What was originally meant to be a concept album about the Mars One Project (the Dutch organization’s failed attempt to create a colony on Mars), Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet is a giant leap in complexity and atmosphere from the band’s previous releases. Lead singer/songwriter Michelle Zauner shows off her extraordinary lyricism in each track, cleverly detailing stories of love and loss while still keeping hints of the original astronomical theme. 

Their previous release, titled Psychopomp (after the Greek mythological idea of a spiritual guide who leads one’s soul to the afterlife), was written only weeks after Michelle’s mother passed, and was an uncensored and raw record that featured a photo of her mother on the cover. During the band’s 2018 KEXP performance where they played songs from what was then their newest album, Michelle spoke about feeling drained from press cycles where she had to recount her mother’s death over and over, which led to her desire to make a concept album. However this sci-fi theme “musical” (as she described it) was discarded after just one song, as she expressed it felt too heavy handed. Although Zauner had wanted to use the conceptual aspect as a protective shell for her work, allowing herself to write about what was truly at the forefront of her mind has resulted in an airy and charismatic album that isn’t necessarily in your face about its themes of trauma, but you can still find it embedded in the lyrics where it occasionally takes center stage. 

1. Road Head

Although it took some time to grow on me, Road Head’s irresistible beat and swimming melodies make this track an instant head-bopper. As is often seen in Japanese Breakfast’s music breaks, each band member contributes to the creation of an entrancing wall of sound that repeats multiple times, each one becoming more complex and spacious. Where in other songs that have instrumental choruses would quickly become boring, this track, as well as others on this album, are able to keep the listener in a trance as melodies layer on top of one another in a beautiful fashion. 

Although “Road Head” definitely isn’t the magnum opus of Zauner’s lyrical work, after listening over and over I begin to notice the small details that hint at a theme of feeling trapped and escaping a harmful relationship. “‘Dream on baby’, were his last words to me … So, dreaming baby took that corkscrewed highway”. I imagine Michelle escaping away in her car, driving miles upon miles to get away from the dysfunctional relationship she’s found, which again connects back to the song’s overarching theme of love, lust, and cars. Additionally, the repetitive sighs before each music break start as “Run” and later change to “Home”, standing as possibly a message from her intuition to flee. 

Even if the lyrics are more about sexual encounters in a car and things you might see during a drive on a freeway, after watching the music video I assume the song is detailing the uncomfortable and destructive tendencies a toxic relationship can produce. During the first few seconds of the video, Michelle is seen smoking a cigarette as a dark, hauntingly large creature with a skull for a head strokes her hair in what seems to be a homely cabin. Its giant claws catch my eye as they uncomfortably clobber her face, dark nails stabbing at her furrowed brow while she tries to enjoy what should be a sentimental moment. After a montage of dinner table arguments, 12 AM cup’ o’ noodles runs, and intimate encounters in the car, Michelle shoots and kills the beast, lighting it on fire while looking rather pleased with herself. For me, watching this video gave the track an entirely new layer of depth, as I feel there is not as much to grasp onto lyrically in this track compared to others off the album. 

2. This House

Although “This House” isn’t technically the last song on Soft Sounds From Another Planet, it feels like a gently light closing to an album filled with a whirlwind of emotions. The opening lyrics trigger an image of a Wes Anderson-esque shot, where the audience watches as the camera pans across the interior of a house, each room occupied by a woman participating in the activities Zauner describes. Although up for interpretation, “Playing guitar, cooking breakfast; sharing trauma doing dishes” sounds like a hint to the band’s name and Michelle’s instrument of choice, as well as the ever-so-present themes of trauma she displays in her work. 

Because of the stripped-back instrumentation, the lyrics are able to take center stage and grasp at the undoubtedly familiar feelings of realizing you’re slowly losing someone you love. Zauner asks the simple question “And where are you?” towards the beginning of the song, setting the audience up for a quiet ride down a beaten path, filled with all the doubts and worries she can’t help but ponder. “What if one day I don’t know you? What if one day you leave? And all confused desire and time-zone changes, change what’s left of you and me?” (Agonizing, I know.) 

As the song continues, Zauner expresses how the character in question’s secrecy and disregard for her makes her feel “like a kid”, with the same expectant-waiting a child experiences as they wait for their parent to come home. The following lyrics reveal the present narrative, in which the character the song is addressed to is long gone and living in California, while Michelle has been abandoned and left to wonder if the connection they shared was ever even real. 

My favorite aspect of this track is the childlike nature of it all, whether it’s within the lyrics or the simple down, down, down strumming of the acoustic guitar. Although faint hints of a piano can be heard during certain choruses, after listening to a live rendition where Michelle sang the notes instead, I found myself wishing that was how the recorded version had been. 

Undoubtedly my favorite song of her’s to cover, “This House” builds up and releases the tension held in the album as a whole, spilled out in one big sigh into what sounds like a letter never sent.

3. Body is a Blade

In the depressingly-sweet track “Body is a Blade”, Michelle speaks to both her mother and herself, encouraging herself to stay afloat as she struggles with the loss of the most important person in her life. For a long time I wasn’t aware that the song was about the passing of her mother, probably because of the lack of any strong emotion in the vocals and Zauner’s unique voice that at times makes it difficult to understand her lyrics. (However I’ve found myself enjoying going back and reading the lyrics of each song, often in a fanatic craze to keep digging and finding more of the hidden gems that are in her writing).

I didn’t feel drawn to “Body is a Blade” for some time, partially because of what I felt was some lack-luster vocals and sonically static instrumentals . However, lyrics like “What’s this place if you’re not here? Emptied the house and staged it for buying, wave goodbye to all your things” hit painfully hard given the context. Zauner struggles to let go and carry on with life since losing her mother, and is able to beautifully communicate that through layered guitars and synthetic arpeggios. She sings about abandoning a “hoax of trying”, while feeling “knuckled under pain”, as she’s no longer able to pretend to be okay, and letting herself surrender to the sadness. In my favorite lyric in this track Michelle calls out, “What’s this place if you’re not here?”. This feeling of desperation is amplified when seeing Michelle crying out to her mother, in a childlike and instinctual manner, for how could a girl possibly be okay after losing her mother figure? 

I would encourage anyone feeling indifferent to this song to read through the lyrics, because what’s missing sonically is entirely made up by her heart-breaking verses.

4. Boyish

Hidden in the midst of the album lies one of Michelle Zauner’s best works and my introduction to Japanese Breakfast, “Boyish”. Not only does this song exude Phil Spector Wall of Sound energy, but the themes displayed in the writing are undoubtedly genuine and paint a picture so vivid even a slightly misleading music video couldn’t blur it. 

Michelle uses playful and witty lyrics to complain about her partner’s disinterest in her, singing, “I can’t get you off my mind”, but also can’t “get you off in general”. However the hardest-hitting moment in the track is in the words “I want you, and you want something more beautiful”. The messy mix of sadness turned to anger and the hint of loneliness are combined and translated through this seemingly simple phrase, and the placement of this line right before a brief silence allows for the audience to quietly sit with those words for a few seconds before Michelle continues the second verse. In the last chorus she describes a scene of sitting at a restaurant, where her partner is clearly interested in the hostess, while Michelle’s “ugly mouth kept running”. The haunting feeling of being too loud, being a nuisance, and being a bother creep out in these self-deprecating lines, and create a bitter and lasting effect when immediately followed with the plea, “Love me, Love me!”

Gutting lyrics aside, the orchestral strings and clean, airy guitar create a wave of graciousness when paired with the ballroom style beat. And although I can confidently say I prefer the maturity and technicality of Michelle’s vocals on her more recent projects to this song, the imperfections never become a distraction because of the rawness that comes with it. 

Although this could be passed off as yet another Soft Sounds from Another Planet song about feeling less-than and missing a lover, the uniqueness of the writing and the deliberate desperation in Zauner’s voice (as opposed to “Road Head” or “Body is a Blade”) makes this track a definite stand-out and my personal favorite off the album. 

After hearing the context behind the lyrics and creation of this LP, the entire album feels both more harrowing and incredible. From the galactical walls of sound in tracks like  “Diving Woman” and “Machinist”, to the isolated  acoustic vocals of “This House”, Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet is a beautiful collection of songs that are both connected in themes but separated in sound, and has quickly become one of my favorite indie albums.