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Song of the Day #5,166: ‘Pink Venom’ – BLACKPINK

Born Pink, the second album by K-pop sensation BLACKPINK, is due out next month. Its first single, ‘Pink Venom,’ dropped the day before I’m writing this and already has 115 million YouTube streams and counting.

Blackpink is the most successful female K-pop band worldwide, second only to BTS overall. The quartet formed in 2016 after years of auditions and tinkering by the YG Entertainment agency, a major label specializing in cultivating and promoting Korean pop acts. The band spent four years touring and collaborating with other artists before dropping their first album, titled The Album, in 2020.

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Song of the Day #5,165: ‘Hollow Moon’ – Josh Rouse

Singer-songwriter Josh Rouse just released his 14th studio album in the last 25 years. I’ve been following his career since 2005’s Nashville, still one of my favorite albums ever, and he has yet to disappoint.

Rouse’s new album is called Going Places, and it’s a return to the sweet soft rock that most typifies his style. It follows 2018’s Love in the Modern Age, a delightful detour into 80s synth-pop, and a 2019 Christmas album (cute, but proof that we don’t need new Christmas songs, even from our best songwriters).

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Song of the Day #5,164: ‘Beach House’ – Carly Rae Jepsen

I’m a huge fan of Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2015 album Emotion, as sparkling and clever a pop collection as you’ll find on this side of the 21st century.

Her follow-up, 2019’s Dedicated, somehow flew right past my radar. I recall opening track ‘Julien,’ but I don’t think I ever heard the whole thing through. It suffered a similar fate as Emotion, receiving widespread critical acclaim but very few sales. Is there no room these days for Jepsen’s brand of danceable pop?

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Song of the Day #5,163: ‘Coast’ – Hailee Steinfeld (feat. Anderson .Paak)

Hailee Steinfeld has quietly put together one of the most interesting careers among her peers in young Hollywood. The 25-year-old actress and singer has established herself in movies, TV, and on the music charts, a rare feat for performers of any age.

Steinfeld received an Academy Award nomination at age 14 for her stunning debut in the Coen Brothers’ True Grit. She followed that success with impressive turns in more than a dozen films, including The Edge of Seventeen, Bumblebee and the Pitch Perfect movies. On the small screen, she is a Peabody winner for her work as the titular character in Apple TV+’s Dickinson and recently starred in the Marvel series Hawkeye.

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Song of the Day #5,162: ‘CUFF IT’ – Beyoncé

I’ve always been a devotee of Beyoncé as a celebrity, force of nature, and all-around iconic goddess, but I’ve never been a huge fan of her music.

I’ve enjoyed her singles over the years (specifically, ‘Crazy in Love,’ ‘If I Were a Boy,’ ‘Irreplaceable,’ Halo,’ and ‘Single Ladies’) but the accompanying albums never grabbed me.

That changed with the singer’s 2013 self-titled release, her first “visual album,” a contemporary R&B release that hit on all cylinders. Whether it was the erotic hip-hop of ‘Drunk in Love,’ the disco-funk of ‘Blow,’ or the ecstatic pop balladry of ‘XO,’ I suddenly understood the hype.

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