How do you continue when you have worked as a DIY artist for years and recorded songs in your own bedroom, but then suddenly goes steep worldwide? With her third album Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast suddenly became the band of the hour from Indiedarling. The success of front woman Michelle Zauner’s memoir “Crying in H-Mart”-which is now filmed-also helped.
So how is it going now? Darker, darker, melancholy. Like Ikarus, she flown too close to the sun, Zauner now says in interviews. Success was everything she had ever wished, but at the same time also destructive, the labor marathon even affected her health. Of course you don’t want that, but when an album like for Melancholy Brunettes … comes out, the struggle was worth it.
For the first time she worked with her band in a real recording studio, with a real producer (Blake Mills, who otherwise also works with Bob Dylan or Fiona Apple), which gives the sound even more depth and weight. But above all, it is the songs that now shine dark instead of light and extrovert. There would be “Magic Mountain”, inspired by Thomas Mann’s novel, or “Mega Circuit”, an examination of the ideology of Incels. And above all, the country’s killer ballad “Men in Bars”, in which Jeff Bridges of all people gives a stunning duet partner.
You can find out which albums were published in March 2025 via our monthly publication list.