Staying happy is hard—especially when there’s a global plague—so it’s important to latch onto joy when it appears. For today, Michelle Zauner has got us covered on all things X-Files, synth-pop a la Duran Duran, and all around good vibes. The mastermind behind Japanese Breakfast already has a busy year ahead of her with her forthcoming memoir Crying in H Mart (out April 20), and today she’s announced another exciting project for the year: Her third album Jubilee, the awaited follow-up to 2017’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet, which will be out June 4. She’s also shared its first single “Be Sweet.”
The song is packed with massive drum hits, Nile Rodgers-like guitar strums, and shimmering synths (Oh! How those synths shimmer). The album’s lead single is a joyous and hopeful introduction to Zauner’s next album, but it comes after a long period of mourning and growth; her first two albums coincided with witnessing her mother undergo cancer treatment and grieving her death. “After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy,” she said of the new project. “For me, a third record should feel bombastic and so I wanted to pull out all the stops for this one. 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.”
“Be Sweet” also comes with a fun video that Zauner directed which features Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice. Together they search for UFOs with a very legitimate looking neon-lit UFO tracker. “I want to believe in you / I want to believe in something,” Zauner sings during the chorus. Watch below to see what they discover. Pre-order Jubilee here.
