Japanese Breakfast Shifts Gears on For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women)

Japanese Breakfast’s new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women), is a study in restraint and reflection. Where 2021’s Jubilee reached for the sky with lush, sparkling pop anthems, this record is more grounded—not somber, but deliberate, with a widescreen scope. It steps away from the exuberance of her last release and the grief of Michelle Zauner’s earlier work to explore something quieter and more interior.

Following the breakout success of Jubilee and her memoir Crying in H Mart, Zauner’s fourth album is full of nuance and detail, drawing you in inch by inch instead of hook by hook.

The record opens with a swirl of mandolin and gamelan on “Here is Someone,” immediately plunging you into a new world. It’s almost trance-like, lilting you along until you’re carried into the first single, “Orlando in Love”—the lyrics of which inspired the album’s title, itself lifted from a John Cheever short story. The song is a meditative piece, lifted by romantic, rising strings. Both opening tracks serve as sonic tablesetters for songs with slightly more heft. That shift arrives with “Honey Water,” a dark, churning track about an unfaithful partner. “Mega Circuit” moves through glassy percussion before giving way to the delicately picked “Little Girl.”

Much of the album feels intimately constructed, made for quiet downtime, low moments, and deep listening. The twangy “Picture Window” is about as loud as it gets—until the dusty duet “Men in Bars.” Out in the distance of the setting sun comes a voice as familiar as it is surprising: Jeff Bridges. It’s the biggest left turn on a record full of them.

For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women) feels elemental. It’s as light as air, yet as dense as packed snow. It may not be the record most expected to follow Jubilee, but it reveals an artist in full command—creating as she sees fit, guided by instinct, not expectation.

For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women) is out now on Dead Oceans.