Yellow K Records

Michelle Zauner started Japanese Breakfast in response to a creative rut she was in after writing and recording the debut Little Big League record, a project she also fronts. It began with June, a song-a-day writing experiment that eventually blossomed to include two further releases — Where Is My Great Big Feeling?, another song-a-day project, and the 2014 tape American Sound. Psychopomp, out at the beginning of April, is technically Japanese Breakfast's debut album, but it comes with the fine-tuning of a songwriter and singer who has honed her skills of two-plus projects. The new record combines some re-recorded versions of older tracks and a few new ones, including the gutting opener "In Heaven." This one hits particularly close to home, as Zauner processes the loss of a loved one and tries to figure out how to move on from such insurmountable pain. After my parents died — something I've written a little bit about before — what surprised me most was how much physical evidence of

Michelle Zauner started Japanese Breakfast in response to a creative rut she was in after writing and recording the debut Little Big League record, a project she also fronts. It began with June, a song-a-day writing experiment that eventually blossomed to include two further releases — Where Is My Great Big Feeling?, another song-a-day project, and the 2014 tape American Sound. Psychopomp, out at the beginning of April, is technically Japanese Breakfast's debut album, but it comes with the fine-tuning of a songwriter and singer who has honed her skills of two-plus projects. The new record combines some re-recorded versions of older tracks and a few new ones, including the gutting opener "In Heaven." This one hits particularly close to home, as Zauner processes the loss of a loved one and tries to figure out how to move on from such insurmountable pain. After my parents died — something I've written a little bit about before — what surprised me most was how much physical evidence of