Y: Lady Gaga ft. BLACKPINK, “Sour Candy” – Until YG Entertainment blesses us with a new BLACKPINK album in 2020, I will settle for a collaboration with Lady Gaga. “Settle” might be too demeaning a word—“Sour Candy” is a catchy confection as much as it is an acidic Eurodance club banger, and I appreciate the meeting of minds between Gaga and K-pop girl group BLACKPINK. “I’m sour candy, so sweet then I get a little angry,” Jennie and Lisa rap on the track, “I’m super psycho, make you crazy when I turn the lights low.” It’s perfect for 3 a.m., and for a Sour Patch Kids commercial, and the duality works. —Maria Sherman
Sure: Tove Lo, “sadder badder cooler” – Swedish pop singer Tove Lo takes the trope of “winning a breakup” and attempts to turn it into an empowerment anthem on “sadder badder cooler.” It’s fine—I love the refrain of “Why am I cooler than you?” and I’m sure it sounds best a few weeks out of a breakup when the healing begins. Otherwise, I’m just appreciative of the grandiose, “I’m better than you” theme, a deliciously selfish and self-involved idea that rarely appears outside of radio rock songs meant to sell, like, Madden video games. —MS
Sure: Tove Lo, “sadder badder cooler” – Swedish pop singer Tove Lo takes the trope of “winning a breakup” and attempts to turn it into an empowerment anthem on “sadder badder cooler.” It’s fine—I love the refrain of “Why am I cooler than you?” and I’m sure it sounds best a few weeks out of a breakup when the healing begins. Otherwise, I’m just appreciative of the grandiose, “I’m better than you” theme, a deliciously selfish and self-involved idea that rarely appears outside of radio rock songs meant to sell, like, Madden video games. —MS