Carly Rae Jepsen • Kiss

"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so good on headphones, those beats just SLAP - but my initial "this album totally fizzles out damply" opinion was rescinded when i noticed that most of the blah ones at the end were bonus tracks)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)