Carly Rae Jepsen • Kiss

i did

oh damn i figured the bump would be for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJa0qPRtPiI

And I thought it was going to be about the new Marianas Trench single.

Or the fsct that she's been cast in Grease

Despite the fact that Frenchie doesn't have any songs in it.

bleachers track is a little weird, would've preferred to hear her sing over the original instrumentation rather than a remix

the charli and tinashe covers on that record are AWESOME though

For as much time as I've spent listening to CRJ this year, I'm just now listening to Call Me Maybe again for the first time a very long while. It sounds so simple compared to much of what's on the new album. Not bad simple. Just not fussed over in any capacity.

I think KISS is a way better album

I don't know if I agree with that, considering there are songs on Kiss that I absolutely hate and none of Emotion that I don't like. Emotion is maybe just more "worked on" if that makes sense.

I went back and bought Kiss for the first time in between hearing the EMOTION leak and waiting for my pre-order to show up. The newer songs are significantly more thought-out.

it's not even a question to me that kiss is better. seems more present, so much more popthrill. a couple of duds don't really bother me

i don't really listen to anything on it beyond CMM and I Know You Have A Girlfriend but those two are probably better from a popthrill perspective than anything on the new one (as much as I love the new one)

I think Emotion makes more sense as an album and says more about who CRJ wants to be understood as, but I prefer Kiss as a flawless compilation of potential singles.

There are no duds on Emotion for me (maybe "LA Hallucinations" if I was feeling grumpy) and several on Kiss - the highs are high on both. Newer album a clear winner.

A lot of Kiss seems dated to me now, just very 2012. Still good, but Emotion is such a clear step forward to me.

i don't blame a 2012 album for sounding like 2012! i'm sure in three years emotion will sound ~very 2015 (even more so, maybe), but that's not what it stands or falls on for me

i didn't think kiss sounded like 2012 at the time and i don't now

"dated" always a weird description to apply to any record released within human history

"Dated" is generally the most useless criticism to apply to any artwork.

Also, I guess I'm alone here, but I don't feel far enough from 2012 to know what 2012 sounded like yet (at least as wholly distinct from 2013, 2014, 2015...)

right, that too

kiss is so much better than emotion that this conversation is actually insulting to our collective intelligence

lol i prefer emotion but only slightly

Did I miss the meeting when "popthrill" was introduced as a word/feeling?

Anyway, if that means what I think it means, there are possibly more popthrill moments on Kiss than on Emotion, but when I think of music being thrilling I also think of that feeling being temporary.

there's a few tracks on Kiss that are probably more immediately thrilling than anything on Emotion but it doesn't really sustain that, while Emotion is great the whole way through (except maybe LA Hallucinations)

Did I miss the meeting when "popthrill" was introduced as a word/feeling?

it's like music's "mouthfeel"

Eew.

j0 otm. I don't know of any duds on KISS either. even the kinda corny bieber/owl city tracks are alright by me.

popthrill used perfectly by lex

I think Emotion makes more sense as an album and says more about who CRJ wants to be understood as,

― boxedjoy, Wednesday, October 7, 2015 5:24 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, emotion just sounds more serious/mature in its production choices but i don't feel more clued into who she is or w/e. The themes are the same, lyrics more or less on a similar level.

"dated" = this sounds very of its particular musical moment and I'm not thrilled by that sound anymore.

Also records inherently being ways of understanding Who The Artist Is? and then judging the quality of the record on whether it succeeds at telling you about them is way more useless a piece of criticism imo than saying saying something's sound is dated. Like that's just you talking about yourself while pretending to talk about the artist.

Yeah, your explanation of that use of "dated" is articulate. I think the thing for me is that the word maybe implies that there used to be a way of doing things and now we've found a better way. I like to think of sounds as being neutral, though. If I'm producing a record, I might think, "Well, I'm not going to opt for Choice X because there's a new bit of gear and I think it sounds better." That judgment is relative to what I happen to be going for, though. The sound itself is neutral and someone else might choose the old bit of gear for different reasons.

can we maybe stratify ilm so there's like an ilm 101

These two albums seem way too close to each other for me to imagine taking a particularly polarised view in favour of one over the other.

agree that kiss > emotion

both albums are really great

can't wait for the crj album poll to see which is officially better

No bad songs on Emotion for me, I pretty much always listen to it all through as well. There are *better* songs that are on Kiss, but a lot worse too. IMHO, obvs, etc.

Also records inherently being ways of understanding Who The Artist Is? and then judging the quality of the record on whether it succeeds at telling you about them is way more useless a piece of criticism imo than saying saying something's sound is dated. Like that's just you talking about yourself while pretending to talk about the artist.

most artists go out of their way to insist that their records are ways to understand Who They Are (or Who Their Persona Is)

"dated" just can mean several things. "dated stylistically" as in, several years on, there are production choices that lock it into a particular era and that sound a bit funny to modern ears (always think of tori amos's little earthquakes, which is obviously one of the best albums ever regardless, in this regard - the way the drums are produced!). this isn't really a useful criticism though. "dated" of a new album, when a new album feels like the artist hasn't moved on from trends of a few years ago, is more legit (the shamir album feels like this for me, and a lot of veteran successful artists fall into this trap). "dated badly" as in, several years on, the album does not hold up for whatever reason is also legit.

kiss wasn't dated at the time (it's not the same thing as retro), it hasn't dated badly (i mean, naturally i'm not caning it every week like i did on release, but this is just what happens, not a judgment on it) and actually i don't think it sounded particular on-trend for 2012

it's funny seeing people say "la hallucinations" is a track they dislike on emotion, it's one of the stronger ones for me. it's a very admirable and well-crafted album but for whatever reason it just hasn't got its hooks into me emotionally, it doesn't excite me in the way kiss did.

LA Hallucinations is my fav on the new one I've decided.

Yeah, always been one of the more interesting ones to me - seems to be a track that polarise opinion though.

The album is slated to be released on vinyl tomorrow. The format it most deserves, though, is CrO2 cassette with an 8-panel J-card that smells like Fritos.

an 8-panel J-card that smells like Fritos

Enigma Records!

Yep! When the kids are all "what were the 80s like?", it's simple to point to a video (Pretty Poison's "Catch Me I'm Falling" is textbook) for sound and visuals, but to round out the olfactory pleasure, just have them take a whiff of your Beelzebubba tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFMVzo9zuE

Love that song but the video confuses me

perfection :)

dropping by to note that the (best) k-pop group f(x) bought "when i'm alone," the emotion outtake carly wrote about masturbation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiaxkNnT2Vc

Pretty good, giving their whole album a listen now.

4walls is excellent, very new jack swing with "show me love" interpolations

sad to report that the vinyl version is just the original 12 tracks, no "black heart", "i didnt just come here to dance" or "favorite color"

I quite like it finishing on 'When I Needed You' I must say.