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Jan 07, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Pak Bae

Japanese Breakfast (aka Michelle Zauner) has announced a new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), and shared its first single, “Orlando in Love,” via a music video. She’s also announced some new tour dates. For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is due out March 21 via Dead Oceans. One song features legendary actor/musician Jeff Bridges. Check out “Orlando in Love” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork, as well as the tour dates.

For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is the follow-up to Jubilee, which was our #1 album of 2021 and landed Japanese Breakfast on the cover of our print magazine (buy a copy directly from us here or read our cover story interview here). In 2021 Zauner also put out her acclaimed debut memoir, Crying In H Mart, on Knopf. The book debuted at #2 on The New York Times’ Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers List and is being adapted into a film.

Speaking of all the success she had with her last album and memoir and how it impacted the new album, Zauner says in a press release: “I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted. I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die.”

Blake Mills produced For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), which was recorded at Sound City in Los Angeles, where classic albums such as After the Gold Rush, Fleetwood Mac, and Nevermind were also made.

The press release describes the new single in greater detail: “On the album’s lead single ‘Orlando in Love’—a riff on John Cheever’s riff on Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic made up of 68 ½ cantos by the Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo—the hero is a well meaning poet who parks his Winnebago by the sea and falls victim to a siren’s call, his 69th canto (even in the lofty realm of classical myth Zauner has a soft spot for innuendo).”

Also read our 2017 interview with Japanese Breakfast on Soft Sounds From Another Planet.

For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) Tracklist:

1. Here is Someone
2. Orlando in Love
3. Honey Water
4. Mega Circuit
5. Little Girl
6. Leda
7. Picture Window
8. Men in Bars (Feat. Jeff Bridges)
9. Winter in LA
10. Magic Mountain

Japanese Breakfast Tour Dates:

Apr 12 & 19 - Indio, CA @ Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Apr 23 - Austin, TX @ Moody Theater (ACL Live) *
Apr 24 - Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom *
Apr 26 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle *
Apr 27 - Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore *
Apr 28 - Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium *
May 2 - Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed *
May 3 - Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore *
May 5 - Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall *
May 7 - Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
May 9 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount *
May 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia Presented by Highmark *
Jun 21 - Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest
Jun 24 - Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller
Jun 25 - Stockholm, SE @ Filadelfia
Jun 26 - Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Jun 29 - Manchester, UK @ Academy 1
Jun 30 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland
Jul 3 - London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton
Jul 4-6 - Ewijk, NL @ Down The Rabbit Hole 2025
Jul 8 - Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
July 10-12 - Bilbao, ES @ Bilbao BBK Live
Aug 23 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl *
Aug 28 - San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic *
Aug 30 - Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater *
Sep 1 - Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theater *
Sep 6 - Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom *
Sep 9 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Palace Theater *

* w/ Ginger Root

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