Image courtesy of When the Horn Blows
Like many Greek myths, the story of Leda and the swan is unnerving: An enamored Zeus transforms into a swan to seduce and impregnate Leda the same night her husband impregnates her. She births two eggs that hatch into their own sets of twins, and while mythology distinguishes between which set is partly divine and which is mortal, there is space for parental legitimacy to be debated.
On the song “Leda,” Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast uses the myth as a backdrop for contemplating parental estrangement. It’s a stripped-down track; flittering strings leave ample room for Zauner’s delicate ponderings, and the blank sonic space imbues her words with even greater weight. Lines like, “You always take it way too far / Is it the bottle or blood? / I can’t relate to you at all,” reveal just enough about the cyclical heartbreak of this parent-child relationship. Zauner captures the complexity of wanting to love a repeatedly disappointing parent — where blood ties only lead to worrying phone calls and negligence — with admirable brevity. Here, she seems to say that, if you wait for someone to love you in the way they’re supposed to, you’ll end up waiting forever.
Listen to the rest of the playlist here!