You guys should be so very proud of me in this moment… I have chosen a fucking favorite. Yes that’s right, yours truly has picked a sole winner for my listening pleasure in 2017. So I guess you can say I grew a little bit this year. Anyway enough about my ambivalence, the album that stirred my being is the very talented Japanese Breakfast with their second studio album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. The album was released on July 14, 2017 via Dead Oceans.
The whole album is like a dream, nothing but ethereal, floating through space above life watching in awe as you float among the clouds looking down with a sort of renewed spirit and wisdom.
An album that makes you remember, oh yeah that was 2017… like nirvana in 1993 with In Utero or Biggie’s Life After Death in 1997. An album that puts you back there, in that moment, and there you are. And I think this is it for me, aptly named Soft Sounds from Another Planet.
When the bells begin in “Here Comes the Tubular Bells” I get chills. The guitar starts it up and Zauner’s voice floats in like the wind. The song staying with me long after those waves at the end.
“Road Head” is the first song I heard from the latest album blew me away. This song clinched it as my favorite. It’s dreamlike quality took me out of reality for those three minutes and fifteen seconds. It’s touch on fantasy with so much realistic shit thrown in you would swear she was reading my journals.
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It’s a complete escape touching on punk, dream pop, indie rock and alternative chill.
“Driving Woman”… I do feel quite like the weightless astronaut floating through space in awe of what I see and feel. A slow dive into the future and ultimately the unknown.
“Boyish” has my heart, almost like a sad love song from the 60s. The drums, my heartbeat.
Relatable and yet so magical, timeless really. Thank you Japanese Breakfast for making my most favorite album in 2017.
And if you dig my opinions I will let you in on some of my favorite singles this year..
Charly Bliss with “Percolator”
Julien Baker with “Funeral Pyre”
Ty Segall with “Black Magic”
Daddy Issues with “Mosquito Bite”
Alvvays with “Antisocialites”
