Psychopomp
Studio album by
Japanese Breakfast
ReleasedApril 1, 2016
Recorded2014–2015
StudioCR Ensemble; Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
Genre
Length25:11
Label
Producer
  • Ned Eisenberg
  • Michelle Zauner
Japanese Breakfast chronology
Where Is My Great Big Feeling?
(2014)		 Psychopomp
(2016)		 Soft Sounds from Another Planet
(2017)
Singles from Psychopomp
  1. "In Heaven"
    Released: January 20, 2016
  2. "Everybody Wants To Love You"
    Released: February 18, 2016
  3. "The Woman That Loves You"
    Released: March 8, 2016

Psychopomp is the debut studio album by Japanese Breakfast, the solo musical project of Michelle Zauner of Little Big League. The album was released in the U.S. through Yellow K Records on April 1, 2016, and re-released internationally through Dead Oceans on August 19, 2016.

Background

Michelle Zauner fronted the Philadelphian emo band Little Big League from 2011 until 2014,[2] when she returned to her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, where her mother had been diagnosed with cancer.[2]

While tending to her family in Oregon, Zauner began recording solo music as a self-meditative and "instant-gratification" feeling[3] and because she found she had more to say after Tropical Jinx, the 2014 studio album by Little Big League. The work led to Psychopomp, published under her project Japanese Breakfast. Zauner said she chose the name "Japanese Breakfast" to juxtapose Asian exoticism and American culture.[4] Psychopomp is named after the creature of the same name, which Zauner learned of in an essay by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.[5]

Zauner described the debut album as quite "dark and heavy-handed", although she had a desire to make the music urgent[6] and "sonically upbeat."[3] In the album, she discusses regret of not being there with her mother and her decision to get married before her mother went into a coma.[3]

The album's cover features a photograph of Zauner's mother in her twenties, left, with an old friend in Seoul, Zauner wrote in her 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart.[7]

Zauner, whose mother was Korean and her father American Jewish, has said she hopes that her work can help persuade more Asian Americans to get involved in music.[6]

Release and promotion

The album's rollout saw the release of three singles: "In Heaven," "Everybody Wants To Love You" and "The Woman That Loves You. "In Heaven," was released on January 20, 2016 and premiered via Stereogum as the album's lead single.[8] "Everybody Wants to Love You" and "The Woman That Loves You" were released on February 18 and March 8 respectively.[9] The latter track was premiered via The Fader.[10] The album itself was released on April 1, 2016 in the US. After Japanese Breakfast signed to the record label Dead Oceans, Psychopomp was re-released internationally, both of on August 19, 2016.[11]

Promotion

To promote the album, Zauner opened for Japanese-American singer-songwriter Mitski alongside American singer Jay Som.[12] Later the same year, she performed in the UK to promote Psychopomp's then upcoming international re-release. Following these performances, Zauner toured with American band Porches in a joint tour to promote their respective albums.[13]

Composition

Psychopomp is a dream pop,[14][15] indie pop, and lo-fi album.[16] According to AllMusic's Tim Sendra, "the album has all the hallmarks of a homemade lo-fi album, but also has the feel of a wobbly '80s pop album played on a long-lost cassette." Sendra also wrote that the album's sound shifts between "guitar-lashed indie rock with swooping synths ("Rugged Country"), melancholy ballads played on tear-stained keys ("Jane Cum," "Triple 7"), driving pop/rock with pumped-up hooks ("Everybody Wants to Love You"), and bass-heavy, almost painfully heartfelt indie rock ("Heft")".[17] Nina Corcocan of Consequence of Sound wrote: "It's lo-fi heart with detailed production, the type of pop that feels homey and familiar — which is doubly surprising given Zauner’s other band, Little Big League, is full of jock riffs and chunky guitar rock."[16] PopMatters' Jasper Bruce thought that the album serves "cocktails of electronic, garage rock and lyrical vocals."[18]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.1/10[19]
Metacritic76/100[20]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[17]
Consequence of SoundB[16]
Pitchfork7.9/10[21]
PopMatters7/10[18]
Spin7/10[15]

Psychopomp received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 76, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on five reviews.[20] AllMusic critic Tim Sendra, who described the record as "an impressive work by an artist well worth watching in the future", wrote, "Zauner's songs don't need dressing up; time and again she and Eisenberg make the right choices that allow the melodies to breathe and the emotions to flow unhindered by artifice."[17] Consequence of Sound's Nina Corcoran wrote, "Psychopomp chases joy while replicating it in the process, leaving you full of the belief that this could be your year after all."[16] Pitchfork critic Laura Snapes wrote that the record "offers much more than that: at once cosmically huge and acutely personal, Zauner captures grief for the perversely intimate yet overwhelming pain it is. Long may she keep at this music thing."[21] PopMatters' Jasper Bruce wrote that Psychopomp "juggles spacy soundscapes with insistent, driving grooves. For the most part, the record pulls off this balancing act seemingly effortlessly and with style."[18] Spin critic Anna Gaca described it as "a sharp-edged exploration of how loneliness and longing form into brittle personal shields."[15]

PopMatters listed the album as number 3 on its list of "The 10 Best Shoegaze and Dream Pop Albums of 2016".[22]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Michelle Zauner

No.TitleLength
1."In Heaven"3:50
2."The Woman That Loves You"2:24
3."Rugged Country"2:53
4."Everybody Wants to Love You"2:12
5."Psychopomp"1:15
6."Jane Cum"3:31
7."Heft"3:37
8."Moon on the Bath"1:29
9."Triple 7"4:00
Total length:25:11

Personnel

Musicians

  • Michelle Zauner – guitar, keyboards, vocals
  • Peter Bradley – bass
  • Nick Hawley-Gamer – guitar
  • Colin Redmond – percussion, clarinet
  • Ned Eisenberg – keys
  • Adam Ponto – strings
  • Sam Cook-Parrott – backup vocals on "Everybody Wants to Love You!"

Production

  • Ned Eisenberg – producer, mixing
  • Michelle Zauner – producer
  • Colin Redmond – engineer at CR Ensemble in Eugene, Oregon
  • Alex Santilli – mastered at Spice House Sound in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Ben Pubusky – art design

References

  1. ↑ Richards, Will (June 3, 2021). "Japanese Breakfast – 'Jubilee' review: indie rocker's bold statement of ambition". NME.
  2. 1 2 Teo-Blockey, Celine (September 15, 2016). "Interview: Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner on death and 'Psychopomp'". AXS TV. 2929 Entertainment. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Hannah, Andy (October 18, 2016). "In the Rugged Country: Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast tells Andy Hannah about the loss which brought her back to the Pacific Northwest". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ Champ, Christine (July 1, 2016). "An Interview with Michelle Zauner, The One Big Boss Lady Who Is Japanese Breakfast". Front Row Boston. WGBH. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ Mescher, Daniel (2016-10-11). "Japanese Breakfast's 'Psychopomp' Reflects On Dreams And Death". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  6. 1 2 Gardin, Russell (June 28, 2016). "Pop Music Has A Sense of Urgency: An Interview With Japanese Breakfast". Free Press Houston. Archived from the original on December 25, 2016. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  7. ↑ Zauner, Michelle (2021). Crying In H Mart: A Memoir. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-525-65774-3.
  8. ↑ Rettig, James (2016-01-20). "Japanese Breakfast – "In Heaven" (Stereogum Premiere)". Stereogum. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  9. ↑ Moreland, Quinn (2016-02-18). "Japanese Breakfast: "Everybody Wants to Love You"". Pitchfork. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  10. ↑ McDermott, Patrick D. (2016-03-08). "Listen To Japanese Breakfast's Dazzling "The Woman That Loves You"". The FADER. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  11. ↑ Gaca, Anna (2016-06-23). "Japanese Breakfast Shares 'Jane Cum' Video, Signs to Dead Oceans". Spin. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  12. ↑ Sperry-Fromm, Rob (2016-07-08). "Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, and Jay Som on tour, played the Echoplex in LA (review)". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  13. ↑ Pearce, Sheldon (2016-07-26). "Porches and Japanese Breakfast Announce Tour". Pitchfork. Condé Nast. Retrieved 2023-04-22.
  14. ↑ Gotrich, Lars (May 4, 2017). "Japanese Breakfast's 'Machinist' Is A Melancholy Story Of Sci-Fi Love". NPR. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  15. 1 2 3 "SPIN Overlooked Albums Report: The Goon Sax and Let's Eat Grandma Are Teenagers of the Year". Spin. July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Corcoran, Nina (March 30, 2016). "Japanese Breakfast – Psychopomp". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  17. 1 2 3 Sendra, Tim. "Psychopomp – Japanese Breakfast". AllMusic. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  18. 1 2 3 Bruce, Jasper (April 4, 2016). "Japanese Breakfast: Psychopomp". PopMatters. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Psychopomp by Japanese Breakfast reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  20. 1 2 "Reviews for Psychopomp by Japanese Breakfast". Metacritic. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  21. 1 2 Snapes, Laura (March 29, 2016). "Japanese Breakfast: Psychopomp". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  22. ↑ King, Ian (December 21, 2016). "The 10 Best Shoegaze and Dream Pop Albums of 2016". PopMatters. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
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