Three years ago today, Carly Rae Jepsen delivered the pop masterpiece E•MO•TION. This album delivered one of the best songs of the decade in "Run Away With Me" and saved pop music (for a bit anyway). Let's take a stroll through E•MO•TION and celebrate.
Leading up to the release of E•MO•TION, Carly had mostly been known as the "Call Me Maybe" singer and many thought her destined for one hit wonder status. Carly used her downtime between albums wisely and had a run in a Broadway show with Fran Drescher. Instead of flopping with her third album, she cleverly took her time and got a great group of writers and producers to help her form what would eventually become the E•MO•TION album.
The first single released was the catchy "I Really Like You" which was in the same lane as "Call Me Maybe". It had the same catchy hook and sugary pop sound and seemed destined to be a hit. However, things were not looking promising for the Canadian chanteuse as the song peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Was she truly destined for one hit wonder status?
Unlike some of our pop favs who we wont name, Carly promotes her music and works hard for her fans. Carly was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on April 4, 2015. She came out and performed "I Really Like You" for the crowd and delivered that sweet pop sound we expected.
The performance was fun and safe and status quo for what we expected from our LGBTQ queen. Then something strange and unexpected happened. Carly was joined on stage by Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid to perform her second song that night "All That". This was unexpected because at the time, Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid were known for working mostly with indie artists. Could Carly now be the indie pop queen of music?
The SNL performance helped "All That" to rise on the charts. It didn't do as well as "Call Me Maybe" but it displayed a new sound and lyrical depth that stan twitter did not expect. It was named Best New Track by Pitchfork which opened up her music to a whole new group of fans (straight but we let them in). Jepsen was nervous and excited to perform that song, and she knew it would change how people saw her. “I don’t think I’d ever gone on television and felt like I was allowed to be so much myself,” she said regarding the performance. “I was singing a song that was so heartfelt and so real, and it was for no one but me and what I’m wanting.” It was later revealed that Hynes, Rechtshaid, and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij had indeed worked on her new album and expectations were high. Jepsen and Batmanglij would go on to work on the perfection that is "Warm Blood" which appeared on the E•MO•TION album.
CRJ had close to 250 songs lined up for E•MO•TION and sadly not all were released. She eventually settled on the final 12 that would make the final album. Carly credited listening to Prince and Madonna for album inspiration but she cites a Cyndi Lauper performance in Tokyo as the biggest inspiration. “I was side stage, and I just remember thinking ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,’ I would put that out right now as is and I wouldn’t change any of the production and I’d just put my name on it instead,” she said. “And there’s not a lot of songs that you feel are that timeless and that anthemic and fun.”
The next single to be released was the perfection of "Run Away with Me" on July 17th, 2015. The song received critical acclaim from critics but sadly flopped with mainstream audiences. Commercially, it reached the top 30 in Scotland, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. The fact that the song didn't reach
#1 in all countries is proof that we as a civilization are doomed.
The video was released and was a disaster and OP weeps at what could have been. Its like they said screw it and threw together something and hoped for the best.
However, not all hope was lost. The song went on to find life with gays and memes.
"Your Type" was another single released but failed to chart in any impactful way. During live performances, she revealed that the song was about a guy whom she fell for who she later finds out was gay, similar to what her single "Call Me Maybe"'s video was about.
Finishing out the era, CRJ released the Petra Collins directed music video for “Boy Problems” which had gays and gals shook. It’s the gayest music video by a non-gay artist since Jenny Lewis put Brie Larson, Kristen Stewart and Anne Hathaway in drag for “Just One of the Guys.”
"Boy Problems" failed to make an impact but OP still cries at its beauty.
Thank you for taking this journey and share your CRJ love in the comments.
Sources:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8