| |
Special Event: atrlcritic | Ed Sheeran's new songs after the upgrade
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 4/24/2011
Posts: 8,547
|
Carly Rae Jepsen - ‘E·MO·TION’ — (9.3)
Genre: Synthpop, Dance-Pop, Electropop, Sophisti-Pop
It’s unfair to address Carly Rae Jepsen as a “one-hit wonder”, not only because she had a few more “hits”, but also because “Call Me Maybe” was something… bigger than a hit. Call it “meme” or “cultural phenomena”, whatever, but it was one of the few songs that became one of these because of how catchy it was. Also, by saying she’s a “one-hit wonder”, you’re just dismissing everything else she made.
‘Kiss’, while having a few other songs, it was kinda average as a whole, but her second (third, if you count 'Tug of War’) album, ‘E·MO·TION’, proves that she’s much more than a catchy hook you hear in the radio. It might have to do with her collaborators, Dev Hynes a.k.a. Blood Orange, who produced with moody “All That”, Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend, Ariel Rechtshaid, Tegan & Sara, and with her influences, who range from Cindy Lauper and Madonna, to James Blake and The xx – but there’s something about CRJ’s personality that makes it irresistible.
The opener, “Run Away With Me” is something indeed huge, the synths, the saxophone sample, the “BABY. TAKE ME. TO THE. FEELING.” hook, everything contributes in making what is possibly the greatest mainstream pop song of the year. But it doesn’t overshadow the rest of the album. The title track has funky guitars and delicate vocal melodies that could work for decades, it sounds somewhere in between Haim and Katy Perry – but it’s not really generic after all.
But… the two songs that follow are the most repetitive in the entire album, “I Really Like You” and “Gimmie Love” are really redundant, but even those are actually good: the lead single’s hook is explosive in a way only Sia’s “Chandelier” could achieve, and the bridge in the other is great too. And while we’re talking about Sia, she co-wrote two songs in the album, too, “Boy Problems” and “Making the Most of the Night”, who are some of the catchiest, funkiest in it. While the first is a bit more disco-influenced, the second sounds really… flamenco? It’s odd, but it works.
“Your Type” takes the nu-synthpop from CHVRCHES and Robyn and applies it into mainstream pop in a way that seems more authentic than any other attempt of any other popular singer that tries to do the same. “Let’s Get Lost” is very 80′s too - but it’s more reminiscent of, like, Sophisti-Pop, with the smooth production and the saxophones and everything. It’s more organic than anything else in the album.
It’s odd, as well, that after the most organic track in the album, we have the most… “futuristic” ones, I guess. “LA Hallucinations” and “Warm Blood” have a production style that reminds me a lot of PC Music’s takes on Pop and Electronic music. While the first is about living life as a popstar, and how everything is not as good as it seems (and it’s the only song that’s obviously not about love), the second is about intimacy, and the lyrics are really detailed with all the feelings and emotions.
“When I Needed You” is a great closer too, and it’s probably the most colorful one. I am really liking the lyrics, too, like for example, the hook (“Sometimes I wish that I could change (…) But I know, I know that I won’t change for you / ‘Cuz where were you for me? / When I needed someone? / When i needed you?”), perfectly explains what is like to be in love with someone who doesn’t love you as much, and trying to deal with that.
This is a surprisingly mature theme in a Carly Rae song, and this is a surprisingly mature album, with interesting themes, detailed instrumentations, and the typical catchy hooks she brings. Her personality is likeable enough, and she’s talented enough to pull it off. Maybe she won’t have the success that some of her peers, like Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande, in the charts. But I expect Carly’s music to only get better and better from now on.
Highlights: “Run Away With Me”, “E·MO·TION”, “Boy Problems”, “Making the Most of the Night”, “Your Type”, “Let’s Get Lost”, “Warm Blood”, “When I Needed You”
You’ll like it if you like: Haim, CHVRCHES, Kylie Minogue, early Madonna
Honestly, TRF.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 13,761
|
E·MO·TION
Carly Rae Jepsen
Review archive
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Madonna - Rebel Heart
Florence + The Machine - What Kind of Man
Carly Rae Jepsen - I Really Like You
Taylor Swift - Style
Rihanna - FourFiveSeconds
Nick Jonas - Jealous
Nicki Minaj - The PinkPrint
Beyoncé - 7/11
Kanye West - Yeezus |
It is hard to sound human in a love song. For something which is so distinctly human, the trope of love in music has become so-often explored that it’s difficult to sound authentic and organic instead of relaying off a script which has been written and edited over the last fifty years of pop culture. Artists know when to say they feel ‘high’, or when they want to ‘make love’, or when someone ‘completes’ them, ad infinitum. The result is a dog-eared and tea-stained script that has been so often passed around countless musicians that love in itself has become a counter-intuitive concept in music, now devoid of all emotion.
It is perhaps why Carly Rae Jepsen is so refreshing in her authenticity when addressing ideas of love, mainly achieving this – notably via first single I Really Like You – by refuting love altogether. I Really Like You captures a sense of giddiness that no other love song could, by even treating the word itself – let alone the feeling – as a taboo, dancing on the edge of our tongues, thumping against the floodgates until we can no longer hold back this cascade of feeling.
Maybe the dictionary-formatted title of E•MO•TION is something of an ironic take, or a self-aware, self-deprecating jibe about music’s ultimate inability to truly rationalise what the special four-letter-word actually means. As Jepsen sings on bonus track Black Heart, ‘You think love is a destination / Like a show on your TV’, she is entirely aware of the fact that love is more sporadic than a simple journey, but not once is it daunting. In fact, E•MO•TION treats this nihilistic take on love as something which is liberating, not hopeless or confusing. It elects the idea that we don’t need to rummage through the pages of the dog-eared love script to try and reach the concrete feeling of being ‘high’ or ‘completed’, but instead that love is at its most beautiful when we refute that it means anything at all.
Of course, E•MO•TION is not aimed specifically at love, but it manages to capture an entire spectrum of human feeling, Jepsen’s childlike cadence not so much being something regressive than it is something which allows us to view simple, human actions in a way which is without the influence of the world: it presents something pure and organic. Yet, not once does E•MO•TION transpire as music with marketing groups of mothers behind it. Jepsen is constantly dancing, rearing to veer away into maturity as the stark ‘I remember being naked’ song openers, the grisly turns into Warm Blood’s ‘cavern of secrets’, or the downright mischievous double-entendres ‘How’d we get in this positon’ should tell you. Boy Problems alone, showcasing Jepsen’s ability to make a Sia-penned song her own without imitating every last vocal inflection, is a testament to the bubbling creativity and personality at work here.
There’s something truly authentic about the way Jepsen writes her songs. They’re not about love, specifically. They eschew this idea that we can even begin to rationalise what love is, and they accept that it’s too perfect – almost unattainable. Run Away With Me, in all its seismic wanderlust, is an apt way to begin E•MO•TION. It begs to take the listener to somewhere where maybe we can discover what love is. Who knows where this destination is, or how we’ll get there or how we’ll feel when we arrive, but the song thrives on the hope that this golden world exists – a place so tangible we can run there, leaving us racing into the unknown as she ambiguously sings ‘Take me to the feeling’. Jepsen’s songs aren’t so much love songs than they are songs which write about true emotion, avoiding the fantastical and the unattainable. They capture the authentic feeling of love. That is, being love isn't actually about being in love, it’s about hanging on the edge of pure bliss.8.1 out of 10 |
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 13,761
|
let's do high by the beach too
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/22/2012
Posts: 33,490
|
Quote:
Originally posted by bluth
let's do high by the beach too
|
I'd rather say Honeymoon since it's out next week?
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 68,548
|
Quote:
Originally posted by borntodie
I'd rather say Honeymoon since it's out next week?
|
I agree, at this point
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 11/18/2011
Posts: 5,396
|
Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION
Release Date: August 21, 2015
"Cause you make me feel like I could be driving you all night, and I found your lips in the street lights. I wanna be there with you."
“Call Me Maybe” was a huge song and you can’t deny it. You may have hated the song, but it was everywhere in 2012. In the wake of that song, Carly released KISS which was filled with some pretty good pop music, but not much that stood out like “Call Me Maybe” did. Carly took her time to craft E•MO•TION with numerous co-writers and producers. Instead of making music based on modern pop, Carly and her crew revisited the 80′s to create her third album.
The album opens with a lone saxophone blasting away before Carly’s sweet voice enters to sing about how she can’t get her lover off her mind. “Run Away With Me” continues with an explosive chorus where she happily declares her love. The title track follows and introduces more mature themes to the album by telling a boy to “drink tequila for her” to mourn the loss of their relationship. You would be sure to not find lyrical content as this on her previous album.
As E•MO•TION continues it’s evident that Jepsen can really write pop music. With catchy choruses from “I Really Like You” to cheeky lyrics about forgetting boys for a day alongside a JAMMING bass riff on “Boy Problems,” the entire album is so accessible and… just good music.
Not all the songs are simply just bubblegum pop, either. “All That,” co-written and produced with Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid, is an optimistic slow jam straight from the ending of a mid 80s movie. It’s pretty much what you’d expect in a collaboration with Carly, Ariel, and Dev. “Your Type” is the harmonious marriage between current and throwback pop by pairing heavy, warbling synths with prominent bass riff. It’s pretty similar (lyrically) to something like “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn.
There were a few tracks I didn’t care about. “Making the Most of the Night” is fun but kinda sounds like a song made for a boy band. “Warm Blood” is a great change of pace, but doesn’t have anything that draws you into the song. “LA Hallucinations” is probably the only song that I can’t really find anything that I like about the song. However, the good heavily outweighs the bad. Even the songs on the deluxe edition are worth a listen, some being even better than songs that made the standard edition.
People often criticize pop music for being too simple, but that’s exactly the point of most pop music. If anything, it’s hard to make good pop music that is just simple enough for a casual listener, but also deep and interesting enough so that it isn’t just a throwaway song. E•MO•TION successfully draws from 80s music and modern music to make, hands down, the best pop record of the year.
8.5/10
★★★★★★★★✩✩
Top Tracks: Run Away With Me, E•MO•TION, Boy Problems, Let’s Get Lost, Favourite Colour (deluxe)
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/5/2014
Posts: 29,111
|
Alright I've been putting this off because I haven't been able to log on to here besides mobile (stupid constant unending 522  ) but I dont want to wait to review Carly anymore, and articulate my opinion, apologies for the messiness of the review
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Carly Rae Jepsen is one of the most confusing pop acts out there. Going back to her break-out hit, the world conquering Call Me Maybe, she seemed relatively straight-forward: a cute girl with a bubbly voice, singing bubbly pop. Call Me Maybe seemed like a fluke, a mega hit of pop song by just another trifling up and coming pop singer that turned out to be surprisingly sturdy quality song (a fact reinforced by the noxious Good Time, her follow up single with Owl City, one of the worst peddlers of overly saccharine pop music). Instead, the opposite turned out to be true, Carly delivered her album Kiss and showed herself capable of crafting incredibly solid pop songs that just never hit the sweet spot with the general public. Carly never really came across as a pop star, more like an average person putting together cute inoffensive and wide-eyed pop music.
Even that view of Jepsen isn't accurate though, as a couple listens of her sophomore album, Emotion will reveal. Carly does come across as an average person throughout her album, one without an easily marketable hook (she's not about unattaonable flawless was like Bey, a bad girl like Rih, a weirdo preaching independence like Gaga, the perfect American girl like Taylor), but her music isn't as innocent and fluffy as one might expect. Emotion reveals surprising depth and careful attention to detail that only really reveals itself of someone goes looking for it. Yeah, the girl released a song called I Really Like You with a chorus that doesn't say much beyond the title of the song, but even then, there's more beneath the surface. There are slight hints that the song isn't as innocent as it lets on: "late night watching television, how'd we get in this position, it's way too soon I know this isn't love. But I need to tell you something, I really like you" the whispered I really like you and double entendre on the word position implies more is going on in the song, and the bright 80s sounding production highlights the ecstatic feeling of developing feelings for a person, but also harkens back to a time in pop culture where anything hinting at sex, anything beyond a simple "I really like you" was only hinted at.
Most of the album follows I Really Like Yous suit. It never strays from bright pop music, but subtly substantive and well emotional. The opener Run Away has been called pop perfection and it clear why. It's propulsive and enticing, complete with a beckoning sax, but sounds more longing fantasy than reality eapecy in the context of the album: Carly seems to be constantly pleading for people to see her for what she has to offer, being the "magic you will never see," on All That, wanting her lover to miss her when she's not around, but still realizing that she's "not the type of girl you call a friend." She claims "I can not control it, the way you make me feel," on the weirdly pulsating and cavernous Warm Blood which can flows right into the closer When I Needed You where she chants "Sometimes I Wish I could change, but not for me, for you, so we could be together, forever, but I know I won't change for you."
It's a conflicted album, it can be needy and unsure of itself at times, and even surprisingly heartbreaking when you realize that all the heartbreak and self doubt of the album comes from the girl that once optimistically sang "here's my number, Call Me Maybe?" Beneath its almost relentlessly bright and bouncy exterior (possibly the reason the album has been written off by buyers) Emotion is one of the most layered, albums to come out this year.
Grade: A
|
|
|
|
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,324
|
When is What Do You Mean?
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
|
Qatari, you're the second request for What Do You Mean?. If one more person requests the song to be reviewed, we will review it.
Due to Emotion reviews still flowing in, I have decided to extend it to Saturday morning.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/22/2012
Posts: 33,490
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
|
Now starting: Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean?
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
|
Also, on Saturday morning I plan to update the OP with links to the results posts for Hilary's album, GFY, CFTS, and others that we've done since I last updated it.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 68,548
|
Justin Bieber - "What Do You Mean?"
Justin Bieber decided to stay safe for his comeback single. "What Do You Mean?" sounds exactly like any other EDM-influenced song that has charted in the past three years. This is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the song was catchy enough to go #1 pretty much everywhere, but it certainly means that it will be forgotten within months and that it won't give the singer the classic he needs to become a somehow respected artist (still a long way to go for Biebs!).
Recycling the already-heard sound of his previous single "Where Are Ü Now", Bieber offers us nothing more than a cute, catchy song that, at the end of the day, leaves us with nothing.
5/10
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/1/2013
Posts: 5,014
|
I might start doing this 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 68,548
|
Y'all are flops for requesting songs/albums and not reviewing them 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 19,167
|
Will post the review for Miley SOON 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/22/2012
Posts: 33,490
|
Quote:
Originally posted by KillingYourCareer
Y'all are flops for requesting songs/albums and not reviewing them |
Bieber just started so don't be so pressed 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,973
|
Sorry about the messiness and the tardiness!
I'll start off by saying that I was never a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe. I never found anything special to it and I would even change the station when it came on the radio. The shade is that I know every lyric of Call Me Maybe. Poor me. However, I thought E•MO•TION's first single I Really Like You was an awesome Pop song. It was cute and flirty with the right amount of 80s throwback. The second track we heard from Carly's album was All That, the 80s Pop ballad we all deserve and been waiting for years to hear. Then fast forward to Run Away With Me and I was floored. Literal Pop perfection! Every single millisecond of that song was masterfully crafted to perfection. The layering of instruments and her voice are in perfect sync. Another album highlight for me is the title track Emotion which is a fun and catchy tune that sets the tone for the rest of the album. The bridge is also amazing. What great pop record doesn't have a cool bridge? Completing my album trinity along with All That and Run Away With Me is the emotional Warm Blood. To keep it short, I freaking love this album and I can't stop replaying it. Easily the best Pop album since Queen Of The Clouds for me. Other songs I would recommend are Gimme Love, Making The Most Of The Night, Let's Get Lost and Your Type.
 PREVIOUS REVIEWS
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
|
I'm about to start tallying the Emotion results.
I'm thinking that Miley and Bieber will go until next Sunday.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
|
Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION
Members
Score 91
9 reviews (9 positive)
Top Critics
Score 93
4 reviews (4 positive)
Overall Score
91.5 (13 reviews)
--
Any other singles people want to do? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
