In this weekly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music you need to know about now.

Chart Champ: Jimin – Like Crazy

Leave it to a member of BTS to make history.

The K-pop septet’s Jimin became the first South Korean soloist to debut atop America’s Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with Like Crazy from his new EP Face, released on March 24.

According to Billboard, Like Crazy sold 254,000 song downloads and CD singles and drew 10 million streams in its first week.

The dreamy, sultry synth-pop number that has both Korean and English versions does away with the overt sound effects of Set Me Free Pt.2, a previously released track from Face, and allows Jimin’s voice to shine. It is a solid piece of electronic dance music that is trance-like and addictive.

Like Crazy is partly inspired by the 2011 romance movie of the same name about a long-distance relationship starring Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence, with lines from the film – “I think we can last forever“ and “What’s the point?“ – bookending the track.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Jimin said he thought the song conveyed the ambiguous feelings of both happiness and loneliness reflected in the movie, which offers a realistic depiction of a break-up.

Aside from Like Crazy, Face also includes the angsty Face-Off and the half-whispered, half-sung Alone. - Jan Lee

Stream This Song: JJ Lin – Hero

Singaporean superstar JJ Lin’s new single Hero has a touching story behind it.

A tribute to anyone who has lost someone dear, the 42-year-old Mandopop singer composed the tender ballad’s melody in remembrance of the late Taiwanese lyricist Eric Lin, who died in December 2022 at age 62, after years of suffering from liver cirrhosis.

The two are not related, but Eric Lin was once the head of Taiwanese record company Ocean Butterflies and was instrumental in launching JJ Lin’s career in the region. He also wrote more than 20 of JJ Lin’s songs, such as River South (2004) and A Thousand Years Later (2005).

A tribute concert for Eric Lin was held in Taiwan on March 25, but JJ Lin, who had to perform a concert in Hong Kong that same night, could not attend.

So the night before, during his show at Hong Kong’s Central Harbourfront Event Space, JJ Lin dedicated Hero to Eric Lin and sang it on stage while playing the piano. The track was then officially released at midnight.

With lyrics like “Have you noticed that the world is full of traces of you” and “one day we will meet again”, the song perfectly expresses JJ Lin’s deep gratitude to and reverence for his mentor. - Benson Ang

Ace Album: Boygenius – The Record

The Record is the debut LP by Boygenius, the indie supergroup comprising three American singer-songwriters who are acclaimed and accomplished artistes in their own right – Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.

While such a meeting of minds tends to be a hit-and-miss affair, there is palpable chemistry among the three that elevates their emotionally affecting tunes into a cohesive batch of songs greater than the sum of its parts.

The album comes five years after Boygenius released their debut EP in 2018. Since then, each member has come up with significant works that have garnered accolades and Grammy nominations.

One gets a sense that here are three kindred spirits who understand one another emotionally and creatively as they take turns to helm songs. Bridgers, for example, assumes lead vocals on tracks such as the melancholic Emily I’m Sorry, which she performed at her Singapore gig in February 2023.

Baker’s contributions, while a little more raucous, are no less moving, while Dacus shines with sensitivity and wit.

And when the trio sing and harmonise together, the results, as shown in the a cappella opening tune Without You Without Them, can be aural bliss. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Must-See MV: Charlie Puth – That’s Not How This Works (feat. Dan + Shay)

This is the season of pop singers putting out unreleased tracks that were left out of their albums.

American singer Charlie Puth teased That’s Not How This Works on Instagram back in 2020, but it was nowhere to be found when he released third album Charlie in October 2022.

Now, he has finally released the tune, similar to how American pop princess Taylor Swift recently put out All Of The Girls You Loved Before, an outtake from her 2019 album Lover.

With its catchy chorus and layered instrumentation, That’s Not How This Works, which also features Grammy-winning American country pop duo Dan + Shay, would not have sounded out of place in Charlie.

And Puth’s music video for the song stars another high-profile collaborator – American actress-singer Sabrina Carpenter.

The pair convincingly play lovers who fall in and out of a relationship, and the MV even features a few intimate scenes between the duo. The on-screen kissing has sparked speculation that Puth and Carpenter may not just be acting, although fans have also noted that both are already in relationships with other people.

The clip does not end well, though. Puth is left a nervous wreck in the aftermath of the break-up. - Eddino Abdul Hadi

Singapore Scene: Rangga Jones - On My Own

R&B songsmith Rangga Jones has been steadily building up his presence in the last couple of years.

While still a relatively new name in the home-grown music scene, his streaming numbers are impressive.

On Spotify alone, he racks up more than 1.5 million monthly listeners, much more than many of his peers.

The Indonesia-born, Singapore-raised singer’s new single On My Own is a poignant, lovelorn ballad which displays deft songcraft and fetching melodies.

It is a follow-up to Waste Your Time, the single he released in January 2023.

A collaboration with another local singer-songwriter, Thecolorfractal, it captures the uncertainty and doubts that take over the lovesick mind. - Eddino Abdul Hadi