Japanese Breakfast’s ‘The Body Is a Blade’ Song Lyrics and Meaning
Japanese Breakfast released “The Body Is a Blade,” with Michelle Zauner elaborating on the grief behind this track. Here’s what we know about the Soft Sounds From Another Planet track and its official music video.
Japanese Breakfast released ‘Soft Sounds From Another Planet’ and its song ‘The Body Is a Blade’
This group is known for its personal, palpable alternative rock songs, complete with lyrics by Zauner and other band members. Japanese Breakfast released “The Body Is a Blade” on Soft Sounds From Another Planet.
“Try your best to slowly withdraw,” Zauner sings in the chorus. “From the darkest impulses of your heart / Try your best to feel and receive / Your body is a blade that cuts a path from day to day.”
This song also references the loss of Zauner’s mother, with lyrics stating, “What’s this place if you’re not here?” The narrator tries to stay present, (“try your best to feel and receive”), and not give in to the “dark impulses” of their heart.
Since its debut, “The Body Is a Blade” has earned over 5 million Spotify plays, with the band sometimes performing it live on their North American tour.
Michelle Zauner described ‘The Body Is a Blade’ as a song about grief
Zauner elaborated on her relationship with her late mother (and her experience with grief) in the New York Times Bestselling memoir, Crying in H Mart. She mentioned that her emotions sometimes manifested through music — particularly the Japanese Breakfast album Soft Sounds from Another Planet and its track “The Body is a Blade.”
“That song is called ‘The Body is a Blade’ and it’s very much about like sort of cutting through the days until they get easier,” Zauner told CNN’s Chris Wallace. “At the time, you know, I wrote that was my second album and my grief was still pretty fresh.”
“It was the sort of year after it happened and it wasn’t it was a real chug to move forward still and that was kind of almost like a mantra for me to like,” she added.
Japanese Breakfast released the music video for ‘The Body Is a Blade’
Japanese Breakfast released the music video for “The Body Is a Blade” in 2017, earning thousands of views. Zauner dressed as her mother for this YouTube production, later commenting on her fashion choices.
“I think I mean, I’ve talked about this a lot in the book,” she said in the same interview, “I feel like when you know to be an only daughter and to lose your mom, it feels like the only way to move forward is to truly believe that you like absorbed her like you are her in a way. And so I think I always try to call attention to recreating that feeling.”
Crying in H Mart is available at most major bookstores.
