There’s usually two types of people who play The Sims. One enjoys building characters and watching them thrive, and the other prefers the more sadistic act of watching their sim die in creative ways. Either way, one thing is certainty true about The Sims universe: The game features some great music.
All of the music played in The Sims is translated into Simlish, the nonsensical language spoken by the characters which consists of familiar-sounding gibberish. The Sims oftentimes taps popular artists like Snail Mail and The Black Eyed Peas to record some of their hits in Simlish to be used in the game. Japanese Breakfast is the latest musician to offer up a Simlish version of their music, translating her Jubilee track “Be Sweet” into a catchy-yet-unintelligible tune for the game’s upcoming Cottage Living expansion pack.
Though a lot of her music on Jubilee is synth-driven, Japanese Breakfast told Uproxx in a recent interview that she has always been inspired by “cringe-worthy” indie rock like Built To Spill and Death Cab For Cutie:
“The music that I really loved growing up were bands like Built To Spill, Death Cab For Cutie, and Modest Mouse. Also, all the K Records bands and that sort of anti-folk stuff, I was into that when I was a teenager. And all the Phil Elverum projects, which had that sort of hyper-personal, confessional quality. There’s this almost cringe-worthy earnestness that accompanies the Pacific Northwest. And I feel like that type of music really influenced me growing up and is definitely a major reference point for a lot of Japanese Breakfast albums, whether or not I want to admit it.”
Listen to “Be Sweet” in Simlish above.
Jubilee is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.