Today, Japanese Breakfast dropped the fourth album, For Melancholy Brunette (& Sad Women) via Dead Oceans.
Unlike previous records, this album leans less on deeply personal lyricism and intricate musical storytelling.
Instead, it embraces a softer, moodier atmosphere, reflecting on the pressures of fame with a more detached yet wistful approach.
The result is an album that feels introspective but restrained, trading raw emotion for a dreamlike melancholy.
About the album by Michelle:
The record sees front-woman and songwriter Michelle Zauner pull back from the bright extroversion that defined its predecessor Jubilee to examine the darker waves that roil within, the moody, fecund field of melancholy, long held to be the psychic state of poets on the verge of inspiration. The result is an artistic statement of purpose: a mature, intricate, contemplative work that conjures the romantic thrill of a gothic novel.
For Melancholy Brunettes follows a transformative period in Zauner’s life during which her GRAMMY nominated breakthrough album Jubilee and her bestselling memoir Crying In H Mart catapulted her into the cultural mainstream, delivering on her deepest artistic ambitions.
Reflecting on that success, Zauner came to appreciate the irony of desire, which so often commingles bliss and doom.
“I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted,” she says. “I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die.”
For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) gets: 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷/10.
