Review
Japanese Breakfast
Soft Sounds From Another Planet

Dead Oceans (2017) Kevin Fitzpatrick

Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet cover artwork
Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet — Dead Oceans, 2017

All the best albums are made for mood. Some for when you’re feeling happy and carefree, and some for when you’re driving around the city in the pouring rain, with the neon lights of seafood restaurants and used car dealerships shimmering through your windshield and your tears. 

Japanese Breakfast is the latter, and Soft Sounds From Another Planet excels in that transcendent melancholy that we all need to wallow in every once in a while. Japanese Breakfast is the solo nom de guerre of Philadelphia musician Michelle Zauner, of Little Big League. The similarities between the two are there, but while LBL is more brash and in your face, Japanese Breakfast slows things down. Takes its time. And honestly, shows off more of what Zauner is really capable of. 

Tracks like “This House” and “12 Steps” and their sparse arrangements fit in nicely with the more layered, keyboard driven numbers like “Machinist”and “Road Head”. The contrast can sound scattered in lesser hands but here, there’s a solid, complimentary cohesion throughout. A reminder that an album of complexity doesn’t have to be complex to listen to.

Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet cover artwork
Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet — Dead Oceans, 2017

Related news

Advertisement

DCxPC 2025

Recently-posted album reviews

Chat Pile

Cool World
Flenser (2024)

The great American experiment has a wide range of experiences, but it tends to focus on the coasts. There are countless dystopian pieces of art, often culling from a Warriors-esque concept of urban grit. Chat Pile play dystopian, brutal noise-punk, but from a distinctly middle American point of view where instead of civilians shadowed under dense skylines, their anonymity instead … Read more

The Anomalys

Down The Hole
Slovenly (2024)

If I have to give the elevator pitch, I’ll call The Anomalys garage rock with an ear for surf and psyche rock -- turned up to 11 and blasted through blown out speakers in an old 1980s sedan. It’s high-energy, no-frills rock ‘n’ roll with attitude. While it’s short, loud and fast, there’s also quite a bit of nuance and … Read more

Pinhead Gunpowder

Unt
1-2-3-4 Go! Records (2024)

Pinhead Gunpowder began in 1990, recording a 7” in 1991. The band last released a 7” in 2008… Until late 2024 when the band returned with the 14-song full-length Unt. So congratulations if you had “we get a new Pinhead Gunpowder record before a new D4 record on your bingo card. (These two bands released a split 7” in 2000 … Read more