Local Airwaves is your source for the lowdown on tracks soon to be heard on WKNC. This week’s album is “Soft Sounds From Another Planet” by Japanese Breakfast.
Perhaps the most highly regarded indie dream-pop artist at the moment, Japanese Breakfast, first broke ground with their first release, “Psychopomp” in 2016. Quickly garnering a cult following, solo artist Michelle Zauner’s musical project is known for its vibrant, spacey sound that conveys a range of complex emotions and ideas through its songs. Hoping to recapture that success, Japanese Breakfast released “Soft Sounds From Another Planet” around mid-July with very little fanfare or immediate reaction; a quiet debut.
While a lot of people flocked to Japanese Breakfast after hearing “Psychopomp,” I kept my distance. Although I respect the quality and craftsmanship of the album, as well as its superior encapsulation of the dream-pop genre, “Psychopomp” ultimately left me uninterested. The album is not particularly my cup of tea, and I still think a fair amount of fans overestimate how good the album really is. My main complaint was that, while it’s a great refinement of the elements of dream-pop and the songwriting is above acceptable, “Psychopomp” doesn’t necessarily bring anything wholly original to the table, and its melodies aren’t particularly ear-catching to those who are not already a fan of the genre. Regardless, it was indeed a quality album, if not a perfect one.
Then along comes “Soft Sounds From Another Planet” about a year later, and I could swear that it’s from a completely different artist. Japanese Breakfast has abandoned much of the dream-pop elements from “Psychopomp” in favor of a sound more comparable to generic electronic dance music than indie electronica or alternative rock. Just like with “Psychopomp,” I’m left fairly disinterested and generally averse to it, but this time it’s not because I just don’t love dream-pop. This time, it’s because the album is wholly generic, middle-of-the-road electronica with no real highs or lows, that neither progresses or refines the dream-pop genre or the electronica genre.
To be perfectly honest, this doesn’t fully come as a surprise. I didn’t expect to fall in love with the new album, but I also didn’t expect to dislike it as much as I did after only three listens. What I expected was another logical refinement of the dream-pop genre and, perhaps, some innovation from an artist that I saw as immensely talented and capable of more.
“Soft Sounds From Another Planet” feels like a step backwards from an artist capable of much more. There are hints of that talented songwriting on this album as well, but it doesn’t particularly materialize into anything coherently great. Songs like “Diving Woman” and “12 Steps” both contain fantastic lyricism, a real emotional basis and interesting structure, but all of this is lost in the boring malaise of generic electronic synth sounds and vocals that don’t venture very much out of mid-range.
This is not a bad album by any means, but it’s not a good one either. It’s boring, lacks innovation and refines very little. Is it pleasant? Yes. Is it captivating? Not really. Having listened to this album all the way through only three times, I already find myself averse to the concept of another listen. It’s not a repulsion to the concept, but instead an utter lack of motivation to hit the play button once more. Perhaps “Soft Sounds From Another Planet” was meant as an adventure into new territory, a foray into a new sound meant to bring new inspiration to mind for Japanese Breakfast; if so, it comes off as an unnecessary risk that unfortunately didn’t pay off. While I wasn’t personally a fan of “Psychopomp,” I think Japanese Breakfast had a lot of room to grow with that sound, and would be better served exploring it a bit further before trying to change things up again. Though this album might have been a bit disappointing, I have hope that the next one can be something great.
