Jubilee
by Japanese Breakfast

From Hayden TOP 100 COMMENTER 06/07/2021 14:19 | #270451 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

From ALC #19—

Sounds like: The sadness which seeps after a night of consuming party drug soup dumplings, yet the memories of the good times persist.
Drink of choice: Spiced yuzu lemonade with a twist

Look! Persimmons!
Ah, persimmons.

A jubilee is a jamboree with less amor and more uil, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but at least we’ve steeped an album out of it.

I remember when I first heard Everybody Wants To Love You and all going through my head was how I used to hang in studios with so many singer/songwriters who would have loved to create something like that. Felt like she nailed it. That was it. Absolute bullet. Questioned why she wasn’t bigger, why this wasn’t the smash of the summer, track of the year, blasting out of every car whipping down the beach front. Felt like a nugget of gold was tossed into a mall’s wish fountain. An epitome of indie pop fired at us from nowhere and we shrugged it off. We plucked it out of that wish fountain on occasion, but I’m still not quite sure people realized it was an actual gold nugget.

Won’t lie, wasn’t super hot on her follow up record, but at least she gained momentum. Was happy about that. Knew the next release would be make or break time. And then something interesting happened. She was shot out of a canon. That same brain listening to Everybody Wants To Love You for the first time would have never imagined this singer would be topping bestseller lists while also having chart topping hits, but I’m glad Japanese Breakfast squeezed through the crowd. Think she made it with this one.

A warm, glistening, citrus-burst of a record with a summertime fuzz and the sadness which comes along with it, a hug for tears happy or sad. I may be writing to Ms. Breakfast as to why she dedicates the final thirty seconds of her songs to building them, but otherwise, I think this record is everything it wants to be.

Standouts: Posing In Bondage, Kokomo, IN., Sit, Be Sweet

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/28/2021 21:00 | #272019 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

(Stunning, Brilliant, Amazing, etc. I love it obviously. It was for me a grower. Each track has hooks for days and something emotionally powerful and raw as well. Simplest way to describe it is it's a great Chamber Pop and Indie Pop and other interweaved-forms-of-pop album., with gorgeous lyrics and vocals that subtly express all the themes and emotions. If you want to hear at the very least a very pleasant and nicely written album, give this a spin or 2 or 20.)

Okay, at this point I think I have a problem. I can't stop listening to this album. Whenever I move away from it for awhile I get that itch and I see that front cover and I push play. Sometimes the thought that goes through my head when I push play is "Maybe I'll just listen to the first couple songs until I set my eyes on something else" then I proceed to bask in the glory and depth of all 10 tracks. All 10 diverse yet cohesive, catchy yet emotionally stirring tracks.

This is just one of THOSE albums, ya know? It has layers upon layers upon layers. And on top of the emotional resonance of the sharply written and gorgeous lyrics, the vulnerable yet confident vocal performances, there is ALSO just, quite simply, those hooks and production details, those moments when you just feel more alive and vibrant while listening. This album brings little tears to the corners of my eyes, both of the joyful and happy kind as well as the heart-rending variety. On "Be Sweet" I'm overcome by the simplicity and power of the chorus, on "Posing In Bondage" I feel like I'm sharing in the wellspring of emotion and sorrow and sadness with Zauner, when I listen to "In Hell" I'm thinking about loved ones now gone and empathizing with the pain and gritty reality of the words she is singing with such earnestness, on the closer "Posing For Cars" I always think I'll get through unscathed and then that extended minimalistic, aching, noisy guitar solo comes in and I am overcome again, etc etc. I didn't mention other 5-star songs that make me feel all kindsa ways like "Slide Tackle" ("I want to be good. I want to navigate this hate in my heart somewhere better..."Don't mind me while I'm tackling this void, slide tackling my mind..." jesus christ this is maybe my favorite track of the decade, especially powerful when paired with that sexy sax and lively guitar work that livens up the song.), or "Sit" with that persistent wash of reverby noise and that echoing soundscape so beautifully crafted, or the straight up Chamber Pop sweetness that dominates both "Kokomo, IN" and "Tactics" but to 2 different emotional ends, or the bounce and groove and hidden depth of the pop gem "Savage Good Boy", and - jesus how did I save this for last when this is also song of the year material - the brilliant tour-de-force of album opener "Paprika" with its stream-of-conscious, dreamy poetic opening salvo followed by that expansive part when the rhythm and band comes in with that almost marching drum beat, and that chorus which is about as perfect a way to start an album as one can ask for, etc etc... actually not etc, because I just touched upon every one of this album's tracks in one long run-on paragraph. lol. Imma keep the paragraph going a little longer...The sheer amount of memorable moments and expertly crafted and emotionally powerful songs here is mind-blowing. Okay, I'm done. I'll finally double tap "Enter" and move on now.

There is no weak song here, not remotely. They all have their own individual layers and facets. And as an album they work so well, in other words its simply a well-sequenced album in my opinion with no filler. It may actually be the perfect Pop album length-wise and track-wise - 10 songs, 37 minutes. Packed with so many glistening moments of beauty and fun and catchy electro beats and chamber pop strings and synth color to fill in the corners, and enough dissonance here and there and brutal gut punch lyrical lines to ground the record to this real world we share with Michelle Zauner.

I have to say I have had this album playing at least once a day for 2 or 3 weeks now. I have gone to write some sort of comment here on my chart over and over, yet I could never find the right words to say to express my thoughts on the album. What I would always do instead of writing a comment was move the album a little higher on my chart. At first I thought it was quite good but not really clicking with me, put it at like #70 on this chart. Then I reflected a bit and I moved it to like the mid 40s of the year chart. Then I started to think yeah this is just a really solid as hell album start to finish and I moved it to 15... then I knew I was in love and put it number 8, then 5 and then 2 and now... it's my number 1 album of the year. It is for now anyway. It is my favorite album of the year and it kind of snuck up on me. I hope for all of you reading this that you like it as well. It's highly recommended.

“Jubilee” is very ambitious both in topic and instrumentation. The instrumentals are an ever shifting combination of chamber pop, synth pop, and indie rock. More than just genre, the song structure itself will rely on completely different ideas. “Slide tackle” is made different solos layered on top of each other and the following track “Posing In Bondage” is an semi-abstract layering of electronics. The difference is striking and extremely novel. The songwriting follows the pattern of difference with topics ranging from struggles in monogamy to the justification of a billionaire. “Be Sweet” being a highlight with it’s over dramatic cry for attention framed as the climax of a film. Though the albums risk taking deserves to be praised, it does not always succeed. Some song structures feel flat and unengaging. “Posing For Cars” is supposed to break into this emotional guitar solo but it never builds. When the solo finally hits, it instead feels like an extended wallow. “Jubilee” does not reach its full potential but it’s lovely enough to leave a smile.

for me best album of 2021, but it's still in august I'll wait and see if a better one comes out

I didn't expect it to be that great