Great Big Feeling: Japanese Breakfast’s Quiet Intensity
The Greeks eased the sting and uncertainty of death by inventing a spirit said to help souls transition, without judgment, from one life to the next; later, Carl Jung would adopt the symbol as a mediator between the conscious and the unconscious. Collectively referred to as psychopomps, the word encompasses imagery that’s endured for generations, from Charon to the Grim Reaper. The myth took on special relevance for Little Big League vocalist Michelle Zauner as she wrote new songs and reworked old ones for the album that would become her devastating solo debut as Japanese Breakfast. Holed up with her family in small-town Oregon as her mother battled cancer, and ultimately succumbed to it, Zauner saw herself as a sort of psychopomp, too–and with an onomatopoeic relationship to the “psychotic pop” of its sonic contents, Psychopomp happened to make a perfectly fitting title for the record.
When I call Zauner to chat about her current tour with Mitski and the unexpected success of Psychopomp, the caravan is driving from Portland to Vancouver, hungover from a hometown karaoke session the night before–Zauner’s go-to number, she says, is Madonna’s “Like A Prayer.” The homecoming seems fitting, because sense of place, specifically, the fact that the Pacific Northwest anchors every song on the record. Sonically, Psychopomp is a clever amalgamation of Angelo Badalamenti’s moody Twin Peaks score and the lo-fi, flaws-and-all drama of Phil Elverum’s work with the Microphones and Mount Eerie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOsLEKnbl7I