"Road Head" followed “Machinist” and “Boyish” as the third taste of Japanese Breakfast's (Michelle Zauner) sophomore album (2017), which has just been released. Unlike the album's futuristic lead single, it begins with the notably gritty and sexually explicit setting: a blowjob on a turnpike exit (oral sex is now a repeat feature in her body of work). Zauner drains all the idealistic romanticism out of America's open roads and highways, presenting it as a desperate bid for freedom instead. When she stretches out the verse 'Pump and run', a full tank of gas sounds like your last chance of escaping an American nightmare.
The song's uptempo 80s-inspired synth pop production nevertheless keeps the wheels of the track spinning forward in an uplifting manner, as Zauner moves past mechanical imagery and mocks the man who did not think she was "cut out for a music career":""Dream on, baby"/ Were his last words to me/ "Dream on, baby"". Thankfully, Zauner has her own artistic promises to keep, and miles to go before she lets her dreams fall asleep:
'So dreamin' babyTook that corkscrewed highwayLightless miles of big rigsLightless miles, miles and miles'
Lyrics: Genius
The accompanying music video sees the album’s co-producer, Craig Hendrix, as a forbidding skull-faced monster that accompanies Zauner on her proverbial road trip. It manages to be both eerie and endearing, echoing the duality that features in much of Zauner's work as Japanese Breakfast:
"In all of the videos that we’ve made, I’m either drunk or hallucinating. They all start really fun and happy, and then three-quarters of the way through, it’s our hope that it becomes apparent that it’s not really a happy situation. And I think that’s how a lot of my music is… It seems so happy and upbeat, but if you tap into the lyrical content, the sonics of it get tainted with this melancholy feeling".
Michelle Zauner, Stereogum
