The Japanese House - Good at Falling

The Guardian 80

(Dirty Hit)

The evolution of The Japanese House has been a lesson in slowly peeling back the layers. The musical moniker of Buckinghamshire-born Amber Bain (the name inspired by a childhood holiday home once owned by Kate Winslet) was part of a concerted attempt to use generalities as opposed to specifics. That also meant there were no press pictures to accompany her early EPs of skittering electronic hymnals, while her voice was often buried beneath ghostly, often androgynous effects. On Good at Falling, her debut album, the walls come tumbling down, with Bain picking at the scabs of a broken relationship with the sort of direct candour that would have seemed unimaginable when she arrived in 2015.

Fuelled by this emotional blood-letting, plus extensive touring with label-mates Wolf Alice and the 1975 (the latter’s George Daniel also co-produced the album), Good at Falling also sees Bain opening up her sound. While those early EPs seemed almost hermetically sealed, here Bain lets some air in. She skips unadorned around the lovely acoustic strums of You Seemed So Happy, and channels 70s MOR on the yearning Faraway, while the stately pop of Lilo – so specifically about the dissolution of her relationship with fellow singer-songwriter Marika Hackman that their breakup is re-created in the accompanying video – feels like a refreshing splash of cold water on tear-stained cheeks. Even when the lyrics are mired in sadness – “I think I’m dying, because this can’t be living” Bain sighs, on the Chvrches-esque Maybe You’re the Reason – there’s a laser-guided focus that keeps things from imploding.

Pitchfork 75

On her debut album, the British singer-songwriter Amber Bain lets go of her self-consciousness and, with some help from the 1975, makes the transformation from hesitant outsider to unlikely pop star.