Japanese Breakfast returns with ‘Orlando In Love’ to announce a new album
Finally launching a new era following 2021’s Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast has emerged from the cocoon of a transformational period as a shimmering butterfly. With lyrical nods to Virginia Woolf’s own ode to reinvention, ‘Orlando In Love’ is a stunning return.
However, while Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner may not have released any music for a few years, she has been busy. The silence on her Spotify profile definitely doesn’t reflect the ever-buzzing creative brain as in the years since her last record, she released her best-selling memoir Crying In H Mart, bringing a whole new element of artistry to her arsenal, and she relocated to Korea to further explore her roots and find some new perspective.
It seemed like a necessary pause. When introducing her new era, Zauner reflected on her own ambition, claiming, “I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted.” But as the classic myth goes, too much drive can be a bad thing, as the singer added, “I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going, I was going to die.”
That stark realisation that she needed to take a beat, paired with her exploration of other avenues and other sides of herself, has clearly resulted in something special. ‘Orlando In Love’ is the opening track to a new album titled For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women).
Instantly, from both the title and the sound of this introductory track, things are different. After the bold and boisterous extroversion of Jubilee and hyper-catchy tracks like ‘Be Sweet’, this new one is more restrained and seemingly more considered. It does less musically but says so much more with its poetic lyricism and emotive instrumental build, incorporating classic orchestral elements.
While the title instantly draws a line of reference to Virginia Woolf’s novel, with the track’s music video and Zauner’s masculine and feminine costumes seeming to nod towards the classic gender-bending book, the song also takes inspiration from Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic poem by Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo. Clearly, in the time away, Zauner took to her books, looking back through literature for strikes of inspiration and more high-brow influences.
Perfectly paired with an instrumental that can only be described as lush, ‘Orlando In Love’ is the most mature and elevated Zauner has sounded. Combining the articulation, she proved herself to be a master of in her memoir and the musicality that first made Japanese Breakfast catch people’s ears, ‘Orlando In Love’’s perfect balance predicts great things to come on the upcoming album, due on March 21st.
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