In a greatly anticipated return, Michelle Zauner’s fourth record as Japanese Breakfast, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) does not disappoint. The harmonic instrumentals and reflective and magical lyrics create an album that is as entrenched in its music as it is its story. In a time where callousness seems to reign supreme, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) pushes listeners to embrace tenderness and vulnerability through narrative.
Opening with “Here is Someone”, Zauner sings over gentle orchestral arrangements about “Quietly dreaming of slower days.” Contending with the desire to “leave this behind,” this song brings listeners into the melancholic longing for another life. Without direct resolution, she sings “Life is sad but here is someone / Someone / Someone / Someone,” a meditation as the orchestra swells.
Moving into “Orlando in Love,” which was the album’s first single, Zauner creates a feeling of intimate desire and longing. Inspired by Matteo Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato, and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, this track captures a man who falls in love with a siren. Zauner sings, as a narrator, setting the stage for the rest of the album which is precisely about melancholy narrative. In the final verse, she sings: “Singing his name with all the sweetness of a mother / Leaving him breathless and then drowned,” warning of overindulged desires. Regardless of Orlando’s naivety, the song’s final refrain, a sweet chant of “Orlando, Orlando, Orlando, Orlando,” compels listeners to pity the fool, betrayed only by his heart.
Zauner doesn’t shy away from exploring other possible outcomes of melancholia, though. In “Honey Water,” she sings from the perspective of a betrayed lover, comparing a partner’s disloyalty to an insect pursuing only honey water and nectar. Zauner pulls back the curtain on bitterness born out of untreated melancholy and looks at it unflinchingly. Accompanied by rock instrumentals and a distorted guitar outro, the animosity is palpable. Similarly, “Mega Circuit,” holds no punches in its examination of toxic masculinity. Referencing “incel eunchs” and “the soft hearts of young boys so pissed off and jaded,” over an eerie, but catchy shuffle groove. In this track, Zauner expresses “a conflicted desire to embrace a generation that in the absence of positive role models has found refuge in violence and bigotry.”
Halfway through the album emerges “Little Girl” and “Leda”. “Little Girl,” told from the perspective of an estranged father, and “Leda,” from the perspective of the estranged daughter, Zauner, once again, pushes listeners towards empathy. In “Little Girl,” she sings “All I need is understanding” and “Passing days, immolation / Little girl, meant no harm.” “Little Girl” observes the reckoning of with the unintended consequences of actions, and the longing for forgiveness. “Leda” alludes to the myth of Leda and the Swan, in which Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces Queen Leda. The daughter recalls, “I’m thinking of all the Grecian Gods / The men they all played to get what they want,” comparing her relationship with her father to “a sculpture of Leda and the swan”.
“Picture Window” captures the existential and suffocating fear of the death of loved ones. In her newsletter, Zauner writes: “Ever since I was a young girl I’ve dealt with intrusive thoughts of loved ones dying horrible deaths (…). My idea was to follow a couple, constantly tracking left to right, as one partner charges boldly forward and the other, progressively anxious, becomes increasingly reluctant to follow.” One of the most vulnerable tracks of the album, it asks directly: “Are you not afraid of every waking minute / That your life could pass you by?”
Wrapping up with a somber duet with Jeff Bridges- “Men in Bars,” followed by “Winter in LA,” and finally, “Magic Mountain,” this album reads like a novel. In these final tracks, Zauner offers final contemplations on time, the capacity to change, and desire.
With a magical instrumental outro, this cinematic album finishes by finally taking comfort in the inevitable passing of time. Maintaining her legacy of poignant songwriting and unique melodies, Zauner’s lyrics are always on our minds while her songs are always on the queue.