Photo by Sarah Weitzman

The start of summer is catching us in a transitional moment this year. Fresh signs of optimism are cropping up, but many of the personal and societal turmoils that have defined the past year remain as strong as ever.

Japanese Breakfast’s latest album Jubilee was released on June 4th, 2021 after a yearlong delay. Michelle Zauner told The Creative Independent, “The record was supposed to come out in the summer of 2020, and then we were like, ‘Maybe it’s not the best time to release an album about joy.’”

Zauner’s previous two albums under the Japanese Breakfast moniker have focused largely on grief and loss. Her turn to the theme of joy is a compelling shift. However, the joy that courses through Jubilee is far from uncomplicated.

For the inaugural installment of our Our Thoughts On series, our Music team reflects on Jubilee, and how it feels to consume art about joy during turbulent times.

Check out the playlist on Spotify here.

TAYLOR
“Slide Tackle” cured my sadness, but then later that day I felt sad again, so I listened to “Slide Tackle” again and it cured me again. Magic! This album makes me want real joy even if I have to fight for it. When I grow up I want to be cool like Michelle Zauner. <3

LILY
Jubilee is full of bright light. It’s the first warm, sunny park afternoon of the season with a big group of friends and the happy, satisfied exhaustion of a very long, very good day. It’s lush, electric, and the perfect beginning-of-the-summer album, with the anticipation and excitement of more long, bright days ahead. All the horns on this album make my heart sing! 

MIGUEL
I love how visual Zauner makes all of the instruments. It’s so gentle yet so visceral, and it has a way of placing me in specific places in my memory. Her voice, energetic horns, soft strings, and cutting guitar. I’m on a road trip with my best friend from high school, I’m falling in love all over again, I’m on my back porch at my childhood home. The last song on the album, “Posing for Cars,” has this guitar solo (War on Drugs vibes) that has brought me to tears… of grief, of joy, of absolution. Like a burden off my back.

ADAM
It’s crazy when you realize that Japanese Breakfast hadn’t released an album before Jubilee since 2017 as she’s been such a big name in the indie scene in that time. Now that she’s back, Zauner proves that she can keep it fresh and still make that milky, poppy sound flow so easily through your earbuds. Welcome back, we missed you. :)

MADELEINE
Music with a dance beat and romantic comedies got me through the pandemic; easy access to a little joy. Jubilee makes me wanna DANCE and shed some of the constant stress of living in June 2021. The sad banger “Be Sweet” brings a grin to my face, even as Zauner begs her partner to be sweet: “I wanna believe in you.” We all need something to believe in right now. And something to spin around in our underwear to.

Album Cover of Jubilee by Peter Ash Lee