“JUBILEE” CREATES A BEAUTIFUL STORY OF VULNERABILITY AND JOY
Japanese Breakfast’s Third Album Remains One of the Best Musical Explorations of Humanity, Three Years After Its Release
BY JACKSON MCCOY PHOTOS BY PROVIDED
I spent this summer away from my home in central Ohio to take an opportunity in Washington, D.C. Often during my trip, I have found myself feeling lonely, overwhelmed by work, and occasionally bored. The best cure to all of these feelings has been music, but few albums have impacted me the way “Jubilee” by Japanese Breakfast has.
Japanese Breakfast, the name of Michelle Zauner’s band, is a Grammy-nominated and critically acclaimed indie pop group. Zauner writes almost all of the lyrics for the band, works closely on instrumental arrangements, plays the electric guitar, and generally makes a lot of the music people hear when listening to Japanese Breakfast.
“Jubilee,” the band’s third studio album, was released in 2021 just three months after Zauner’s best-selling memoir, “Crying in H Mart.” Both explore themes of loss and emotion but in different ways. “Crying in H Mart” is about Zauner’s grieving process after the death of her mother, while “Jubilee” is a celebration of still feeling something. Whereas the two previous Japanese Breakfast albums focused mostly on mourning, “Jubilee” breaks through to the joy without forgetting grief.
The songs on “Jubilee” are expansive in all aspects of their composition; the lyrics are complex, delving into the conflicting but intertwining emotions that come with being a person going through life, matched by sweeping orchestral performances and synths. Each lyric adds to the layers of intricacy created by the instrumental background. To describe the album as anything less than an opus would be a disservice.
Picking a favorite song on the album is almost impossible. I have bounced around which ones I enjoy the most and with each listen I come back with new favorites.
“Posing In Bondage” and “Posing For Cars” are my most consistently relistened. Both have minimal lyrics and elaborate instrumentals but still tell equally emotional stories.
In “Posing In Bondage,” Zauner sings about the clear distinction between people who have felt extreme loss and have gone through mourning and those who haven’t yet. She sings “When the world divides into two people / Those who have felt pain / And those who have yet to,” saying she wishes she couldn’t see this difference but will always feel the pain of the divide this causes. Zauner is letting herself stay vulnerable waiting for them to come to her, even though a lot of those people have not gone through the same things as her and often end up hurting her.
In “Posing For Cars,” Zauner utilizes similar story-telling techniques in her music. This time pointing to the freedom of cars, she draws comparisons between the limits of her love and the love of who she sings to. She points to the disconnects between them as lovers, but ends by showing the strength of their connection lies in their different ways of loving each other. She sings “And how could you ever conceive / This adolescent heart skipping beats? / When all your love, it grows full and firm beneath / Without a festered thought, without an emerald want / Just a single slow desire fermenting,” pointing to how her love is more youthful and evokes butterflies, while her lover’s is strong and set to her.
This song marks a perfect end to the album, showcasing that although Zauner sees the painful differences in everyone like she noted in “Posing In Bondage,” she also sees the power in feeling differently than others and having her own unique experiences.
These two songs exemplify the masterful lyricism and musicianship of “Jubilee,” but a different song might do this for another listener. The beauty of “Jubilee” is how universal each song is, despite how deep the feelings are and how personal of a place it comes from for Zauner. This album represents the breaking free moment for Zauner from the grief of losing her mother but has themes and lyrics that can be applied to anyone’s struggles.
The first time I was introduced to “Jubilee,” I was sitting in my friend’s bedroom while she folded origami jewelry boxes. She played me “Tactics,” a song she resonated with and I also found myself feeling. The more we listened to the album, the more I was enveloped by it. “Jubilee” gave me a new perspective, allowing me to see that I can miss my family, friends, and my home while also having an incredible time in a new city. Overall, “Jubilee” is a masterpiece of humanity, exploring some of the most touching subjects possible.
