Way back when in the summer of 2012, there was a little song called \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d from Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. There was no escaping this charming, frothy ode to infatuation at first sight as it rocketed up the charts and spun endlessly on radio, ultimately becoming the best-selling single of the year worldwide. The only problem? Kiss,<\/i> the album supporting the pop smash hit, went largely unnoticed, potentially dooming Jepsen to one hit wonderland. So on her latest outing (and her third full length), Jepsen took her time, painstakingly recording over 200 songs in order to cull the fifteen tracks that make up E*MO*TION. The goal was to create a cohesive album experience that wouldn\u2019t collapse under the weight of expectations for another lightning strike of a single. <\/p>\n
For the most part, Jepsen succeeds. The songs here are pure, ineffable pop, shimmering with a palette of \u201880s synths and the clarity of Jepsen\u2019s lyrics, not to mention the flirtatious yet totally commanding tone of her vocals. Sonically, E*MO*TION reminds me a bit of that other pop behemoth record of the year: Taylor Swift\u2019s 1989. <\/i>From the warbling horns that open up first cut \u201cRun Away With Me\u201d to the towering choruses on \u201cMaking The Most Of The Night\u201d and \u201cI Really Like You,\u201d there\u2019s a similar sense of \u201880s soundscapes being thrust into the present and refashioned into modern pop greatness. <\/p>\n
\u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d showed Jepsen\u2019s skill at capturing the tenderness of love at its beginning, and here, that mantle is upheld by moments like the utterly adorable \u201cI Really Like You\u201d (whose video, featuring Tom Hanks, is a must-see) and the longing \u201cGimmie Love.\u201d Still, she\u2019s even more interesting when she deviates from this sweet spot. For instance, \u201cBoy Problems\u201d pairs a deceptively bubblegum-sounding vocal with lines like \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna stay, then stay \/ He\u2019s not gonna change anyway \/ So tired of hearin\u2019 all your boy problems,\u201d teasing at the lovelorn obsessiveness that\u2019s a mainstay of pop music. Meanwhile, \u201cAll That\u201d is a swooning, slow-burning torch song, twinkling with cascades of synths and \u201cLA Hallucinations\u201d explores media expectations with a burbling synth backbeat and the standout line \u201cThere\u2019s a little black hole in my golden cup \/ So you pour and I\u2019ll stay stop.\u201d <\/p>\n
Overall, E*MO*TION is as solid a pop album as you\u2019ll find. Nevertheless, I come away from this record with the sense that I could just as easily put these tracks on shuffle or cherry-pick my own playlist of the best songs here and enjoy it just as much. Sometimes, Jepsen can skew too lyrically vague for her own good, like on \u201cEmotion\u201d or \u201cFavorite Colour,\u201d and some specificity of experience is what takes pop over the top for me, making it more than a catchy yet ultimately forgettable consumption. None of these songs necessarily need to be listened to in order, which takes away from the power that an album can have to shepherd you through a feeling and leave you in a different place at its conclusion than where you began. Still, E*MO*TION probably has no less than five hit singles, which means that Jepsen has more than succeeded in proving her endurance beyond \u201cCall Me Maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":32486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9700],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44247","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-carly-rae-jepsen","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44247"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}