Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Cheryl Waters, host of the Midday Show on KEXP, is "Be Sweet" by Japanese Breakfast, from the 2021 album Jubilee on Dead Oceans.
Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast is one busy lady. Mere months following the release of her memoir Crying in H Mart, she's releasing her third album, Jubilee, on June 4th via Dead Oceans. Today's Song of the Day is the first single, the joyous, upbeat “Be Sweet.”
“I wrote ‘Be Sweet’ with Jack Tatum from Wild Nothing a few years ago. I’ve been holding onto it for so long and am so excited to finally put it out there,” she said via a press release. The track was accompanied by a self-directed music video featuring Zauner and Missy of Mannequin Pussy as FBI agents, inspired by the TV show The X-Files.
The song's effervescent feel is reflective of the new LP, a change of pace after previous albums — Soft Sounds from Another Planet and her debut Psychopomp — reflected on the loss of her mother in 2014, from pancreatic cancer. “After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy,” Zauner continued. “For me, a third record should feel bombastic and so I wanted to pull out all the stops for this one.”
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