the dreamlike fluidity threaded throughout, it threatens to steamroll the entire album. In moments Zauner should shimmer like gold, she instead fades into the backdrop. And while there is an inherent and undeniable beauty coating the album\u2019s instrumentals, it often remains at just that \u2014 nothing more than pretty. Even in its most exposed moments, such as \u201cLittle Girl,\u201d a song pulled from Zauner\u2019s real experiences with paternal estrangement, something seems to fall flat. Tracks like \u201cLittle Girl\u201d at least shine through with their intimate songwriting and lyricism; the track that follows, \u201cLeda,\u201d seems to merely float in its track position, scarcely doing anything more than simply existing. Perhaps For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)<\/em> is too concerned with chasing a perception of melancholy rather than truly immersing itself in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n