Carly Rae Jepsen • Kiss

http://i.imgur.com/sC621.jpg

ooh ooh ooh I love this so far.

knights in satan's service

Sped up Sam Cooke sample in the opening track is cuet.
This Kiss just started. I heard it the other day and it quickly became an earworm.

I had no idea I'd be so excited about hearing this tbh.

It would've been really funny if they'd left Call Me Maybe off the proper album.
This is probably the thousandth time I've heard this song, but I've never hated it and still don't.

First time hearing this song with Owl City. *delete

yeah this album is pretty cool

use of interpunct = this album is for creeps

She's older than I am.

I do not want to hear her song with Owl City as I do not want to hear any song with Owl City

P   I
S   S

the owl city song sounds like some alternate version of california gurls

keep it simple, stupid

not a big fan of restructuring records but this is seriously my album of the year if you replace "good time" with "sweetie" and "beautiful" with "drive"

"drive" is super incredible

such a surprisingly awesome album, totally expected it to be Call Me Maybe + filler but no! almost every song is great! the middle 8 of "hurt so good">>>>>>>>>

love it

"turn me up" is just so so so great

best synth sound in the world is in the chorus of "guitar string/wedding ring"

like moving jelly

This is fantastic.

I love this album a lot a lot

the owl city song sounds like some alternate version of california gurls

Which itself sounded like some alternate version of "Tik Tok".

And "Tik Tok" > "California Gurls" > "Good Time"

"Hurt So Good" is supposed to be an Amy Grant rewrite, right? (This album is awesome sans "Call Me Maybe," "Good Time," and "Beautiful" with "Drive," "I Know You Have a Girlfriend," and "Sweetie" instead.)

sans "Call Me Maybe,"

what the hell no

picture me trollin

I can't even see why you'd listen to this album if you didn't like "Call Me Maybe". I mean, I love that song and everyone is saying this is great and I'm still having a hard time mustering up any enthusiasm to check it out.

i felt the same - before i was actually commissioned to review it i didn't really have any interest in it. it keeps on giving though.

i liked 'call me maybe' fine but this album p much just got on my nerves tbh

I didn't get rid of "Call Me Maybe" because I didn't like it, just that it's jarring to listen to with a bunch of songs I haven't heard a million times. It should have been the last track. Album sounds better with the bonus tracks at the front anyway.

kinda agree with rtc, this album feels p tedious first time through

this is a great lp, but it's sort of depressing that even after CMM was SO massive, the label still think she needs to have some really shitty crossover collabs on there. it doesn't need them.

i will never forgive gibbard for this owl city bullshit

^^^^

the more i hear it i think there are some good bits - some really good bits - on this album but i very much sympathise with finding it problematic in relation to 'call me maybe'. consider what makes that record pop out so much on the radio, the kinda classic sturdier sound feeding into latent nostalgia, the whole angle on her being a tad older, and it's basically a microcosm for how it sits on the album - even while most of the songs as written and performed mine a complementary cyndi lauper/cars vibe (whatever man let's not get picky) the production on pretty much all of them tap back into that shriller modern all-american katy perry lmfao max martin rictus that in its eagerness to press home the good times becomes kinda gruelling, claustrophobic, relentless. and in the end feels like a tide crj has to swim against

whereas without 'cmm' on there you would feel idk, a little more braced for the whole thing i guess?

but lol albums anyway as ever, this'll have a bunch of fun singles so

relentlessLY FUN

we have a thread now!

yeah, this is great. first listen was ok but it's pretty much amazing all the time now that i've deleted owl city and bieber.

bonus tracks are uniformly great - should be integrated into the album as a whole. the house-y remix of curiosity seemed kind of unnecessary, but the mellow electropop o.g. fit in on the EP but wouldn't have belonged on this. and yeah, Call Me Maybe, while amazing, doesn't fit in with the vibe of the rest of the album. sticking it at the end gives a sort of release.

i dig the tracklist that cr4bdbgs posted somewhere, although part of me really enjoys the fact that the album opens with that awesome sam cooke sample:

Drive
Tiny Little Bows
This Kiss
I Know You Have a Girlfriend
Sweetie
Curiosity
More Than a Memory
Turn Me Up
Hurt So Good
Wrong Feels So Right
Tonight I'm Getting Over You
Guitar String/Wedding Ring
Your Heart Is a Muscle
Call Me Maybe

Anyway, the main lesson from this album is that more pop albums should feature disco strings + slap bass.

and idk, i've never been a huge fan of the forced rictus of fun Katy Perry steez and I don't get that vibe here, no matter how up tempo it is?

also, while there are definitely a lot of the usual suspects on here about a quarter of the non bieber/owlcity stuff is co-written by her boyfriend, who's some random nyc musician i guess? and at least one or two other tracks that were done by canadian industry folks

even while most of the songs as written and performed mine a complementary cyndi lauper/cars vibe (whatever man let's not get picky) the production on pretty much all of them tap back into that shriller modern all-american katy perry lmfao max martin rictus that in its eagerness to press home the good times becomes kinda gruelling

Yeah that makes sense to me, only the CRJ album has made me realise I actually like that sound when it's called into the service of an actually decent set of songs and a singer with a bit of charm.

i think it was indeed the disco string and slap bass that did it for me. if it had been turned up to chic/level 42 levels this would be the best album ever made.

i kinda disagree completely about the modern shrillness thing - CRJ doesn't have the persona(lity) to be all up in your face being obnoxious and personality-heavy like katy perry et al, even on the album's most obvious nod to the guettadrop there's something completely lite and weightless about it (plus it works because it's the only one)

He's not really talking about the vocals though. The production is pretty in-your-face throughout really, bar two or three songs.

also, for those of you who do find that production in your face *and those who don't* apparently no one outside canada got the Curiosity EP that originally contained Call Me Maybe?

It was supposed to be her 2nd LP and then got reduced to an EP. Call Me Maybe aside it's charming midtempo electropop, including the original mix of Curiosity and a cover of Both Sides Now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDk7clnihs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMlUaxBp33U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASZXZDIyPz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWWSmXhc50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=migIuRMadOk

I remember seeing that EP in stores, but I think they pulled it back out once "Call Me Maybe" started to blow up. That or it sold out really, really quickly, since I could never find it again once I was interested.

Anyway, if you like her and/or her song but don't like the super-aggressive thump, this might be more to your taste.

Her first album is super folky in a Mraz sort of way, with the exception of the title track, 'Tug of War', which is sort of folk-trance and is pretty lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IoedEgydRo

Tug of War is pretty nice.

Where did she place in Canadian Idol? Did she win?

iirc, they let everyone on Canadian Idol finish first, because, well, it would just be rude to let so many people down, you know?

you forgot "eh"

too obvious

The "eh" is regional anyway, right? "Soooory" is nationwide, though.

In 2007, she placed third in the fifth season of Canadian Idol, and was a part of the Canadian Idol Top 3 concert tour.

Canada only has a top 3 tour? Nice. I think American Idol tour sales are in the garbage can because no one wants to sit through 10 singers, half of whom they hate.

was all prepared to hate this, but find myself unable to do anything but smile and bop my head

She lost to this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIySPt2D0zI

And this guy, who was the winner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeoTQ9Z2i_g

the overall sound is a lot gentler than what i think of as the "shriller modern all-american katy perry lmfao max martin rictus" style. it's clear and bright, pops where it should, but i don't feel at all battered by the production. it's more inviting than insistent.

agree that the sequencing of "call me maybe" feels jarring, though i'm not sure why.

i think "call me maybe" sits kind of perfectly in its spot! provides a context for the rest of the record. also, impossibly, hearing it in album context totally reenlivened it for me

also i think a lot of the appeal of the sound of this record is the push and pull between the guetta/dr. luke/max martin/lmfao elements and, you know, the pure disco, which i think are the clear and bright elements that contenderizer highlights. even max martin's big dubstep number is grounded by carly's voice and lyrics, the whole "drop" mirroring the release of the lyric "tonight i'm getting over you," like being released from a line, the sudden preponderance of weight, etc.

how the fuck is "drive" a bonus track?

haha. so say we all.

also, 'i know you have a girlfriend'. also, 'sweetie'.

otm. three of the best songs on the album. would happily cut the owl city and beiber tracks for those, though i don't really hate either. on the first pass, i'm not a big fan of "tonight i'm getting over you" or "GS/WR" either, but i need a few more listens.

"GS/WR"

favorite song

a surprise b/c that's a real awful title

it verges on the willfully abrasive pop sound discussed upthread, but that's not necessarily a bad thing

"tonight i'm getting over you" and "turn me up" are the only ones i thought nodded explicitly at current guettapop rather than the golden age of teenpop thing

the whistling melody throughout "i know you have a girlfriend" <3

"hurt so good" is def my fav non-CMM song

pains me to admit it, but i think i love this album

tonight i'm getting over you grew on me really quickly.

it took a day and then when it clicked, it CLICKED.

the half-spoken bits on 'i know you have a girlfriend' are great.

especially 'cuts me like a knife / gonna be your wife'

okay, i take it back, i flat fucking hate the owl city parts of "good time", dude fucking ruins a potentially decent song

yeah owl city is a...low point

the bieber duet isn't even that awful just a bit boring

i have no complaints about the sequencing or the presence of CMM fwiw - it's been one of those mad busy weeks where i've had too much to listen to and also do so i haven't had any time left over to thinking about how it could be better in that respect

second time through the sequencing of CMM didn't bother me at all. bit jarring on the first pass, a visitor from another world, but now that i'm prepared, it sounds perfect.

i also think the beginning "curiosity" sounds great how it issues softly out of the end of "call me maybe"

where can I listen to songs from this album? they removed fuck all from youtube

spotify

The reason one of the best songs is an "bonus" is because it's standard practice for the company to leak/stream the album minus the bonus songs. So then if you want to legally hear them you have to buy the CD.

Best I can tell, it's not up on Spotify yet because it hasn't been officially released, but here's where it will be: http://open.spotify.com/album/134tOfYZccuTVvBEQOAUto

no spotify in my coiuntry :(

There appear to be several different versions on Spotify and only one of them has 'I Know You Have A Girlfriend' on it, which is mentalism.

soulja boy nod on "turn me up" <3 <3

fake-out just before the second chorus of "curiosity" <3 <3

can't stop listening

as your last.fm would testify

Best I can tell, it's not up on Spotify yet because it hasn't been officially released, but here's where it will be: http://open.spotify.com/album/134tOfYZccuTVvBEQOAUto

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 16 September 2012 08:21 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No? It seems to work here...

You're in the uk, right? Monday release vs. Tuesday release in the us.

Finally heard and reviewed "This Kiss." Quite good.

the first track on this album is so sickly sweet and cutesy it is making me seriously angry

maybe I shouldn't have listened to Purity Ring and Sleigh Bells on repeat all this morning before trying to play this

yeah I'm gonna try this later when I'm not all aggro, right now this is just the worst fucking thing and I can tell it's 90% because of my mood and not the music

if i'd had to listen to purity ring and sleigh bells all morning i'd be so overjoyed to hear carly rae jepsen

actually i ended up having a deadline on the same day for my bob dylan piece and carly rae jepsen review, the evening before i took to alternating one song off each album just to make the impending deadlines more fun, and my god going back to dylan every time was physically painful

If. You. Cut. A Piece. Of. Guitar. String.
I. Will. Wear. It. Like. It's. My. Wedding. Ring.

^^^ I've heard this shitty laboured chorus like twice and I already feel I've heard it thousands of times. That one's the real clunker here.

the first two songs basically sound like aural saccharin to me right now

You might as well stop, it's all basically the same.

yeah I went on to something else, I'll try again later

call her maybe!

I'm really feeling this album. Reminds me of marit larsen.

*ejects*

big time 80s vibe here, cars reference upthread otm, also men at work

whoa, you guys are making me actually want to go buy this.

I'm liking some of the tracks a lot, and I hear some of Kylie in this, especially her sweeter, older stuff. Very no-fuss pop. Sequencing is a little funky to me - I think the first 7 or 8 tracks all have similar beats and structures and the album could use one or two more songs that deviate from that (though Guitar String/Wedding Ring is pretty bad).

If. You. Cut. A Piece. Of. Guitar. String.
I. Will. Wear. It. Like. It's. My. Wedding. Ring.

^^^ I've heard this shitty laboured chorus like twice and I already feel I've heard it thousands of times. That one's the real clunker here.

yeah, there are other missteps (owl city), but i like GSWR less each time through

the first two songs basically sound like aural saccharin to me right now

can't say you're wrong, but the bright, sugary effervescence of the sound is what i like about kiss. "tiny little bows" makes me instantly, giddily happy every time i hear it. it's like the aural equivalent of the wachowski's speed racer movie, an insubstantial cloud of neon hearts and rainbows. my favorite parts of the album are those that seem the least substantial.

it just made me yearn to hear the Presets album

i like this and the new presets about the same. actually that's unfair, I need to give the presets a few more listens.

FML, i like the owl city one :-( , but a lot of this is better than ok, with some great highlights

man y'all "guitar string/wedding ring" only gets better for me

lol either I am in a much poppier mood than I was this morning or the first two songs on this are really, really terrible; I started listening at "Call Me Maybe" this time and am enjoying this immensely (currently up to "More Than A Memory")

haven't really read the thread yet, have we already had the "'Turn Me Up' is a lost Kylie song" conversation

i love the run from "this kiss" to "hurt so good" ("good time" excepted, i've given it a chance but now i just skip it)

yeah see, i love "tiny little bows" but am starting to skip "this kiss". don't care for the steamwhistle synths, reminds me too much of "teenage dream".

That one w bieber sounds like a Colbie cheese Callait / Hey There Delilah mashup.

i would love to participate in this conversation but i can't actually make myself listen to anything besides "i know you have a girlfriend" AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN

it's hitting every rick springfield button i have, and a handful that i don't

"and i think she's kinda nice" - the coldest dagger

Haha the reason you like 'I Know You Have A Girlfriend' is because it sounds like boshed-up ROBYN.

(I really like that one as well)

isn't it "and i hear she's kinda nice"?

oh maybe so!

good point about robyn.

the way she slides up into "wiiiife" etc reminds me of someone, i can't think who. i want to say the pistol annies or something.

hmmm, I'm not into this. I'm sure I'll end up enjoying whatever non-Owl City songs from this end up on the radio tho.

It's all pretty competent and whatever, obvious exceptions aside, it's just a lot more of this style of music than I want to hear at one time. Too much Natasha Beddingfield realness.

lmbo @ "Natasha Beddingfield realness"

agree with rev, this album is a lil bit too shrill

From Katharine St. Asaph: How the Internet Killed Carly Rae Jepsen.

the stretch of good time > more than a memory > turn me up is p stellar

Great article. Thanks for pointing it out Ned.

ya, v good

even still though, meme-mummify-maim is not binding, it's still an opportunity however complicated; crj has a lot going for her, more than most, and it has to go down as a bigtime industry fumble if they can't keep her ball rolling for at very least a few singles more

so this is good huh?

i want her to do a video for "i know you have a girlfriend" where she's in a harsh white spotlight, a trio behind her, small drumkit, her backup band looking like young joe jackson session guys, all of them with microphones for bg vocals which they perform early and often, and carly with her own strat that she jerks smartly around for the chorus, everything FIXED UP and lookin SHARP

^ fantastic idea!

gbx, this is really really good.

and tracer, that sounds AMAZING

Katherine otm. "Your Heart is a Muscle" and "This Kiss" are at least as good as "Call Me Maybe." The album overall is stronger and tougher than Red, actually.

ehh the album is pretty lame and there were one hit wonders before the youtube era

it's not your father's one-hit wonder though

my three year old is cuckoo for "good time" -- gotta mean something, right?

http://i.imgur.com/ToCNE.jpg

is that the owl city guy? he is the voice of my daughter's generation.

i don't think there's any way in hell i'd listen to this album all the way through, yet i love or like every song on it apart from the duets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf78alvpxRM

I like the color palettes in this video, though I feel like the song is now about 5 years old. Why'd they take so long to make a video?

is that the owl city guy? he is the voice of my daughter's generation.

truly chilling words.

the song it's following up only fell out of the top 10 last week, they're just staggering the singles in the usual way (xpost)

this song would have been a great summer jam had "call me maybe" not snatched that title away from every other song in existence

Katherine otm. "Your Heart is a Muscle" and "This Kiss" are at least as good as "Call Me Maybe

I can see it with 'This Kiss' but 'You Heart Is A Muscle' is awful, largely because it's a clunky title and a very clunky lyric to use in a chorus.

Local radio finally playing "This Kiss."

did we cover this somewhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJyTL1LYjls

i don't care about dan deacon otherwise but this is like bespoke catnip for me

Started making an acid/Hague remix of this the other day after that tipped me off there was an acapella around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBOE1aUNZVo

not a great video tbh

surprisingly good, i thought.

song's sounding good this aft, too.

I forget who brought up the idea that this would make a really good mashup with dancing on my own but this was a while back when it was an album track and now that it's actually a single it might actually be possible

okay I had absolutely no idea that "Call Me Maybe" was mixed by Dave Ogilvie

no wonder it sounds so fucking awesome

Would love to know if whoever did that mashup with NIN already knew -- I suspect they did.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep12/articles/it-0912.htm

I just came here to post that. It is truly inspired.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/4/4064574/nins-head-like-a-hole-mashed-with-call-me-maybe-is-perfect

I think it's weak and lazy as fuck, but whatever.

we'll all be over here not caring

:D

I think it's weak and lazy as fuck, but whatever.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, March 5, 2013 1:44 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

"Call Me Maybe" singer cancels Boy Scout concert over gay ban

Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen on Tuesday pulled out of a concert for the Boy Scouts of America because of the organization's ban on gay members, becoming the second headliner to pull out of the Scouts' Summer Jamboree show.

Jepsen, whose hit single "Call Me Maybe" was nominated for Grammy Song of the Year, said on Twitter that she would not perform for the Boy Scouts because of her support for gay rights.

"I always have and will continue to support the LGBT community on a global level," Jepsen, 27, said.

Rock band Train also said last week they would not play the concert at the Boy Scouts' National Summer Jamboree, set for July in West Virginia, unless the youth organization changed its ban on gay participants.

Yahoo! News

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep12/articles/it-0912.htm

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 20:38 (Yesterday) Bookmark

didnt understand a lick of this article but i loved reading it anyway

Very nice SOS article, and good to see Carly is right-on too.

When I found out there was a Call Me Maybe acapella a few months back I started work on an acid remix one afternoon. I never got around to going back to it, so here’s the demo version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/10coepmcis43xvr/Matty%20Balaam%20-%20Call%20Mescaline%20%28Super%20early%20demo%29.ogg

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/3335015cc760fb9a3b5ebb07f157ae70/tumblr_mkwaur6lLx1qa7bh4o1_500.jpg

Cal me maybe

call me mookie

No, he was contestant on the following season of Canadian Idol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R2n4BKQTGN0

er

Is it just me or are there quite a few lyrical curveballs in this album?

not just u

i mean heck there are like five (i'm not counting) in "tonight i'm getting over you" alone

New song from some Pepsi thing where fans could pick the lyrics: https://soundcloud.com/mightytong/carly-rae-jepsen-take-a

that's fun

Very much addicted to "Take a Picture" now. Thank you based Carly Rae.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/carly-rae-jepsen-awful-pitch-article-1.1398685

Mitch Williams used to have trouble too.

"Jepsen reacted as only a pop princess could - she covered her face and giggled, finally throwing her hands up."

k

This album still rules

checking

correct

I think every single song on here except fucking "Good Time" ended up growing on me well beyond what I imagined was possible on my first listen. So, actually, this album rules more than it did before.

Does anyone know who did the version/remix which loops the "I threw a wish in the well/Don't ask me I'll never tell" bit over and over with a super bright production thing going on (kind of bubblegum bass-y), techno build dynamics, breakdown etc. I heard this out at a club and it was amazing then I somehow streamed it somewhere but misidentified the track and now I can't find it. Got a feeling it's a UK producer wot did it, maybe? Help!

Cheers

(cf 'Call Me Maybe', obvs)

I demand a new record.

are you gonna pay for it

Apparently she's working on new material with Dev Hynes & Arel Rechtshaid.

awww shit http://www.etonline.com/music/159828_tom_hanks_and_justin_bieber_shoot_music_video_for_carly_rae_jepsen/

omg

<3

oh hell yeah

is there a projected release date for the song/video? super excited for it

catchiest song of the decade based on those 2 lines

!! https://twitter.com/samlansky/status/568056071903952896

https://twitter.com/carlyraejepsen/status/571506015243390976

:D

im dying

Oh boy

http://midnightwatchingtv.tumblr.com/post/112222113212/ireallylikeyou-carlyraejepsen-carly-rae-jepsen

^Sounds great based on that 20ish second clip.

ooh nice

i mean it seems like everyone had decided it was going to be amazing before we knew anything at all but still

haven't paused the clip yet

http://www.josepvinaixa.com/blog/carly-rae-jepsen-i-really-like-you-premiere/

It's pretty good but doesn't feel as effortless as call me maybe

Few things ever will, but it doesn't diminish how good this is.

this is fucking great

OH DID I SAY TOO MUCH?
I'M SO IN MY HEAD
WHEN WE'RE OUT OF TOUCH

;_;

CAN'T STOP CRYING I'M ON FIRE

it's like everything you say is a sweet rev-e-la-a-tion

song is mostly great, should've ditched the third verse imo

there's a third verse? only hearing bliss and iridescence

this sounds a lot like taylor

this is fucking great

it is quite 'new romantics'

IT IS BEAUTIFUL

To me it sounds like Taylor, in that a lot of stuff from her last album reminded me of stuff from Carly Rae Jepsen's last album.

I mean it also doesn't sound too far off from how Tegan and Sara's last album sounded.

I rly rly rly rly rly rly like this

(it sounds like early madonna, in the way that a lot of things out lately do -- I almost want to say the "revelation" line is trying to be "into the groove" but I know it isn't)

To me it sounds like Taylor, in that a lot of stuff from her last album reminded me of stuff from Carly Rae Jepsen's last album.

― MarkoP, Sunday, March 1, 2015 2:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i thought the same thing. and it's not like taylor's album doesn't sound like a bunch of 80s pop itself

this is just really really really really fucking good

this sounds a lot like taylor

― nose, Sunday, March 1, 2015 2:29 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is quite 'new romantics'

― uberweiss, Sunday, March 1, 2015 2:39 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

please read a book

or like listen to something released pre-11/2014

I love that this deals with my two favourite emotions in pop music, at once, namely "I really really really really really really like you" and "do you want me too?" - the two most relatable feelings possible.

I love the Taylor-esque details in the verse lyrics but I think this is stronger because it doesn't come with the baggage of the cleverness of inevitable examinations of authorial intent - not to say something like "Style" doesn't stand on its own merits but the simplicity of this feels a lot more universal in its scope.

or like listen to something released pre-11/2014

― maura, Sunday, March 1, 2015 2:56 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why

i think the taylor-esque details are actually crj-esque details. this song is definitely of a piece with her other liminal-state-of-wanting songs ("call me maybe," "tonight i'm getting over you")

this is super-good but it sounds more like, yknow, just carly rae's own debut album than anything else!

i mean not exactly like it but it sounds pretty much like what i expected a CRJ comeback to

You do know that Kiss was not her debut album, right?

Nobody, including her most likely, cares about her actual debut album.

Uhm, I do.

one of these days i'll listen to it

Nobody, including her most likely, cares about her actual debut album.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, March 1, 2015 4:45 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

speak for yourself

I'm sure plenty of people like super-timid sub-Natasha Bedingfield acoustipop shit, but not me.

This tune is a belter. How long until the album is out?

As much as I'd like to say the fact it's written by some of The Cardigans makes some difference, it really doesn't. It's not a particularly Cardigans-y song. Good for them still banging around in 2015 tho.

lol i just wrote something about how it DOES make a difference, jeez jf

cardigans bro also co-wrote "love me harder" though which i think is more relevant

:D

Not so much this song, but I can hear a lot of First Band On The Moon in things like Avril's "Rock And Roll" and that One Direction song he was involved in.

As much as I'd like to say the fact it's written by some of The Cardigans makes some difference, it really doesn't. It's not a particularly Cardigans-y song. Good for them still banging around in 2015 tho.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, March 2, 2015 2:03 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

more like hanging onto the same old song amirite

Brad, I assume you're talking about the Ariana Grande song? afaik I haven't heard it. I didn't realize he was doing so much pop songwriting, though.

Katherine, are you talking about Lovefool?

"Love Me Harder" plays, like, every five minutes down here.

I love this Jepsen song on sixth listen. Not the eighties but a record imbued with received ideas about The Eighties

i feel like we're long past the point where this particular kind of pop toolkit necessarily signifies "the Eighties." it's the sound of now.

I'm making a cheap joke about the cardigans song "hanging around"

lol it's been years and years since I've listened to them in earnest, so i missed it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARiiO_41Id8

it has possibly the best vocal glottal-stop sound in all of music but that's a tangent

the cardigans are the best

pretty sure you'd like "love me harder" jf

oh wow
this song is glorious

had to open a window this was so stale

tbf the chorus seems a p real audio illustration of the corkscrewing psychosis of comeback anxiety

havent dressed in weeks, scrunched up paper balls everywhere, ok crj u can do this just simplify it yes simple really really really really really really sim-

on a muted television in the background the new tay video plays again

About to request a moratorium on any and all Taylor mentions.

lol rtc

yeah this popular-girl fascism needs to end pronto

my first thought shouldn't have been "this sounds like taylor" my bad.

it's pigeonholing and not even the most accurate assessment.

i wouldn't say that something that sounds like it could've been on CRJ's 2012 album should be compared to Taylor's 2014 album, but the "really really really really" thing made me think of "never ever ever" right away tbh.

i wouldn't say that something that sounds like it could've been on CRJ's 2012 album should be compared to Taylor's 2014 album, but the "really really really really" thing made me think of "never ever ever" right away tbh.

― some dude, Tuesday, March 3, 2015 1:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SAME! it's that quirky, absurdist lyricism that is cute and affable enough inspire memes but not be entirely loathsome. that's all over Kiss, especially present on Call me Maybe (before you came into my life i missed you so bad)

what came to mind for me was "really don't care" by demi but that's more lyrics and lane than melody

http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/carly-rae-jepsen-debuts-i-really-like-you-video?CID=DISH_CRJ

Love the song but hate hate hate the product placement in the video (as with earlier CRJ videos)

I want to see Tom Hanks in RuPaul's Drag Race now

Super shit video.

Hanks being able to mime AT ALL would've improved it. And maybe bringing CRJ in about 2 minutes earlier.

i like the video a lot, just wish hanks had actually bothered to learn the lyrics

"So we're paying Hanks $1m per hour? One take it is then."

friday night video - man, crj's team must hate her

embarrassing video imo

I'm still not sure about this song. Sort of everything is in place… but it feels like there are too many "really"s in the chorus? It's as if she's trying to convince herself. I mean, the music conveys this feeling of euphoria and full-blown infatuation, but somehow even she isn't buying it? Maybe I've got it all wrong.

The verses are perfect, though. And the vocals are great too!

The video is OK.

Yeah idk about this one - feel like those enormous 80s production clouds deserve a rushier melody in the chorus than that, forget Taylor, it could stand to be more Roxette.

diminishing returns on this already, it's giving me the idea of a pop rush but not the actual rush

Agree with lex

agree with daavid that the number of reallys in the chorus kills it

also what killed it is listening to kiss and realising every non-duet on that is better than this

think carly got me to like a dev hynes track

my body's molecules slowly becoming gemstones

basically

tears @ the roller disco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W374tWnsk70

jordan it's funny you mentioned gemstones because the moment this song made me cry was when it brought to mind a certain steven universe scene

on the one hand I am pre-inclined to like this, but I wasn't exactly asking for a remake of solange's "bad girls" cut with britney spears' "sometimes"

This sounded so effing good on SNL.

right? she killed the last chorus

the like extra three chord changes in the final chorus otm

Dev gets a rough reception on ilm—sometimes deservedly so and sometimes not—but I feel comfortable saying this is the best song he's written and/or produced.

i completely agree, and i'm a trve dev-hater

His best co-written song is "Want Your Feeling".

love carjeps, mostly like dev hynes, but... it's a bit anemic, no? and every time I've listened to it since I stop halfway because I really just want to listen to Bad Girls instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWlzaRS-nRo

lol yeah i can't stand "bad girls" or any of his work with solange

every time I've listened to it since I stop halfway

Wrong move. The end is the best part!!

I don't love Dev, but don't get why Brad and others hate his stuff os much either

i hear "bad girls" in this a lot but it's like "bad girls" with an actual chorus and a great bridge?

^ otm "Bad GIrls" is a decent sketch and "All That" is a polished and refined end result.

Just bought this mp3 at Amazon btw, so if you need me I'll be sprawled across my bed listening to it on a loop for the next 24.

90% of the time dev's production and songwriting involves really gauzy extended synth chords and really rushed drum programming that completely fail to interact with each other, and his worst songs tend to feel completely directionless

completely completely completely

it's 2 am

it's like we're listening to entirely different songs at this point

Losing You is great, imo, but Bad Girls and Everything Is Embarrassing are flat and ponderous. I'll have to remind myself what else he's behind that's not his own solo work, but I know there were more than a few songs on Cupid Deluxe that I thought were great and some I didn't like AT ALL. Dude's a puzzle.

Wrong move. The end is the best part!!

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, April 5, 2015 1:52 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what I meant was that I listened to it once all the way through, was underwhelmed, went back to listen to the solange and britney songs to make sure they was what I was really hearing and not "snow on the sahara" or "truly madly deeply", ended up getting stuck relistening at least once and in solange's case like five times to each of them, tried to listen to carly again, several times, gave up each time.

also both Bad Girls and Everything Is Embarrassing have fucking great bridges, the former possibly top five bridges of all time, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

it's like we're listening to entirely different songs at this point

we're coming at it from very different angles definitely

"losing you" is one of my least favorite songs of the last few years. i love "everything is embarrassing" while recognizing its limitations. my neutral/edging-on-positive feelings toward "want your feeling" i pin down almost exclusively to jessie ware

(obligatory: I like Carly Rae Jepsen, I loved the last single, I like large swaths of _Kiss_, I wouldn't listen to her new single repeatedly at -- christ -- 2 a.m. if I was just hijacking the thread to troll it, sometimes songs just don't work for people and even fans, I'd really like to not have hate mail be the first thing I read upon waking up, okay goodnight)

no i like your perspective itt katherine it is definitely making me feel like revisiting "bad girls" more

Basically I think Dev Hynes' greatest contribution to popular music in the past few years is making it cool to sound like mainstream 1985 again. Not "cool" 1985.

Didn't you say that about the new Brandon Flowers single too (produced by Dev's pal Ariel Rechtshaid)

*fist bumps brad* this song is dope

i like when dev is unapologetically pop w/ a traditional sense of songwriting than when he's hedging

to sound like a total popist here, i like when he's being a mercenary hitmaker rather than a ~deep~ synesthesist

xp I did! I guess it also applies here. I mean, give me less stuff that sounds like post-post-post-punk and more stuff that sounds like Sheena Easton or Mr. Mister.

Basically I think Dev Hynes' greatest contribution to popular music in the past few years is making it cool to sound like mainstream 1985 again. Not "cool" 1985.
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, April 5, 2015

:D

xpost with deej: idk if i can make that distinction myself (mostly bc i avoided the blood orange record after hearing a few songs, and only encounter him on pop records now lol). i think this song breathes a lot more than his usual work though

bc the drums do not suck

I saw the big Blood Orange show in Central Park and the lasting point of reference for me was Billy Ocean

goddamn u ur gonna make me listen to blood orange

I wanna go to bed, but I also want to read Brad's live reaction to Blood Orange

not tonight i have a life to live

I have never heard Billy Ocean in anything Dev Hynes has done.

now we're sharing the same dream

It's the dream we all dream of.

Billy Ocean is definitely a more dynamic vocalist, but I could totally hear him singing over some of the tracks on Cupid Deluxe.

Anyway, back to All That...Brad's right, the added chord changes in the final chorus give me the goosies.

the entire part of this song after the bridge is overwhelming

i think dev is great but this feels like a big step up for him, his songs don't usually go for this sort of big emotional open sweep and i think this totally nails it

this is pretty great and definitely one of the best things dev's been involved with, it's especially nice to have one of his songs that doesn't have one of those clunky drum loops the whole way through

i think the only weak point is the bridge, it doesn't really flow with the rest of the song or seem to reach what it feels like it should be going for? but then the chorus after is fantastic with the added chord changes

I wanna go to bed, but I also want to read Brad's live reaction to Blood Orange Billy Ocean

― Tay-Tay Brooklynpants (Murgatroid)

I run hot and cold on Dev but I liked his work on that Heems track last month. After two listens though this sounds limp, and my problem is Carly Rae, who can't sell that uninspired chorus.

btw here's a Billy Ocean sound that Dev and CRJ should've gone for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYAmSbg-uE0

i like it and it grew on me slightly over a few listens but i'm definitely not instantly bowled over or anything

maybe i am a hopeless sky ferreira stan but this doesn't really touch "everything is embarrassing" imo

This is really good, I dig it

idk I actually think carly really sells it, this is one of his few productions where I can't imagine his guide vocal

of course this convo already assumes a lot re: how much crj and dev contributed to this song

I agree but I've rinsed EiE so much that I need this new one right now xxp

I of course adore "love zone" tho

I want to believe it was a 50/50 collabo with them just sitting around CRJ's house listening to records and building it as the night rolled along.

When I become Emperor I will ban all songwriting credits from ever being published

otm

and lyric sheets

A lot of times it doesn't make much difference, but we can all agree that Dev has a very heavy hand when it comes to songs he writes for other artists. Like Tedder and like Dr. Luke and like Max Martin and like Diane Warren and Prince and many others going back decades, you can hear the writer coming through in the song no matter who's singing.

When I become Emperor I will ban all songwriting credits from ever being published

― 龜, Sunday, April 5, 2015 11:05 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

and lyric sheets

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, April 5, 2015 11:06 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

booooo

i think a legit criticism of dev's calling card songs is that they're very simple and repetitive... but with this one it all feels like a set up so that the chord changes after the bridge can deliver the knockout

tried again, didn't take again, it's a combination of the synth hook being too third-grade music-class major scale practice, the track being thick and sluggish and kind of emotionally null and bowdlerized, and the fact that carly rae jepsen generally doesn't do restrained

and the hook really is something out of a deservedly forgotten A/C hit from 1985

This thread was making me happy last night. Now it's making me sad.

not to derail too badly but distinguished dredded Billy Ocean of the '10's has a great look
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01559/p_billy-ocean_1559853c.jpg

I am sorry this thread is making you sad, but what do you expect me to do -- pretend to like something I don't? That would make me sad.

I'm not really sad. Well, I was for like six seconds, and then I remembered that people can like whatever they want and I shouldn't gaf.

idk I actually think carly really sells it, this is one of his few productions where I can't imagine his guide vocal

for those who are not aware, this is what dev hynes's guide vocals sound like

n.b. if you do like Everything Is Embarrassing that link will ruin it for you

it's true, it does

carly really undersells this chorus on the snl performance and it still works on me, takes all kinds

didn't realize until this morning that dev and ariel are actually performing the song with her too

chills down the spine. thank god for properly used major 7th chords. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

carly /really/ undersells this chorus on the snl performance and it still works on me, takes all kinds

the drums make up for everything (i thought she was good tho)

So have there been any hints yet about when the album might be here?

looking at her instagram afaict she's still recording it?

update: this has grown on me somewhat, it might end up somewhere around where "boom clap" ended up for charli xcx

I'm now fully on board with "I really like you" after hearing the LYAR remix of it, which mellows out the chorus significantly, and keeps the awesomeness of the verse melody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aJGPHcCdkk

omg balearic carly rae

yeah this remix is starry gorgeousness

only just heard "all that" and it's so sluggish in every way

dev's ~~~~~80s teen movie slow dance~~~~~ template was boring from the get-go but now it's such an obvious template it's really embarrassing to listen to

i would agree that CRJ is equally to blame for its failure though, she really doesn't sell it

makes "i really like you" sound better in comparison though

idk, the tortured taste chess is showing with this album campaign

I'm cool w it bc it's of a piece w the general Carly Rae schtick

Someone on fb pointed out that All That sounds like an imaginary TLC b-side from CrazySexyCool and, though that wasn't my original impression, I can totally hear it that way too.

show me if you
want
me

"i really like you" took about a week to be downgraded from a song i thought i liked into a song that was just a bit unsatisfying
"all that" has taken a day to be downgraded from a song that bored me into a song i really hate

fuck

dev

hynes

Lol

also it's funny how so many EDM producers get dragged for bing so predictable and rote when hynes is the most formulaic songwriter/producer around right now bar none

I prefer dev Hynes working with stars to dev Hynes solo, it's funny to watch ppl in the pitchfork mentions talk about how much better the song would be if dev was singing it & it's like .... Naw

This remains great.

lol what a weird song to actually hate but whatever.

"All That" sounds like CRJ singing through a paper bag and even the paper bag is bored.

i have warmed to the song a little bit but yeah, it's not quite the revelation for me that it seems to be for others

however i have to laugh at the fact that there are people who would prefer hearing dev hynes sing it himself. to my ears he is not an engaging vocalist at all, and unsurprisingly it is the songs on which backing vocals from others (usually women) figure prominently that are most tolerable among his own material. i guess i am not surprised that p4k's core readers would prefer him tho.

also implicit in the contention that he should have just sung it himself is the idea that crj contributed nothing to the song herself, that she is just a 'face without a choice' (to quote another woman artist who eventually got tired of the way ppl were so eager to deem dev hynes the sole auteur and her the thoughtless muse).

but tbh the idea that she was just waltzing into the studio to have him (and to a lesser extent ariel) cook up the track for her seems to have been dominating all conversation about the track since the moment she announced the collaboration was happening, including to an extent here.

but tbh the idea that she was just waltzing into the studio to have him (and to a lesser extent ariel) cook up the track for her seems to have been dominating all conversation about the track since the moment she announced the collaboration was happening, including to an extent here.

― dyl, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 5:36 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know it's currently unfashionable to say this is the case, but it's probably at least as much the case as it is with "everything is embarrassing," because a lot of times, this is in fact the case, you know? I'm as big a proponent as anyone of "women's contributions to creative work are underemphasized" but given the way the industry works, you can take that to the point of overcorrection. and very little of jepsen's songwriting tics, to my ears, are here.

eh i think her interpretation of the record is pretty central to what i dig about it...id have to think abt what it is exactly but i def prefer her singing it to dev hynes lol

also: based on previous dev hynes songwriting experiences i feel like the melody here is a lil more interesting than i.e. 'losing you' so i'm willing to believe she was partly responsible

I'd rather hear Debby Boone sing it than Dev Hynes.

I think one of the reasons I don't have any problem with the manner in which CRJ "sells" it is that I already listen to a bunch of scandipop (hell, that's mostly what I listen to) and I'm very accustomed to more austere singing.

I think it's best that we just ignore Dev Hyne's involvement on the song just like how everyone seemed to ignore Josh Ramsay's involvement on Call Me Maybe.

I prefer dev Hynes working with stars to dev Hynes solo

is there anyone here who prefers the contrary?

I like this but I wish Hynes had given it to someone like Jessie Ware who could've really belted out the finale

no we've had quite enough of hynes ruining ware already thanks

also implicit in the contention that he should have just sung it himself is the idea that crj contributed nothing to the song herself,

what she contributed vocally is remarkably unengaging (alfred otm), not that he'd have done any better

i feel like the melody here is a lil more interesting than i.e. 'losing you'

yes it does plod its way over that low bar

I tend to think Usher and Rihanna and early JT paid for their credits but I've no evidence.

@carlyraejepsen: "I've been working on new music for awhile now... happy to finally announce that my sophomore album "E·MO·TION" will be out this summer!"
https://twitter.com/carlyraejepsen/status/586666306776145922

isn't this her 3rd album?

Nobody, including her most likely, cares about her actual debut album.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, March 1, 2015 4:45 PM (1 month ago)

VINDICATION!

didn't realize the dev hynes hate was so strong on ILM. i can't say i care too much either way, but it makes me feel a bit better about having been totally bored by Cupid Deluxe (though i like the one song that sounds like a mix between Francis Bebey, Prince and Sebastian).

I'm largely indifferent to Dev Hynes as a whole, but ILM's ability to dedicate so much vitriol to such innocuous music/artists is so strange to me.

Do we have a dedicated Dev Hynes thread?

there's a blood orange thread

Title track "leaked": http://www.sift-thru.com/sift-thru/2015/6/2/carly-rae-jepsens-emotion-out-june-23-in-japan-listen-to-the-title-track

well it sounds like everything in its right place 4 me

yeah this rules

17 tracks? ok

damn

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52ae6e16e4b0b13c219bde1e/t/556e5788e4b0335ea4ad542a/1433294734063/?format=750w

i like to think that the dots Is a way to make us read 'emo' first and give importance to it. if so, i'm very happy with the the choice.

i've had too much coffee this song is fucking amazing

good track

This totally sounds like an Ariel Rechtshaid production. Do we know if he was incolved?

*involved

he was

from carly's instagram it's like him, dev, cardigans dude, tegan and sara, maybe some others i forgot, who are involved in this record

lol @ the label only releasing this in Japan first. WHY U STILL DO THIS IN 2015?

Japan tends to get things super late, so they often throw them bonuses and instant grat tracks as some kind of compensation. Apparently the Japanese version of the album will have an additional 3 bonus tracks. Also Japan is where her last album sold the most copies, so it's a marketing tactic too.

That is brilliant artwork, it would be perfect if "Em. O. Tion." was shown like a normal word.

according to japanese iTunes the title is in reality just "Emotion", metadata fans

use of the • in the title very prescient E•MO•TION

this is nice :D pretty excited about the album now

GREAT track. I wasn't expecting much having only heard the big hit, but this and especially "All That" are amazing.

her voice needs to be mixed lower

yoooooo I'm loving this! the synths have a Todd Terje-feeling about them, no?

use of the • in the title very prescient E•MO•TION

龜 wrote this at 2015-06-03 13:30:39.000

Lol finally got this

album out in august in the US, but in ~a fortnight in japan. i do not understand label strategies

looks like the standard edition is the first 12 tracks

i sense a charli xcx-type situation coming on xp

can anyone point me to a situation where releasing an album later in major jurisdictions like the US or UK has still resulted in high sales numbers? delays seem to be the norm with single releases in the UK and songs still go #1 there months after first appearing online, but i can't really come up with anything analogous in relation to albums.

i guess i get delaying things if you're a new artist and still sorting out distribution / label deals but it doesn't make sense to me for major label acts on their second or third albums like charli or CRJ. just put the whole thing out there worldwide at the same time. space it out by a week maybe if you want to do a week on US talkshows and the next week on UK ones as promotions. a 2 month gap is moronically counterproductive.

i can't think of any examples, it seems like one of those practices that labels continue to do lately out of their conviction that (a) maybe it'll work this time! maybe radio will like the second single better!! or (b) okay maybe it won't work but at least it won't be AS bad as if we had dropped it on the original date

Two new songs. Both great

https://soundcloud.com/stef-138

"RUN AWAY WITH ME" IS AN INSTANT 10/10 THIS IS BOTH MY OPINION AND A FACT

Yeah, those are both brilliant. Run Away With Me should be massive.

It sounds a lot like Charli XCX singing the title of Run Away With Me in the chorus.

wow "run away with me" :D :D :D

well this is easily the best album i've ever heard

carly rae made the album of the year

use of the • in the title very prescient E•MO•TION

龜 wrote this at 2015-06-03 13:30:39.000

Lol finally got this

― how's life, Friday, 5 June 2015 09:46

still don't get this :/

where can I hear "Run Away With Me"?

you can hear the whole album now as it just leaked a couple hours ago!

http://www.josepvinaixa.com/blog/carly-rae-jepsen-run-away-with-me/

xp

@niels the • is in the title of this thread and also in the album title

This album is amazing.

well this album is >>>>>>>>>>>>

surprised that i don't wish any of the bonus tracks were on the proper record. love "never get to hold you" though

This album is incredible.

haven't heard the album yet but still can't get over how good "run away with me is". might already be my favorite song from her yet.

"Run Away With Me" and "I Really Like You" are both otherwise-great pop songs ruined by the cheesy quiet third verse/buildup to the final chorus, which is a trope I really, really, really, really, really, really cannot abide

who gave you ideas like that, said you could keep them

i know, i know.

Let's Get Lost really hitting the spot

gimme love gimme love gimme love gimme love

"making the most of the night" is like a perfectly curved disco chorus

i've only listened to this precisely once so far but...possible AOTY??

boy trouble, we've got double

You have to go 14 songs deep in this record to find one that's not really so good.

Are you referring to I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance? That's probably my favourite of the bonus tracks.

Yes, ew. The ones immediately after it are great though! Especially "Favorite Colour."

EXCUSE ME

fuck i love this album

i think i broke up with my boyfriend today and i

don't really caaaaare

goddamnit you guys are tempting me to break the law

"YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I COULD BE DRIVING YOU ALL NIGHT / AND I'LL FIND YOUR LIPS IN THE STREET LIGHTS / I WANNA BE THERE WITH YOUUUU"

i love "never get to hold you," it's like "time after time" as reimagined by kavinsky

Man the first 9 tracks are such a perfect run. The chorus of Making the Most of the Night is a huge highlight.

definitely agree, i feel like the sequencing makes "all that" sound a lot better than it did on its own

The chorus to Love Again sounds so similar to something else but I can't quite place it. The closest thing I can think of is Bizarre Love Triangle but I'm not sure that's it. Anyone else have any ideas?

Something this album really has going for it that Kiss didn't is the cohesiveness in sound.
The fact I Really Like You sounds far more at home here than Call Me Maybe (or Good Time) did on Kiss is a real testament to that I think.

Absolutely agreed.

We should probably just make this the general CRJ thread. Mod want to abridge the title?

Well Call Me Maybe was written for a very different album that got scrapped and Kiss was quickly slapped together in the aftermath of that song's unexpected hugeness. That clearly wasn't the case with this album.

Can I just lol for a moment at the label? If this had been surprise released today, I would have been the first to lay down some cash on it. As it is, though, it's not even coming out in the US for, idk, a few more months. WTG label dudes.

i'm still buying the shit out of this record but yeah. "making the most of the night" is like... everything i love about pop music

For a slapped together album Kiss is still pretty terrific. Early impressions are this one blows it out of the water though.

IDK if she'll ever have another big hit again but if not I hope she can somehow succeed as a writer for other major artists. Some of the toplines on this album are phenomenal.

She is clearly an idea machine songwise... not sure if all these tracks come together but it's a fun, cohesive listen.

What are the odds the release date gets pushed up? 2 months between Japan and the rest of the world is insane.

idk i haven't seen labels renege on such decisions before but maybe my memory is selective

i guess they think/hope the second single will do well or something. (which it might! stranger things have happened.) idk why it's *just* japan to get the early date tho, it's not like that was the only country where "i really like you" did well.

i love "making the most" (and "love again," an outtake apparently – no idea why, the verse progression alone makes it a nice change of pace), plus "your type" through "LA hallucinations" is nice. feels like an upgraded 1989. but on the whole, it's a record that avoids even suggesting anything unexpected, and it feels samier to me than weezer's green album. i'm happy to cherrypick the winners, though

You know, I was just thinking about comparing this to the green album, but instead of "samier" I was going to say "perfect work of art". Is it the summer of 2001 all over again?

Why doesn't this have its own thread though?

the green album is awesome! not perfect, per se, but few albums employ sameyness to such effective ends. i wouldn't rank emotion among them, but green took a while to crack so i'll give this one time too i guess.

idk what this album could do that would be 'unexpected' and make it better than it already is, it's pretty great at what it does. idk about 'samey' either, every track feels distinct enough while still very cohesive as a whole. think the weakest point is probably LA Hallucinations/Warm Blood, but pretty much everything else is excellent

Just adding to the general noise that this album is amazing.

Just realized that this thread is more than 50% discussion of E•Mo•Tion.

The album is so stylistically homogenous that the only bonus track I think would've been fine on the standard album is Never Get To Hold You.

it's only me that feels a lot of the 1975 vibes in 'let's get lost'?
the album is truly amazing.

no i am there with you nourry

this album is really unified which i think is distinct from "samey." the songs take really different shapes in the same context.

that synthetic bass (sounds a bit like boomwhackers?) on Gimmie Love is just great

Gimme Love is phoenominal

Walking to work with this album and a coffee has set an impossibly high mark for the rest of the day to attain. This day can now only go downhill. But it's worth it. Really digging this.

yea Nourry, def otm with the 1975 comparison

xp I don't hear same-iness or Green Album vibe at all, unless you're referring to pop structure. I suppose I should listen a 2nd time though.

i didn't just come here to dance
if you know what I mean
do you know what I mean

xp For my part, I wasn't really serious with my green album comparison, but I see where soyrev was going with that. I just chimed in because I have to defend that album from all slights. That's what I do here.

otoh, one of the songs I listened to this morning gave me an early NIN vibe.

well, i said "samier than" green, not "similar to"...musically it's totally different. green is just my go-to samey album (the sameyness of which, to be clear, i adore – it's hypnotic in a way i haven't encountered in any other pop record).

i gave this one another go tonight and i can tell my fundamental gripe probably isn't going to change all too much, but a few tracks are settling in a bit more deeply.

curious, does everyone here who's loving it also love 1989?

I did not love 1989 but I haven't listened to that since it came out, other than the radio singles.

I would have been very disappointed had this album not included a song called "Boy Problems."

I like a few tracks from 1989 but it's my least favorite Taylor Swift album. I love Kiss and this though.

def has some of the same lyrical themes as 1989

I am loving it, but love 1989 more

I loved 1989 for 2 or 3 weeks and then it just silently fell out of my rotation. I'll let you know in another 3 weeks if this one does the same (though my immediate impressions are that it's a much stronger album and something I'm likely to keep listening to for longer).

to me 1989 rocks a really similar vibe in terms of production and songwriting, way moreso than recent records by other artists we could at least superficially lump together w/ carly (i.e. katy, miley, etc). as someone who likes a lot of taylor's previous records i find 1989 pretty hollow, and emotion is definitely better imo, but it's like 1989+ to my ears which is maybe part of why i've been slow to warm to it (but "make the most" chorus is definitely one of the pop highlights of the year for me, and a lot of these songs are really nice/have been playlisted)

i love 1989, this better executes what 1989 was suggested as, i.e. it actually resembles '80s pop, whereas 1989 felt like sort of a weird minimal and spectral idea of '90s pop for the most part

also i don't have to alter emotion's tracklisting to even listen to it

not that it matters, but i didn't mean an emotion playlist, i just maintain some 200+ playlists that i constantly add songs to and a handful or two of these make the cut yes yes

A lot of this feels to me like a logical follow-up to some of what Sky Ferreira was doing before she switched up her sound, especially songs like Black Heart, LA Hallucinations, Boy Problems, see: 108, Touch & Go, 99 Tears.

for me, the thing about 1989 is that it came after four previous records that were stylistically different. obviously she's always been a pop crossover artist and has been hinting at something like 1989 ever since but the main thing i disliked about that album was the songwriting, which i found to be poor (this isn't a comment about how the songwriting on emotion and 1989 are dis/similar btw). taylor swift was always a significant western pop star to me because she knew how to utilize vocal melody/rhythm both as a major propulsive force but also to support her evocative lyrics. i'm ok with a few songs per album not being like that but a full album in that sort of mode sort of strips the appeal of her art for me to a good degree. and while it's always been the same taylor swift across all her albums (e.g. Picture to Burn --> Better Than Revenge --> Bad Blood), and the visceral nature of some songs on 1989 is magnetic, so many songs stumble in their pacing because that crucial element isn't there. I could pretty much do without anything after I Wish You Would. And this is kind of not relevant but the Hey's! on CRJ's Run Away With Me are annoying because they remind me of Bad Blood lol

This album pretty much accomplishes what 1989 couldn't do for me. Like, the fact the lyrics are straightforward on 1989 doesn't make it more hollow for me, it's the fact the songwriting didn't always make certain lyrics/moods come through fully.

the sky ferreira comparison is otm not just bc "when i needed you" sounds like a sunnier rewrite of "you're not the one"

is Love Again's vocal melody reminding me of Bizarre Love Triangle or is there something else more obvious I'm missing

The chorus to Love Again sounds so similar to something else but I can't quite place it. The closest thing I can think of is Bizarre Love Triangle but I'm not sure that's it. Anyone else have any ideas?

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, June 24, 2015 1:33 AM (19 hours ago)

welp. could've sworn that post didn't have that second sentence when I initially saw it

Love Again seems very familiar but i don't think it's Bizarre Love Triangle that it reminds me of

I definitely hear a little bit of BLT in it, but there's probably a closer pop ancestor that I'm missing.

Oh man the second part of the chorus of "Boy Problems" is unbelievable.

that second part is pure sensory overload - so many contrasting lines.

Holy fucking shit at "Let's Get Lost".

^^ OTM.
i've been listening in repeat.

"favourite colour" sneaks up on you doesn't it

Imogen Heap is just piling on those duets, eh?

"let's get lost" is so special, that 4-part harmony singing "youuuu" is totally what looking at your crush feels like

The resemblance of the "Love Again" melody to some 90s pop/dance track is killing me. I can't figure out what it is.

this album is a fresh blast of summer

It reminds me a tinsy bit of part of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi".

(that was an xp)

the intro to "let's get lost" is a total eurodans/candy rip-off, but I'm not complaining

i think i broke up with my boyfriend today and i

don't really caaaaare

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, June 23, 2015 6:46 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this earwormed its way into my head all day long. Great hook, but I hope I get a reprieve from it tomorrow.

Buzzfeed buzzards and TMZ crows -- will we be able to decipher this lyric in 2 years time?

2? Yes. 12? Who knows.

poisoned utopia, choked xoxo's in a xanax xanadu, buzzfeed buzzards above circling faltering prey

― r|t|c, Friday, 2 August 2013 16:04 Bookmark

💅

I don't try to understand the TMZ crows effect on man.

Although how much trouble has she had with the paps anyway? She doesn't seem all that scandalous afaik.

they're h a l l u c i n a t i o n s

This is really good! Maybe my daughter will let us take a break from 1989 and will like this.

I think the only songs I don't 100% feel are black heart, fav colour & never get to hold you

jacob how old is she? my first thought when i heard this was, i wonder if this would be something my niece would like, but i don't know what kind of level of age appropriateness i should be aiming at for G/PG (?) songs w/ ~~romantic~~ themes

xp Wow, Favourite Colour really? I think that's my carved-in-stone favorite (at least so far).

AOTY hands down right?

AOTY candidate right?

It's just behind Susanne Sundfør for me at this point.

i've been crawling through youtubes of these songs and i assume i haven't heard the real pitch yet

yeah this is my album of the year until like further notice

idk maybe something'll destroy me in november/december as usual

jacob how old is she? my first thought when i heard this was, i wonder if this would be something my niece would like, but i don't know what kind of level of age appropriateness i should be aiming at for G/PG (?) songs w/ ~~romantic~~ themes

― j., Friday, June 26, 2015 3:41 PM (5 hours ago)

"Feel This Moment" came on in the gym just now and tbh it sounds a lot like another "Love Again" antecedent

hold up, this isn't out till august? i haven't downloaded a leak in a long time, but i don't know if i can wait till then. "emotion" and "i really like you" are both great.

If you live in Japan, you can already walk into a store and buy it as of this past Wednesday, but the rest of us have to wait two months. Of course, duh, it leaked the moment it was available.

Has there been any word on why they chose this roll-out schedule? Seems like an accounting error or something. I can't imagine they'll actually hold off on releasing it until the end of summer.

Not out over here (UK) until even later: September 25th

In a world with the internet, I have absolutely no idea what sort of reasons the label came up with for this release strategy.

it's the way we are together!
wanna feel like this forever!
it's the way we are together!
and i never thought i'd ever
say forever!

"gimmie love" is the fucking best thing

I would surmise that their reasoning is that they are going to try and turn "Run Away With Me" into a hit in the interim which might increase album sales. But that was the strategy Charll XCX's label adopted for her most recent album and it didn't work at all.

"run away with me" is so tremendous that i want to say its hit potential is much greater than e.g. "break the rules" (or even "i really like you" tbh), but really i have no idea. it seems like quite an uphill battle with pop radio these days when you're following up a prior single that stalled in the middle portion of the chart.

why is "run away with me" not the glorious triumphant closing track on this album

(i don't think it's as flaw-free as some of y'all but the highs are tremendous - and it sounds so good on headphones, those beats just SLAP - but my initial "this album totally fizzles out damply" opinion was rescinded when i noticed that most of the blah ones at the end were bonus tracks)

(the "let's get lost"/"la hallucinations" b2b is the peak imo, apart from "run away with me" obv)

(I KNOW YOU'VE HAD A ROUGH TIME BUT HERE I COME TO HIJACK YOU HIJACK YOU)

("i really like you" is easily the worst of the album's opening stretch)

(this album feels like 1989's twin in some ways but also its opposite; the way TS and CRJ stamp their personalities (or not) on their songs is SO different)

why is "run away with me" not the glorious triumphant closing track on this album

uh, because "When I Needed You" is even more gloriously triumphant?

When I Needed You is a great closer but i kinda wish it had a sax solo or something at the end instead of just a fade out like that

fffffff i can't even believe how good this is.

the rostam batmanglig/ tegan & sara / CRJ power trio on "boy problems" is incredible.

OK so there is this slow down deep pitch shift on the vocals trick that they are using - i was thinking, who is it that popularized this in 2014/2015 pop? was it MNEK? Jimmy Napes? I feel like its used a shitload on Disclosure and other records but i can't pinpoint. they use the same effect (to a lesser extent) on Gimmie Love.

sorry i meant "warm blood" not "boy problems" for the vocal pitch shift thing

faaaaa the topline / vocal delivery on "I would throw in the towel for you, boy" is pure, fucking genius

yup

with a good video, Boy Problems definitely has the potential to become a summer hit. for shame, label bozo's.

i just do not comprehend/understand how she is getting screwed by label promo issues - ostensibly she's pretty in control of this shit considering she was a songwriter for a long time with multiple outfits before doing her own stuff. this is being released on Scooter Braun's imprint, no? How does he not have the ability to push Interscope/UMG into better promo? or am i just concerned b/c this is a timing thing when it feels so summery, it should've been out in april/may with a massive headlining summer tour behind it... maybe it just wasn't ready in time?

on another note did anyone else read somewhere that she recorded over 200 tracks in the past few years for this record??

i don't know about recorded but she said she wrote 200-250 songs for it here. one of the outtakes, 'bullseye' leaked recently but it's nothing special.
it doesn't sound like it was ready in time, when 'all that' came out in april she was still talking about deciding on the final tracklisting i think. the label seems to really want to focus on japan, she's doing a lot of promo appearances there which she wouldn't have had as much time for without the weird staggered release, & kiss got a remix album that was only released there?

i just do not comprehend/understand how she is getting screwed by label promo issues - ostensibly she's pretty in control of this shit considering she was a songwriter for a long time with multiple outfits before doing her own stuff. this is being released on Scooter Braun's imprint, no? How does he not have the ability to push Interscope/UMG into better promo? or am i just concerned b/c this is a timing thing when it feels so summery, it should've been out in april/may with a massive headlining summer tour behind it... maybe it just wasn't ready in time?

on another note did anyone else read somewhere that she recorded over 200 tracks in the past few years for this record??

― mingalaba, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 11:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's almost as if carly rae jepsen is more beloved of critics and the internet than the music industry

gimmelovegimmelovegimmelovegimmelovegimmelove

(this album is great, best pure pop of the year by far)

CRJ posted a 3 min "writing of" video on het Facebook page on July 1st, if you're still vibing on this album

I don't adore all of it yet but the Cupid & Psyche 85 moments are monumental.

the ballads are the weakest moments

a couple bits of failed ebullience too

there are non-"all that" ballads?

(p much aggressively ignoring the non-"black heart" bonus tracks)

"boy problems" is a gr8 false scritti song

i disliked "all that" as a single but it works in the context of the album. everything from "warm blood" onwards is pretty negligible tho. i don't think it's as good as kiss, i feel like these songs demand slightly less anonymity than CRJ can deliver, even though that's a strength at some points, the way she is part of the song rather than stamping her persona all over them à la 1989. it's a really great album that i'm jamming the hell out of, just not "AOTY AOTY AOTY AOTY" - sorta don't get the excitement over CRJ herself as a pop star that i've seen on twitter.

well i wouldn't characterize her as anonymous. like how her vocal is so charming in the otherwise fluorescent hellscape of "good time." she has a very narrow range that i think radiates a kind of unique emotional intensity, whispery at its edges even when belting, as if always telling a secret. i also think her lyrics communicate really liminal emotional states in language as precise as it is almost incomprehensible (an effect shared by some taylor swift metaphors)

then again i'm not really invested in her as "a pop star" and idk what these twitter convos entail

I've secretly and guiltily kinda liked "Good Time" ever since hearing this at a beach rave in Thailand in January 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFHhXekZUIE

also like "good time" and feel bad about it

ok i've listened to the otto knows mix and i like "good time" more now, fuck u tim

btw i really love "warm blood" for how the sound of it seems to simulate circulation, heartbeats etc. sounds recorded from inside the body. i also think it really embodies what it feels like to make yourself vulnerable to someone else

Brad, i thought you liked "Never Get to Hold You"

i do but it's also not remotely as exciting as anything on the proper record. i'm a big fan of "i didn't just come here to dance" now though

"love again" is the only essential bonus track imo

"warm blood" and "when i needed you" can join the rest of the bonus tracks; the album should start with "emotion" and end "la hallucinations"/"love again"/"run away with me"

ok i've listened to the otto knows mix and i like "good time" more now, fuck u tim

hahaha

"love again" is my least fave! i haven't listened to it nearly as much as the rest though, i should give it more time. i'm with brad, "i didn't just come here..." is my pick of the last 5

think "when i needed you" is a great closer and "run away with me" works pretty much exclusively as an opener but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

surprised you're so about "la hallucinations" which is still my least favorite of the main tracklisting. something about it feels v awkward

The tune isn't as good as the title.

probably that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyV2unZFHbs&feature=youtu.be

afaict there are several songs in that making of that are not on the record at all

guess crj has a vault now

an alleged vault of 200-250 tracks

to be fair who the fuck doesn't

The last few songs on this album are getting unjustly trashed in this thread. *pouts*

Yeah, they're inessential but still great.

maybe being in rainy season tokyo for the past week is what helped me really get inside of this album on recent repeats. i retract all my prior lukewarm statements.

i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i love you, i didn't mean to say what i said...

personally i love "warm blood" and feel like it works well as a good late-album slowburn.

"boy problems" has become a real favorite, "making the most" remaining the best of the standard issue and maybe the whole lot. i think "all that" (which i agree benefits from its sequencing, even though for me it functions mostly as a build up to its excellent bridge) through "warm blood" is the real tour de force (the buzzfeed couplet being the album's one real regret, imo), i think "when i needed you" is fine but one of the lesser songs, and a bit clunky as a closer...

bonus tracks are solid but imo "love again" is the only real competition "making the most" has, the detail/thoughtfulness of the whole arrangement and that chord progression (plus all that space) in the verse would have been a great change of pace on the album. also think it'd work well as a closer, both as something that sums up what came before but also stands apart, and as a lyric as well (agree that "run away with me" would work well that way, too, much better than "when i needed you" does. but it's great as the opener it is.)

"When I Needed You" is essential for, if nothing else, the way Carly self-actualises midway through the chorus.

One of the more beautiful moments on the album imo is when she sings "And I cannot control it / The way you're making me feel" in "Warm Blood" and the music proceeds to slide giddily upward.

WTF "When I Needed You" is amazing.

(xpost)

i like "when i needed you" (i like everything on this album now), just in the camp who thinks these sessions had a better closer or three (even limited to the small fraction we've heard)

btw i really love "warm blood" for how the sound of it seems to simulate circulation, heartbeats etc. sounds recorded from inside the body. i also think it really embodies what it feels like to make yourself vulnerable to someone else

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, July 6, 2015 10:13 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Warm Blood is a triumph. Rostam, Tegan & Sara, and CRJ should win a thousand grammy's for that shit. i've played it 42 times in 3 days and i can't get enough. really excited to see more pop production from Rostam in the future. he/they really nailed this one. curious who is responsible for what on the track.

ha, i've only just looked at the credits, obviously i dislike the vampire weekend co-write. surprised sia co-wrote "boy problems", it seems to have too many words and is not lumbering enough to have come from her.

didn't care about warm blood at first but it's been my obsession lately (song with gimmie love, which I thought was just ok at first). la hallucinations is the only song I still don't *love* but this album is totally one of the best straight-up pop albums of the past few years and there are very very few albums I've played as much as this in quite some time

same with gimmie love*

i didn't like Warm Blood at first either & the arrangement still feels slightly clunky but it's really grown on me. LA Hallucinations is definitely the weakest on the main album to me & i'd much prefer Favourite Colour to be on the album over it

Warm Blood reminds me of n/a's cover of Pumping Blood on ILX pre-covers LULU -- the Lou Reed/Metallica album

"Warm Blood" is my favorite.

Ha-- I can hear the VW influence. It's god-pop like "Ya Hey," vocal distortion and everything.

there's one particular note she hits that sounds exactly like Ezra

yeah. the cadence and melody of the entire first verse, but especially that last bit of "where would you find the room"

song is perfect.

One of the more beautiful moments on the album imo is when she sings "And I cannot control it / The way you're making me feel" in "Warm Blood" and the music proceeds to slide giddily upward.

o t m

Has DJ Q heard "I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance" yet?

for me, for Boy Trouble, i actually think its quite interesting/possibly impressive to *not* hear the Greg Kurstin/Sia stamp all over this track. their work is incredible but gets almost formulaic -- you can hear their signatures all over their J.Lo tracks, Charlie XCX, Beyoncé tracks, etc. on the one hand its fun to hear their identifiers, but on the other hand i am guessing that their writing work with CRJ was much more collaborative and more of a two-way street than it would've been with J.Lo.

Were Tegan and Sara really involved in "Warm Blood". Based on wikipedia the writing credits apart from Rostam appear to be Tino Zolfo (who apparently used to be in soulDecision, though not at the time of "Faded") and presumably this guy:

http://joecruzmusic.com/

from a brief scan of this http://coverlib.com/entry/id771435/carly-rae-jepsen-emotion-japan it doesn't look like anything they worked on made the album

Were Tegan and Sara really involved in "Warm Blood"

an early report (guardian i think) suggested they co-wrote the song but i guess not

"Making the Most of the Night" is today's earworm (HEY!).

heh, seems like it was just a punctuation error

eventually recording more than 200 songs split between alt-pop practitioners such as Hynes (on the devastatingly lovely slow jam All That), Ariel Rechtshaid, Tegan and Sara and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij (the lyrically dark Warm Blood), and gold-plated hit-makers such as Sia (the 90s-referencing Boy Problems), Max Martin and Greg Kurstin.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/23/carly-rae-jepsen-zero-i-sound-gritty-vaping-for-a-week-call-me-maybe-emotion

that piece is not great but i'm sure the writer knows how commas and conjunctions work

Lol at two of the songwriters shouting themselves out on "I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance".

xposts: I think Kurstin is easy to spot but Sia has not written anything else like "Making The Most Of The Night" or "Boy Problems" lately, as far as I am aware.

The choruses on those songs don't have a lot of space I guess? is how I'd put it which is unusual for Sia since her choruses tend to be spacious for the sake of maximum belting.

One of things I've always liked about Carly is the way that almost all of her choruses feel very "chatty". Which feels to me like it swims against the tide of most current pop music and certainly against the Dance Producer ft. Sia etc. and Pitcbull etc. orthodoxy, where the choruses are declaratory, either from a balcony Evita-style or from a podium at the center of the dancefloor.

Carly's songs feel like they're addressed to the specific listener, whereas Sia tends to sound like she's addressing a large audience which includes the listener.

This trend is also present in the way she often seems to enjoy rhyming relatively long words or phrases by current chart-pop standards e.g. "sentimental" and "detrimental" on "This Kiss", or "television" with "this position" on "I Really Like You" (though that particular aspect doesn't apply in the specific case of the Sia co-writes here). This is not by itself admirable or exciting or anything, but it can lend the songs a nicely sculpted or chiseled quality (c.f. the stapled-together effect of e.g. "Chandelier" and a lot of other declaration-pop), like, even if the message or vibe being delivered is "generic" or somewhat surface-level, a lot of care has been taken in its articulation.

oh i keep meaning to mention that i love that "boy problems" isn't directly about boy problems at all, but conversing with one's best friend about boy problems

so that one's sort of literally chatty

I've reversed my position on "I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance," so I now like every single track on this album.

yeah i didn't like "i didn't just come here to dance" at all when i first heard it but it fucking RULES

I feel like it's the best example of full bore EDM-pop meets diva-house since Dawn Richard's "Faith".

But with more early 90s Robyn S / CeCe Peniston vibes

my bad on the Tegan & Sara credit on Warm Blood -- i got that info from Wiki which i guess is not a reliable source.

my fave Sia write in the past bit is "Expertease (Ready Set Go)" for Jennifer Lopez. its a bonus track, Prod. is RedOne and Oakwud, and you can very clearly here the Sia factor in lyrics/topline/delivery/cadence etc. etc.

oh yeah and if i'm being picky and trying to find anything to dislike about this record, its the fade outs on most tracks. wish there were conclusive ends to the tracks rather than the lame fade...

I was thinking that something about the heavy landslide thud of the production of "When I Needed You" reminded me of Ferreira's "Heavy Metal Heart" - so of course they share a producer.

Love the way she sings TO-GETH-ER! FOR-EV-ER!

i never listened to 'i really like you' that much pre-album but god damn

who gave you eyes like that/
said you could keep them

That's almost up there with the greatest eye-related pop lyric ever:

You talk, talk, talk to me
Your eyes touch me physically

Can not stop listening to this all the way through repeatedly

Out of the songs currently on Spotify "Emotion" is the best one IMO.

God damn "Favourite Colour"

i dare you to watch this and not fall in love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeccAtqd5K8

partially filmed on the exact sidewalk in shibuya where this album started fully clicking for me :'D

ugh this is really good

also, dope running record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBPw0l26L58

;_;

are you sad because it's a disco ball?

sure

is there any chance at all of "run away with me" becoming an actual hit? i want / need to have a euphoric dancing experience to this in public at some point

i think it could be, depends on how well it's promoted

on board with this album now fwiw

I thought he was sad because he made the mistake of looking at the Youtube comments where everybody is making comparisons to Bad Blood.

oh yeah lol

is Run Away With Me not even charting??? WTF

it debuted at #104 on the uk charts today

but now there's a video for "warm blood" as well!! so.. idk

is Run Away With Me not even charting??? WTF

― mingalaba, Friday, July 31, 2015 10:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the internet is vastly overstating the extent to which the general public shares their cult fandom

oh finally

Popularity is a weird thing. Operating on the premise that Carly Rae's closest musical kin is Taylor Swift, it makes no sense that she wouldn't be as famous for making slightly better songs and having a slightly better voice, but it does make sense for her not purposely living her life like (and writing songs as if) she's a walking supermarket tabloid (no shade on TayTay, it's her choice). For some reason I can't put a finger on, CRJ seems kind of like a "distant" figure in a way that TS (or Katy Perry or Rihanna or even the One Direction fellas) doesn't. That probably hurts her when it comes to cultivating a rabid fanbase.

it debuted at #104 on the uk charts today

but now there's a video for "warm blood" as well!! so.. idk

― transparent play for gifs (Tracer Hand), Saturday, August 1, 2015 9:27 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't see a video yet, only a YouTube audio...

i'm afraid i will cause a car accident if i hear "run away with me" on the radio from dancing and/or crying uncontrollably so maybe it's better if it's not a hit

she's releasing a new song from it weekly until the release date
not that it will make much of a difference unfortunately

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/arts/music/carly-rae-jepsen-with-a-new-album-is-definitely-changing-her-number.html
this article's interesting. wonder what she means by wanting to 'go even weirder' on the next album because nothing on this seems very 'weird'.

I like this album, A+ bubblegum. Wonder if my kids will get into it if it's not something every other living person under 13 is listening to.

"This time we wanted to stop worrying about singles and focus on having a critically acclaimed album." -- I feel like I have to preface all my posts with the fact that I like this album, but man, if ever there was a more damning quote from a manager

Weirdly, there might be some strategy behind that. Keep her contract active and keep her in the minds of people until the unwashed masses can catch up.

"This time we wanted to stop worrying about making something people would buy and focus on having an album people liked."

"album sales are really where it's at these days"

It makes total sense as a long-term strategy; in the general public's mind she's a classic one hit wonder at this point. She doesn't have and is uninterested in building a tabloid profile to keep herself in headlines without hit music; and Call Me Maybe is unduplicable. So a well crafted pure pop album for the heads will at least maintain niche loyalty until a potential comeback. Of course what's surprising is a major label taking a long term approach at all...

Nothing on this album sounds like a hit and it's only v superficially comparable to 1989