2012’s Call Me Maybe skyrocketed Carly Rae Jepsen into instantaneous fame, if only as a one-hit-wonder. The follow-up album, Kiss, flew under virtually everyone’s radar. With this, the impetus for her third album Emotion was born: an album wholly as catchy and listenable as Call Me Maybe. Jepsen enlisted a myriad of producers and set out to create an album from which a singular single could not be plucked.
Emotion is about as confident as a pop album can get. Appropriately 80’s-tinged, the album’s firm conviction for unabashed pop music is what keeps it going through it’s fifteen tracks. Jepsen takes full control of her sound, commanding rather than asking in the saxophone-driven opener and second single, Run Away With Me. Two songs later on I Really Like You, the album’s lead single, Jepsen touches upon the bubbly teenage romance of Call Me Maybe, only this time she’s not just dreaming about romance as she sings, “Late night watching television, but how’d we get in this position?” Later in the album, Jepsen laments the toll her “Boy Problems” take on a friendship in an upbeat anthem that’s more about the friendship than the boy.
Emotion’s success lies in Carly Rae Jepsen’s personality, something which shines bright on this album. What she lacks in the way of a gimmicky schtick she makes up for in authenticity. Emotion is fun and exciting, and Jepsen’s genuine nature makes it feel something like a good friend singing to you.
Emotion is about as confident as a pop album can get. Appropriately 80’s-tinged, the album’s firm conviction for unabashed pop music is what keeps it going through it’s fifteen tracks. Jepsen takes full control of her sound, commanding rather than asking in the saxophone-driven opener and second single, Run Away With Me. Two songs later on I Really Like You, the album’s lead single, Jepsen touches upon the bubbly teenage romance of Call Me Maybe, only this time she’s not just dreaming about romance as she sings, “Late night watching television, but how’d we get in this position?” Later in the album, Jepsen laments the toll her “Boy Problems” take on a friendship in an upbeat anthem that’s more about the friendship than the boy.
Emotion’s success lies in Carly Rae Jepsen’s personality, something which shines bright on this album. What she lacks in the way of a gimmicky schtick she makes up for in authenticity. Emotion is fun and exciting, and Jepsen’s genuine nature makes it feel something like a good friend singing to you.