For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) - Japanese Breakfast: Review

Review by Lavender: Japanese Breakfast is the project of singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, who has spent nearly a decade now writing some of the most interesting, playful, and versatile music in the world of indie pop and rock. Her appeal spanned new peaks in 2021 with her third album Jubilee , where songs like "Be Sweet" and "Paprika" showed off a more vibrant and poppy side to her sound and found critical acclaim doing so. My favorite Japanese Breakfast album remains her 2017 outing Soft Sounds From Another Planet , which used playful atmosphere and entrancing space to highlight her abilities as a writer. After hearing some of that quiet poise in the singles for this record, I was hoping for a triumphant return to that style. But it is not what I got. Let's talk highlights first, because the album does have some. Lead single "Orlando In Love" is a track I hoped I would like more within the context of the album. It's a gentle track that could se...