Carly Rae Jepsen • Kiss

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.

show tonight was gr8, 21 songs in less than 90 minutes

the one-two punch of 'tonight i'm getting over you' and 'your type' was immensely cruel

I hope she makes it over to Europe.

so glad I checked this album out. brilliant from start to finish.

seeing her tonight :D

oh my gosh, that was a great show. CRJ should have been a rock singer instead of a pop diva!

it was totally wonderful. irving plaza's sound is always weird to me, but it started sounding properly expansive by the fifth song or so ("warm blood," which is incidentally when i started crying)

i just wanted to say i really like the sweater she's wearing on the album cover.

A friend looked into getting one. Yours for a mere $2.5k: http://socialmediastyle.tumblr.com/post/110580979775/carly-rae-jepsens-rainbow-stripe-sweater

My wife will knit it for half that amount.

I just started listening yesterday and I have to say this is probably one of the top 5 albums I've heard this year. This type of music is obviously market-tested to death before being released and yet I'm marveled at how they managed to make it sound so effortless. Carly must have recorded every vocal track hundreds of times and that usual weariness of the pop album process doesn't filter in here. She sounds genuinely thrilled and... human in every song. I don't know if I'm overthinking it but I love how gleeful this all sounds. I'm probably being hyperbolic but this sounds to me like the closest any pop album has ever been to perfection.

Has this album performed well? None of the songs have been as ubiquitous as Call Me Maybe was and it's a shame because they're really, really good.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I Really Like You was a decent hit in Europe and Japan, but nowhere else. The album didn't do well at all, which is a shame because it's definitely my favourite thing this year.

it gets five stars from this corny indie fuxxor too. instant classic which I just haven't been able to stop playing this week

I see she is playing a one-off show in London in December. Is being put on by Capital, so a bit wary of the format.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUJQqkuWIAELyAK.jpg

oooh, exciting!

Guess what idiot forgot to get tickets to the London show.

Goddamn it, I hate that song.

was there ever a christmas song poll on ilm?

The Christmas Poll

ouch, how can this not sound corny?

ouchooh, how can this not sound cornygreat?

decent poll! it's down to wham vs. mariah for me too (of the tracks that appear on those cd collections)

All I Want For Christmas is a true jam, although I think I must have been the vote for 2000 Miles.

also great, and a bit atypical in that it's an album cut christmas song (or whatever they call that)

I don't think I'll listen to any christmas songs before December, but first thing I'm giving a listen is this

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/10/12/03/2D50A1DE00000578-3268860-image-a-8_1444615989470.jpg

the crj "last christmas" cover is great, totally crystalline, tons of saxophone, kinda r&b in the way it moves

Crystalline saxophone sounds reassuring.

http://www.itemvn.com/song/?s=DA977279F2