2021: Jubilee - Japanese Breakfast
2021: Jubilee - Japanese Breakfast
Looking Back at 30 years of music | Japanese Breakfast
Through the especially difficult first couple of years of the pandemic, we all collectively shared a lot of grief. All our griefs were different, but for the most part, we came together - from the safety of a two-metre distance - to help each other through the troubled times; to share our stories and listen to each other, and to support and comfort one another however we could.
In 2021, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast shared her story with us, too. With the release of her memoir Crying in H Mart, Zauner brought her mother back to life. The book tracks their time together; the food and trips and language that they shared, the fallings out and makings up, any musical memories and the journey through her mothers illness and ultimately, her death.
It is a beautiful book. It’s heartbreaking and tragic, and makes you want to phone your mum and tell her that you love her at every turn.
I first read Crying in H Mart in January last year. At the time, I didn’t know who Michelle Zauner or Japanese Breakfast were, but found myself drawn to it when looking for a more contemporary music book, having just finished reading works about Muddy Waters, Elvis and The Beatles. When I pick up a book about a certain artist, I like to soundtrack my reading by listening to their music, to fully immerse myself in their world, and so when reading Crying in H Mart, I quickly fell in love with the music of Zauner’s band, Japanese Breakfast.
Crying in H Mart wasn’t Michelle Zauner’s only release in 2021. A few months after her book came out, she released the fantastic album, Jubilee, with her band.
Like her book, the album is full of wonderful writing, such as “How's it feel to be at the centre of magic, to linger in tones and words? / I opened the floodgates and found no water, no current, no river, no rush” from Paprika, or “if I could throw my arms around you for just another day, maybe it'd feel like the first time” and “these days I can't shake the awful feeling I'm missing something I can't place. Is that you?” from Kokomo, IN. In contrast with the book, though, Zauner wanted to strike a different tone from her long-form writing, saying in the announcement for the album that “after spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy”.
And this is a joyous album. It’s carefree, it’s upbeat, it’s full of abandon and dreams. It’s wonderful. It’s fun. It’s beautiful. It’s delicate but it’s strong.
Opener Paprika starts with a gentle bed of synths but soon bursts into life with a marching drum and almost mariachi brass. Be Sweet is an anthem. A serving of indie-funk, infused with Chic-style guitars, bouncing synths and a huge melody which reaches out and grabs your hand and begs for you to sing along with it.
Kokomo, IN is Zauner’s most Wilco-esque song, so it makes sense that when Jeff Tweedy joined Japanese Breakfast on stage at the 2022 Pitchfork Music Festival this is the song they sang together (they also did Jesus, Etc). I love this song. I love the vocal, and the violin lines that accompany it. I love the languid way it unfolds and the lyrics. I love the guitar solos. At three-and-a-half minutes, it’s not nearly long enough.
Wilco aren’t the only alt / dad-rock group that the album recalls, either. Savage Good Boy could have been written and performed by The Flaming Lips. With the kind of creativity, talent, musicality and ambition that Zauner displays across this album, I just hope she keeps making music for as long as they have done.
Towards the end of the record, Tactics is another gorgeous string-backed ballad. Zauner pushes into the highest part of her vocal register, competing with and complimenting the string section to push each of their limits even beautifully further. This would be a worthy emotional crescendo to the album, but there is still time for one more song to unfold.
Posing For Cars starts small but gradually builds into something grand and beautiful by the end. At about twice the length of anything else on the album, the song contains elements of everything we’ve heard so far but makes something entirely new and original with them. Once Zauner has finished telling her story accompanying herself on sparse guitar, the full band kicks in and we’re carried away by a searing, slow-burn guitar solo which builds and builds until it wouldn’t be possible to build anymore.
Zauner wanted this album to be about joy, adding in her statement that “for me, a third record should feel bombastic and so I wanted to pull out all the stops for this one”. You would have to say, she achieved all of those goals and then some with the joyous Jubilee.
Notable Album Releases
ABBA - Voyage
Adele - 30
Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time
Faye Webster - I Know I’m Funny haha
Hand Habits - Fun House
Olivia Rodrigo - Sour
Snail Mail - Valentine
Tyler, the Creator - Call Me If You Get Lost
Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend
Next Up: Zella Day’s Sunday in Heaven.