Sony Music Masterworks / Dead Oceans
Nominated at the Golden Joystick Awards 2021 for best audio, Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) has created a soundtrack that captures the stark, expansive atmosphere of the game on which it was based – Shedworks’ 2021 hit, Sable. The soundtrack is in turn soaring, beautiful, thoughtful, and introspective as the thirty-two tracks unfold their audio narrative.
When I first received Sable for review, I had only heard of Japanese Breakfast in name only, and so had no preconceptions of the style or approach they would bring to a video game soundtrack, with the Wikipedia description of their genre as ‘alternative pop’ leaving a lot of room for interpretation.
Opting against listening to any of their music from outside of this soundtrack, I dived straight in* and the dreamy, atmospheric and often hypnotic sounds quickly won my heart.
