The Japanese House

One Liner:  More 80's inflected indie pop!

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie pop, dream pop, folktronica, electropop
Home: Buckinghamshire, England

Poster Position: Late Addition

Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: Not to be confused with Japanese Breakfast, who were at ACL last year, or "Turning Japanese," which was a top ten freakout song for yours truly when I was a small child.  Either that song, or Devo's "Whip It" were the greatest tracks ever to go nuts to when I was ten.

This is an indie pop outfit out of Buckinghamshire, which is a delicious place name to say.  But really "they" are just solo artist Amber Bain, apparently doing all the instruments and singing.  She produces most of the songs herself, but also gets help from a guy in The 1975 as well.  The tunes are reminiscent of HAIM or The Aces - lots of 80's synth pop sounds in here.

The band name was apparently inspired by a house owned by actress Kate Winslet.  Hold on, I'm just going to put this whole blurb from Wikipedia in here. "The name The Japanese House was inspired by a property in Cornwall, England previously owned by Kate Winslet with furnishings reminiscent of traditional Japanese tea houses in which Bain and her family stayed in her childhood. During her week-long stay in the cottage, Bain posed as a boy, calling herself Danny. Her experiences there heavily influenced the use of an anonymous label for her music as opposed to the use of her own name."  Huh.  That just opens many a question that I don't know if I can easily resolve.

One real album, 2019's Good at Falling, and then a bunch of singles and EPs.  her top track, by a mile, is the title track to the 2017 EP Saw You In a Dream, with 30.3 million streams.

Pretty little tune.  Too much vocal effects for my taste, but very nice ditty with a relaxed feel and quiet touch.

They toss out a cover of "Landslide," and it got me thinking about the best versions of that song.  After significant internal debate (at least eight seconds) I have decided that the original Fleetwood Mac version slightly edges the Dixie Chicks version for first place.  I'll give Smashing Pumpkins third place, and this one fourth place just before the other likely 85 versions by middling country stars and people trying out for The Voice.

The top streamer from that new album is called "Lilo," and has just over 8 million streams, and a very fiery video.

Another very pretty track.  Another where I think she's using too many vocal effects.

Many of these songs are quite nice - I think they'd be lovely in a chill playlist or something to work along to during the day, but I don't see them really turning my gears in a festival setting.  I'd probably skip this one.