walking upstream…
Japanese Breakfast
photo: paul k · cc by 2.0 ↗Japanese Breakfast
sourcesRolling Stone · Wikipedia2
Japanese Breakfast is the project Michelle Zauner began around 2013 while still playing in the Philadelphia band Little Big League, at first a home for songs recorded on her own. Her mother's death from cancer became the subject of the grief-steeped early albums 'Psychopomp' (2016) and 'Soft Sounds from Another Planet' (2017), which set hushed confession against fuzzed guitars, drum machines, and synthesizers. 'Jubilee' (2021) turned deliberately toward pleasure and maximalism, with horns and strings, and drew Grammy nominations; the same year her memoir 'Crying in H Mart' became a bestseller. She scored the video game 'Sable' and returned in 2025 with 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women).' Her writing pairs plainspoken lyrics about loss and desire with a close ear for texture.
the sound in question
2021
Be SweetJapanese Breakfast
walk the tributaries ↓
Björk1990s · Art pop / Electronica / Experimental
Talking through 'Jubilee' track by track, Zauner called Björk's catalogue 'just so perfect' and said the record's ambition — the idea that a third album 'should be a big statement' — was modeled on Björk's third album, 'Homogenic.' She has described wanting to 'go big,' trading the fuzz of her early work for orchestration and programmed beats that push toward grandeur rather than intimacy.
listen: upstream & heresource: Stereogum ↗
1997
JógaBjörk
2021
PaprikaJapanese Breakfast
listen forPlay 'Jóga' next to 'Paprika': both stack orchestral swells — brass and strings — over an electronic pulse and build toward a huge, cresting climax, the sound of a small song deciding to become enormous.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs2000s · Indie rock / Art punk / Garage rock / Dance-punk
Zauner has said watching a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert DVD as a teenager made her want to be a musician, crediting Karen O — a fellow half-Korean American — with modeling a fearless frontwoman who 'rejected the stereotype of meek Asian girls.' The imprint is less a specific riff than a permission: to sing an unguarded, yearning lyric at full commitment over a plain guitar-band arrangement.
listen: upstream & here
2003
MapsYeah Yeah Yeahs
2016
Everybody Wants to Love YouJapanese Breakfast
listen forSet 'Maps' beside 'Everybody Wants to Love You': both ride a driving guitar-band groove under a vocal that lays desire and need bare, holding nothing in reserve as the chorus opens up.
Built to Spill1990s · Indie rock / Slacker rock / Lo-fi / Alternative rock
The first song Zauner learned to play on guitar was Built to Spill's 'Carry the Zero,' and the Boise band's brand of melodic, patiently unwinding indie-rock guitar runs through her band arrangements — long, circling lead figures that stretch a song out rather than resolving it quickly.
listen: upstream & here
1999
Carry the ZeroBuilt to Spill
2017
Diving WomanJapanese Breakfast
listen forCompare 'Carry the Zero' with 'Diving Woman': both open on a repeating, hypnotic guitar figure and let it ride over a steadily building groove for minutes, more interested in accumulation than in a quick hook.