User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
Jubilee Image
Metascore
88

Universal acclaim - based on 19 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 113 Ratings

  • Summary: The third full-length release for Michelle Zauner was inspired in part by Bjork's Homogenic and Wilco's Summerteeth.
Buy Now
Buy on
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Jun 4, 2021
    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.
  2. Jun 4, 2021
    93
    It takes all the things that have always served Japanese Breakfast well — Zauner’s awareness of her voice and how best to deploy it, her knack for narrative and story as well as great hooks — and offers them fresh soil in which to grow.
  3. Jun 8, 2021
    90
    This album certainly is a rush, and it’s also the best Japanese Breakfast album to date.
  4. Jun 2, 2021
    85
    Jubilee’s 10 songs arrive fully baked, frosted with bigger beats and softer swirls, all stacked carefully on top of each other.
  5. Jun 11, 2021
    80
    The album isn’t uplifting in a simplistic sense. Often, it’s blotted with shadows. In her lyrics, Zauner has a fondness for zig-zagging from ebullient to devastating, often when you least expect it (“With my luck you’ll be dead within the year / I’ve come to expect it,” she croons on ‘In Hell’). And yet at a molecular level, Jubilee is a rush.
  6. Jun 2, 2021
    80
    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.
  7. Uncut
    Jun 2, 2021
    70
    These are smart, confident and mostly fine-boned songs, though epic closer “Posing For Cars” leans on a lachrymose, slow-mo, alt.rock guitar passage. [Jul 2021, p.27]

See all 19 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 27
  2. Negative: 1 out of 27
  1. Jun 4, 2021
    10
    Paprika is a stunning open to this outstanding album. Listening to it is like going to a parade. You've been to parades before, but you don'tPaprika is a stunning open to this outstanding album. Listening to it is like going to a parade. You've been to parades before, but you don't remember the floats being this big and colorful or the smiles being this wide and joyful. It's the first bite of a juicy and sweet fruit: tastier and more refreshing than you remembered it being.
    This feeling holds throughout the 10 gorgeous tracks. Tracks such as Sit and In Hell sound like something that would fit into Zauner's previous two albums, but they're fuller, more confident, and stronger than before.
    The album closes with the evocative Posing for Cars. Zauner's vocals have never been this emotive and the bittersweet yearning bubbling beneath the surface of the album through songs such as Kokomo, In and Posing In Bondage reaches its catharsis with an illustrious and glittering instrumental. This evokes the feeling of finally finishing your last bite of fruit. You've realized that with the embracing of its sweetness came a bitterness and toughness. Perhaps you wish you could share it with someone else, but they might not appreciate it like you do. But you don't regret eating it and you desire more.

    I've never considered an album to be a 10/10. Even my favorite albums have aspects that I might think could've been executed in a way that would've worked better. But Jubilee is truly a different beast. I've been devouring it for the past few days (got the vinyl release early) and cannot think of a single thing I would change about it.
    If you haven't yet listened to it, do yourself the favor. And when you do, make sure you truly savor it. Close your eyes. Feel each instrument and word fill your body. And you will find yourself enjoying a truly delicious meal.
    Expand
  2. Jun 15, 2021
    10
    album of the year. i made an account just to say that. honestly have never used this website before.
  3. Oct 22, 2021
    10
    This album is the best of the 2021 so far.

    My top songs are Posing in bondage, savage good boy and be sweet.
  4. Jun 19, 2021
    9
    Eu achei um álbum tão reconfortante, as letras são muito honestas sobre superação e inseguranças, sobre ser feliz e querer ser feliz. É umEu achei um álbum tão reconfortante, as letras são muito honestas sobre superação e inseguranças, sobre ser feliz e querer ser feliz. É um álbum q saber manter o ritmo e eu me perco nas melodias e na produção com aquelas guitarras, trompetes e saxofones

    Melhores Faixas:
    -Slide Tackle
    -Be Sweet
    -Posing In Bondage
    -In Hell
    Expand
  5. Aug 19, 2021
    9
    Japanese Breakfast has created an album that is nearly perfect in all ways: singing, melody, instrumentals, lyrics, and atmosphere created.Japanese Breakfast has created an album that is nearly perfect in all ways: singing, melody, instrumentals, lyrics, and atmosphere created. This album deserves to be celebrated and will likely be in my top ten list at the end of 2021. This album helps push us to happier places even if it talks about loneliness, longing, needs, death, and more. Joy and happiness are multifaceted. The outro of POSING FOR CARS is epic and is the perfect way to end the album as PAPRIKA was the best way to start this work of art. PAPRIKA, to me, reminds us that there can be an immense relief and jubilee to open the floodgates without finding water or a current of any kind. SLIDE TACKLE is about the desire to be better and to transcend to joy the darkness and hate and asking to be treated well during this time. IN HELL hits you where it hurts and can open up the waterworks. TACTICS is about how freedom and joy might only be sometimes possible if you move away and let the other person say what they want and distort the truth while embracing fiction. Paprika - 10
    Be Sweet - 9
    Kokomo, IN - 9
    Slide Tackle - 9
    Posing in Bondage - 10
    Sit - 9
    Savage Good Boy - 9
    In Hell - 10
    Tactics - 10
    Posing For Cars - 10

    95/100 A
    Expand
  6. Oct 29, 2021
    8
    a magnificent exhibition of loss, growth, and finding moments of glory in between it all.
  7. Nov 23, 2021
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Suena como una mezcla de ARCA & Björk pero en un pésimo sentido terrible un desastre mal hecho y es una copia barata de Griff y Rina Sawamaya. Expand

See all 27 User Reviews

Related Articles

  1. The 40 Best Albums of 2021

    The 40 Best Albums of 2021 Image
    Published: December 23, 2021
    We reveal 2021's best-reviewed albums, ranked by Metascore.
  2. Best of 2021: Music Critic Top Ten Lists

    Best of 2021: Music Critic Top Ten Lists Image
    Published: December 1, 2021
    Over the next month, we'll be collecting year-end top 10 album lists from over 200 music critics, publications, record stores, and other sources. Find all of those individual lists and 2021's consensus rankings inside.
  3. The 20 Best Albums of 2021 So Far

    The 20 Best Albums of 2021 So Far Image
    Published: June 30, 2021
    Here are the best-reviewed albums released during the first half of 2021.