By Kelly Cheng, Staff Writer
After a brief hiatus and a New York Times bestselling non-fiction release, indie-alternative band Japanese Breakfast brings their fourth studio album For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women). The highly anticipated release marks a shift in tone in the band’s discography, with the album being a mythology focused, dreamy work that comes off as a pleasant surprise in comparison to their usual bubbly pop sound found in previous successes like Jubilee.
For Readers and Literature Enthusiasts
For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women) is rich in literary references that nods at the capital R Romantic and the intense spectrum of elation and despair, for instance, taking its title from John Cheever's short story where he fantasizes about "melancholy brunettes" and "sad women" who tempt him to abandon his marriage. The album is beyond just a dreamy listening experience, instead, it is an emotional journey that the listeners follow through. Starting off the album with a floaty and emotionally charged opener, “Here Is Someone”, the tone of the work is gently settled as a whimsical and melancholic story for both the artist and the listener. The storyline of the album follows our speaker that is grappling between love and infatuation, navigating the delicate line between the two.
Epic In All Senses
The single “Orlando In Love” is genius and undoubtedly one of my personal favorites. The title of the track is a reference to the epic poem, Italian poet Matteo Maria Boiardo's “Orlando Innamorato” (known in English as "Orlando in Love").The story follows the knight Orlando who falls madly in love with princess Angelica, abandoning his duties to pursue her while she flees across Europe and Africa, encountering all kinds of hurdles along his journey that intertwines with the broader conflict between duty and desire. Following this storyline, “Orlando In Love” is a whimsical retelling of the poem that sonically and lyrically captures the helplessness of choosing heart over head.
Vulnerability and Resilience
My favorite track out of this outstanding album is “Leda.” Drawing from the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, where Zeus, disguised as a swan, assaults Leda, resulting in the birth of Helen of Troy and other children. Zauner’s lines “In a past life I was Leda / I let you come over me” and “Split me open with your hands / And I’ll unfold like a secret” echoes the myth’s violent intimacy, further repurposing it to reflect the complexities of trauma and coercion. The song suggests both victimhood and agency, where Leda’s experience becomes a metaphor for personal suffering and the attempt to reclaim power. Using this myth, the song taps into the tension between beauty and brutality, and sonically, makes use of the band's signature airy instrumentation to amplify the emotional weight of that struggle.
Genius in Songwriting
The closing track “Magic Mountain” is the perfect note to end on. The title references Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” (1924), which follows Hans Castorp, a young engineer who visits a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps and ends up staying for seven years. The novel centers around existentialism and distortion of self as Hans becomes increasingly detached from the outside world. In “Magic Mountain”, Japanese Breakfast alludes to this with lines like “Once the fever subsides, I’ll return to the flatlands, a new man” echoing Hans’s repeated intention to leave but inability to break free. While the track sounds lighthearted and full of whimsy, its lyrics taps into the tension between retreat and return. Doing so, this ends the album with a reflective reframe of one’s emotional struggle and isolation as both a refuge and a trap.
For Melancholy Brunettes and Everyone Else
Produced by Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Perfume Genius, Bob Dylan), this album is sonically lush and intricately layered. I appreciated how Mills enhanced Japanese Breakfast’s evocative songwriting by blending ethereal instrumentals with their poignant lyricism to create an atmosphere that feels both intimate and expansive. What stood out to me besides the genius behind their songwriting is the soft, textured soundscapes that gently yet very noticeably underscored the album’s emotional complexity. As a melancholic brunette myself, I am in awe of this work. Sure, the album may be titled “For Melancholy Brunettes,” but no matter the emotional state and hair color, it is guaranteed to offer its listener a rich, immersive listening experience that lingers long after the final note.
