This is an album that glistens and sparkles at every moment. Zauner is revelling in her musical step up as she employs synths, strings, saxophones, pianos, guitars and anything she can lay her hands on to take her evocative and richly detailed songwriting to a new level.

Full Review

Best of 2021

Worst of 2021

Recent Reviews

100

The Independent

Jubilee is an evolution for Zauner.

100

‘Jubilee’ finds its creator older and wiser with melody, lyrics and storytelling pulling focus in a fashion that cements Michelle Zauner as a true creative force to be reckoned with. From here on out, Japanese Breakfast can go anywhere and we’ll follow.

Unapologetically big and dazzlingly bright, Jubilee is an invigorating depiction of Zauner’s journey to finding true happiness in a testing and unforgiving world.

Jubilee isn't about pushing the pain away; rather, it's a validation of whatever it is you feel. Zauner wants you to know with this record that you have the capacity to find joy in whatever mess life throws your way.

It’s fun and fearless and with enough depth to have the songs stick to your ribs. It’s intelligent pop done right.

If nothing else, one thing’s for certain: Zauner is absolutely in her element here and it goes without question that while this is undeniably her year, she’s also just rebranded herself as one of today’s top-tier indie visionaries.

Jubilee is a stunning and bold step-up that firmly cements Michelle as one of music’s most gifted songwriters, composers and performers. Be sweet to this one, we need more like her.

Northern Transmissions

Jubilee is a masterclass in songwriting and production. Each aspect embraces the other and compliments it perfectly. Triumphantly rejoicing in the biggest and most mundane of emotions, Japanese Breakfast has crafted a record that fulfills and abandons just moments apart from each other.

This album certainly is a rush, and it’s also the best Japanese Breakfast album to date.

Thankfully, just as with Crying in H Mart, Jubilee is an album that showcases Zauner's talents to their fullest and makes crushing on Japanese Breakfast hard to resist.

It’s the sort of statement so well-chiseled and superior to its predecessors that it scans as a breakthrough, even though this is a band well past the breakthrough stage.

If nothing else, Jubilee is confirmation that Michelle Zauner is a great artist regardless of the context.

Jubilee’s 10 songs arrive fully baked, frosted with bigger beats and softer swirls, all stacked carefully on top of each other.

Maybe that’s what makes Jubilee so special: only Zauner could have fashioned these songs both as tenderly bright and violently sad as they’ve become. Not one colour: an entire spectrum of female experience, struggle and fulfilment.

The album conceives of the exuberant possibilities of life and love while teasing out their more bracing realities.

Switching muddy shoegaze for bright pop, Michelle Zauner's third album as Japanese Breakfast is a record that could only be made by somebody who has felt pain, and is brave enough to try and defy it.

It’s a jubilant and sweet experience. The least conceptually bound Zauner has been, she moves confidently through a space befitting of the multi-hyphenate artist she has become.

Michelle Zauner’s third album under her shoegaze-inspired moniker is a brilliantly forward-thinking stab at creating pure joy.

Japanese Breakfast’s latest LP Jubilee is the project’s most ecstatic-sounding album to date, although one glance at the lyrics will tell you that Zauner isn’t done excavating the thornier aspects of dependency, devotion, and longing.

Jubilee is an alternative pop record that pulls you into the world of Japanese Breakfast, poses larger than life questions, and leaves you evaluating not just the record, but also yourself.

With Jubilee, Zauner honours her past and pushes forward, urging us all to do the same

Michelle Zauner embraces the spotlight and goes for the brass ring on her third album, a stylish and eclectic record that feels of the moment and also steeped in classic indie sensibilities.

The additional instrumentation doesn't always do Jubilee favors, but rarely distracts from Michelle's strengths as a lyricist and performer.

These are smart, confident, and mostly fine-boned songs.

Full Review

User Reviews

View All

DoubleZ

Jubilee captures the essence of delightful Chamber Pop and heartfelt Indie Pop and makes it graceful. Zauner is a master at bringing emotions to life or making them speak when they seem deeply buried, volatile in contrast.

Sometimes the choices we make explain a lot. Take for example the one I made today, which is to write about Japanese Breakfast, when Wolf Alice is releasing a new and highly anticipated album. Not because Jubilee is inherently better, because I don't know yet, but I'm ... read more

100

TomBejoy

This dish might not be to everyone's (westernized) taste on a hungover morning, and it's also a breakfast with many components—rice, grilled fish, miso soup, pickles, and a Japanese-style omelette—and some relatively obscure ingredients. Having said that, this is as clean, wholesome, and nutritious as breakfast gets, so if anything is going to make you feel better it may well be this. However, I advise you to steer clear of tofu with a hangover (vegetarians: you may shoot me now); ... read more

2w*

BGL13

pride month: day 4

alright i’m gonna clarify a few things about this series.
1. i decided to include new releases by lgbt+
artists in the series so i can listen continue the series and still listen to the albums i’m excited for
2. albums tagged as “queer” are by artists who have said they are attracted to the same gender, but haven’t stated/are unsure of their specific identity.
with that out of the way, this album is great. i loved all of the singles that were ... read more

QueenRosie

100

This song is great it sounds like she's 18 but she's 32 she also know how to speak English too.
i also love the other songs like Paprika,be sweet,(Kokomo , IN ),slide tackle,Posting In Bondage,sit,Savage Good Boy,In Hell,Tactics,Posting for cars i love all songs there like filled with happiness and the cover looks very cute too. I'm rating this a 100 cause this sound to to TO good and i can't stop listening to it .

Love the Love the cover and love the songs so i rate this a 100 cause ... read more

2w*

reedy (:0)

8.2 - Great

What a treat of an album.

Before jumping into Jubilee, I had absolutely no clue what to expect. It’s an album that struck me with its mystery, as I had never past heard of Japanese Breakfast, but the album cover is absolutely stunning. I also heard of it’s praise and hype from the singles, which had good responses. So yeah, you can say I jumped into Jubilee blind, and what I got was an extremely well done pop album that left me in a state of sweetness and warmth after ... read more

2w*

More user reviews

Purchasing Jubilee from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?