- 2025-01-08
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MUSIC
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Japanese Breakfast Announces New Album “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)”, Shares New Song “Orlando in Love”
American indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, consisting of Michelle Zauner (vocals/guitar), Peter Bradley (guitar), Deven Craige (bass) and Craig Hendrix (drums), has announced their upcoming fourth studio album “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)” will be released on March 21, 2025 via Dead Oceans.
The album comprises 10 songs, featuring a guest appearance from American actor Jeff Bridges.
The band recorded the album at Sound City in Los Angeles with producer Blake Mills. This marks their first proper studio release.
The band lead singer Michelle Zauner said of the album, “I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted. I was flying too close to the sun, and I realised if I kept going I was going to die.”
From the album, the band released the first single called “Orlando in Love” on January 7, 2025.
The song is inspired by John Cheever's riff on Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic made up of 68 ½ cantos by the Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo.
The track was written by Michelle Zauner, and produced by Blake Mill- The band lead singer Michelle Zauner said of the song, “‘Orlando in Love’ is made up of a hodgepodge of odd references. The title comes from an epic poem by Matteo Maria Boiardo called Orlando Innamorato, which ends abruptly at 68.5 cantos because Italy was invaded by French troops, and that’s as far as he got before he had to flee. I fell in love with the title and envisioned a sort of whimsical, foolish male protagonist who lives by the sea in a Winneabeago RV and is seduced by a siren. After writing it, it felt like the perfect thesis statement for an album that is largely about people, often men, who find themselves seduced by temptation and are duly punished for it.”
She continued, “Somewhere along the way I came across Eduard von Grützner’s painting ‘The Connoisseur’ and I started to picture Orlando as a daydreaming friar who can’t help but tipple of the Abbey’s brews. He dreams of his siren and despite the dream’s foreboding imagery, decides he must run and find her. The siren is played by my dear friend Jungle, whom I spent most of my time with in Korea this year. The friars are played by Missy Dabice from Mannequin Pussy, making her return to the Jbrekkie Cinecanon, and Molly Germer. We filmed half of the video in Korea with Peter Ash Lee, who shot the cover of Jubilee, and half of it at my alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, with my longtime collaborator and DP, Adam Kolodny.” -
Japanese Breakfast embarks on The Melancholy Tour in support of the album. The tour kicks off at Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA on April 12, 2025 and will conclude at Palace Theatre in Saint Paul, MN on September 9, 2025.
Learn more about tour dates, here.
Photography by Pak Bae
Background photo by Kat Borderud - source : Apple Music
