Be Sweet
2021 single by Japanese Breakfast
"Be Sweet" is a song by American indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, released on March 2, 2021, as the lead single from their third studio album Jubilee. The band's lead vocalist Michelle Zauner co-wrote the song with Jack Tatum, the founder and lead singer of the indie rock project Wild Nothing. Zauner's bandmate, Craig Hendrix, encouraged her to compose arrangements for Jubilee; the two of them, along with Tatum, worked on the track's production.
Though the band's work previously dealt with Zauner's personal struggles with grief, "Be Sweet" saw them divert from their usual indie rock sound and lean more into a pop direction. Recorded in 2019, the song is a synth-pop, new wave, indie pop, dream pop, and funk track. The song received praise from critics, who lauded its joyful, vibrant sound. The band would release various alternative and cover versions of the song, while also performing it frequently at festivals and on television late night and talk shows.
Background, recording, and release
Japanese Breakfast's first two studio albums, Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) were recognized by music critics and listeners for reflecting the personal grief of lead singer Michelle Zauner. In the interim years between Soft Sounds and Jubilee, Zauner studied music theory and piano. Her bandmate and co-producer Craig Hendrix also encouraged her to help compose the album's string and horn arrangements.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q117101280. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2021, 2019, 2016 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Be Sweet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.