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- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Release Date: Mar 21, 2025
- Summary: The latest full-length release from Philadelphia indie pop band Japanese Breakfast was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Blake Mills and features a guest appearance by Jeff Bridges.
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- Record Label: Dead Oceans
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 20
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Mixed: 2 out of 20
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Negative: 0 out of 20
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Mar 19, 2025Throughout, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)’ feels like both a leap in musical maturity and a callback to vintage Japanese Breakfast.
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Mar 20, 2025The synth-pop-meets-sci-fi vibe of Soft Sounds is a far cry from the orchestral grandeur of For Melancholy Brunettes, but both are the type of album that you don’t so much listen to as immerse yourself in it, letting it wash over you and bathe you in its brilliance.
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Mar 21, 2025For Zauner and Japanese Breakfast, the answer is always something in between and more complex and creatively assured than what has come before. With For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), Zauner invites us into the magic mirror of her life and pulls us through to the other side.
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Mar 17, 2025The dense barrage of Honey Water recalls the smoky alt-rock of Zauner’s second album Soft Sounds from Another Planet, while Picture Window is a much brighter, busier tangle of country, rock and pop. Closing track Magic Mountain paints another gorgeous cinematic soundscape, scattered with clusters of celestial chimes.
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Mar 19, 2025Michelle Zauner’s most mature offering to date, and one that grows on you with every listen. This is a record to get lost in, an album to soundtrack your moments of reflection. Bewitching, bold and most importantly fresh territory.
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UncutMar 17, 2025Showcase[s] the melancholic beauty of Zauner's songwriting, her storytelling skills honed across mediums. [Apr 2025, p.31]
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Mar 21, 2025At her best, Zauner can pull the rug out from under a listener. But on a record teeming with big themes – flawed humanity, Greek myth and the brevity of life; one regularly stacked with great lines (“Pissing in the corner of a hotel suite, do you always remember where you are?”, from the excellent Little Girl), all this mellow prettiness doesn’t really do Zauner’s best writing justice.