“The follow up to Japanese Breakfast’s critically acclaimed debut is a work of self-reflection,” reads the press release, “one that looks out at the cosmos in search of healing, finding inspiration in science fiction, outer space, and the Mars One Project.” If you feel all this is sounding slightly absurd, then you’re certainly not alone. The follow-up to Psychopomp feels wholly less real, less grounded and more experimental in its themes and, also, in what Michelle Zauner projects into her sound. It’s an album that promises an odyssey, suggests the intangible and, ultimately, looks to find escape within an often horribly conscious world.

Soft Sounds From Another Planet is a hefty slice of electronica, arriving at something slightly nostalgic and slightly futuristic in equal portions. Of course influenced by the sounds and imagery of the late David Bowie and Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey, Zauner also looks sideways at her contemporaries for inspiration. Opener ‘Diving Woman’ carries a thick krautrock kick in its rhythm, something akin to the likes of Public Service Broadcasting, whereas ‘Road Head’ falls slightly into the dream-pop swirl of Zauner’s debut Psychopomp but, interestingly, in similar grounds to the likes of New Zealand’s Fazerdaze.

Zauner wrote the debut Japanese Breakfast album in the weeks after her mother died of cancer, thinking she would quit music entirely once it was done. Of course, this wasn’t quite the case and upon the attraction that she quickly summoned, she would have to face the baying music world out there once more using her music and band as her source of artillery. Psychopomp embraced the loss and grief of her mother by providing a cathartic space for Zauner to tap into; this being said, it is therefore hard to ignore the optimism and escapism that Soft Sounds promises. It is now time for Zauner to heal. The euphoric saxophone and neon 80s undercurrent of ‘Machinist’ suitably pinpoint this target of self-removal, placing the theme nicely within the crosshairs before the likes of ’12 Steps’ fires, hitting the target with a cathartic punk racket.

Zauner seeks escape from woe and misery through the metaphorical understanding of the album title’s ‘another planet’. The mission statement for Soft Sounds reads: ‘do not cling to the past, do not descend and stick to the routine unless derailed’. Zauner’s escape acts as a fitting message to all those going through trouble, be that political, personal loss or suffering in any format. From the beauty of ‘Jimmy Fallon Big!’ with its Mazzy Star shoegazing to the slacker-rock throb of ’The Body Is A Blade’, both tracks seduce and outline this point of release. Zauner’s exploration of an alien galaxy – a galaxy of her own creation – suggests something expansive and emphatic. Space after all is a place of fantasy and the ultimate retreat, what more do we as humans want from time to time than a place to transport to?

Musically, Zauner always has this theme and world in mind. From the atmospheric lull of the album titled track through to ‘Till Death’, which puts her chilling voice in isolation, she never allows you down to Earth, instead insisting that you stay within her far-flung galaxy. This new Japanese Breakfast opposes the debut album, moving Zauner’s recordings from the bedroom to the big room – a much needed transition in order to let Soft Sounds From Another Planet breathe to its full extent. Whereas previously the likes of ‘This House’ may have felt claustrophobic and reclusive, they now move outwards and upwards, rising and filling the world that Zauner has stitched for them.

The sophomore for Zauner and Japanese Breakfast shows a newfound maturity in her sound and also her outlook on life. Nobody is trying to paint over loss or death, least of anybody Zauner, but moving forward rather than dwelling shows that there is more than one string to her bow. Self-reflection and a discovered positivity have boded well second time around for the young Portland musician and her sound has suitably grown with her attitude.
Tom Churchill

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