Carly Rae Jepsen • Dedicated

Or they just happened to choose metacritic to focus on. Don't "Swifties" buy multiple copies of Taylor Swift albums? Step it up, Jepset!

I checked BTS (who have a notoriously zealous stanbase), and even their user scores aren’t as high. My theory is that CRJ has lots of vocal fans and no enemy fan armies showing up for negative votes.

Like who would bother downvoting a Carly Rae Jepsen album? She seems to be either loved or ignored

Like Ariana Grande before the donuts. Hmmmm

Would actually be interested to hear your take on it if you listen back to front?

Hah, that's an idea. One of the only albums I can think of where the songs go from least favorite to favorite is the Smiths' The Queen is Dead (big exception: "Vicar in a Tutu"). I think the impact of that ordering is I have more attention for the tracks I'm not as crazy about

"real love" is toward the end of this record so

xp Try reversing both. Your heart gets unbroke, the vicar gets out of his tutu, etc!

big gym sw0les (crüt) at 10:48 27 May 19

how can you save pop music if you don't have a hit?

unpopular pop music is a cornerstone of ilm

Or, as Xgau used to call it, "Semi-Popular Music".

QuasILX-pop

you do realize people actually go to carly rae jepsen shows

I wish they did one big another over here so I could go!

crj at islington assembly hall was a bit like being on e

I did make that one, contender for my gig of the decade!

Everything He Needs is my song of the summer. Not sure if it's intentional but it feels like a sunshiny flipside to Wham!'s Everything She Wants. I agree with whoever it was who said Dedicated doesn't quite hit the highs of Emotion but is much more solid overall. What a great album.

ooooooooooooooooo. oooh

NEVER GUESS WHAT CAME AFTER

Thank you for the reminder that I'm seeing her next week.

i seem to never get tired of this record

just love the way she sings "but" before the chorus of "happy not knowing"

Lost my shit at CRJ live in San Francisco tonight

Yeah that was a fucking amazing show all around. Setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/carly-rae-jepsen/2019/bill-graham-civic-auditorium-san-francisco-ca-1b917940.html

Incredibly sequenced, she's leaning into the range of her catalog (okay fine, not the first album) perfectly at this point, and it can carry a full show easily. When you can place “Call Me Maybe” six songs in, close the main set with “Party For One” and close the encore and the whole night with a confetti cannon/ultraPride “Cut to the Feeling” you are firing on all fours. Speaking of that, Mark Kanemura really was the killer touch:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzTFpQAJV0B/

Carly and @mKiK808 on stage tonight.📸 pic.twitter.com/G6xVi6fath

— Carly Rae Jepsen News (@carlylatest) June 29, 2019

🏳️‍🌈 @carlyraejepsen sang GAY RIGHTS (feat. @mKiK808) pic.twitter.com/PlEi8ILKet

— 𝕢𝕦𝕪𝕒𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 🏳️‍🌈 (@quyarick) June 29, 2019

Smart midset costume change break too.

Also, the shirts etc were a fun range. We both ended up going for the long sleeve black T-shirt with this on the front and the song title/her name on the back. Very metal.

So @squidita and I await @carlyraejepsen at the Bill Graham. No drug like her. Attn @randlechris etc pic.twitter.com/5asIGMLgIz

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) June 29, 2019

it's crazy to me that she doesn't do "i know you have a girlfriend". it's her best song.

pretty sure she's only performing kiss bonus tracks in my dreams

the number one Kiss album track i'd wanna hear her do is "More Than A Memory"

https://www.thestranger.com/features/2019/08/28/41215406/we-cant-stop-listening-to-carly-rae-jepsen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY1RsDpRmIU

It's as if her production team has taken the 80s touches of "Really Like You" and gone wild, because it sounds like the great lost Five Star single.

The UK Chart Company's website lists artists alphabetically, by first name, so I learn that the most popular first name beginning with a C for pop musicians in the UK is Chris. I also learn that Chris Morris' Blue Jam got to number 97 for a week back in April 2000. For that one week, our kind triumphed.

Dedicated also spent one week on the chart, entering and leaving at number 26 (it was a lot less popular than Lemar's Dedicated back in 2003). I realise that the UK pop charts are no longer the single definitive measure of an artist's worth, but even so it feels incredibly unfair for the album to spend just one week on the chart. I spent most of the second half of last month trying not to sing "oooooh, have I said too much / I'm so in my head / when we're out of touch", and it's not often that modern pop music penetrates my brain like that ("I Really Life You" was a top ten hit over here).

I mean, usually when an pop singer in her environment has a chart dip they get dumped. I still remember when B*Witched were dropped by their label because one of their singles only got to #12 or something albeit that it was a different world back then. And yet the record company are still backing Jepsen so presumably either she's really nice, or she has a fantastic manager, or someone in a position of power recognises that she puts out consistently good records. Also she seems to be able to sing live.

Here's an 8-Bit cover of "I Really Like You":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qZ3RBW6OVE

It's fascinating from a song construction point of view. The verse is a lot stronger than "Call me Maybe" (the verse in that song is perfunctory - it only exists to space out the chorus), but the switch from "I feel like I could die" to "late night watching television" feels disjointed, and the chorus treads a fine line between being awesome and being a novelty, and yet it works and many years later I still remember it.

the sophistipop clash of synths and saxophone at the end of "want you in my room" is so fuckin good

the video is SO GOOD i have watched it several times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o0EN7CoLao

her cover of don't speak was not very good unfortunately

was listenin' to this record for the first time in awhile this week. i still LOVE it. thx for awesome vid Brad

this video made my day.
thank you.

can't imagine this will be anything less than a ton of fun
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/25/781452256/carly-rae-jepsen-tiny-desk-concert?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=music&fbclid=IwAR3W7OEMn9dsvbkq6fij2MppA0r2tIzU86InoR6s_f9hV-tfHxRKNSMTeIk

She seems to be teasing something on Twitter

Catch you later! 💘 pic.twitter.com/wfvQcYZNzY

— Carly Rae Jepsen (@carlyraejepsen) February 4, 2020

(it's a new song on friday)

Her show here next week has been moved from a 2,000 capacity theater (that e.g. Paramore sold out in 2018 and where Taylor Swift played her one-off last year) to a 700 capacity venue :(

only the real hedz

yeah kind of a bummer for her but good news for everyone attending

tbh I didn’t even know she was playing here until I saw the story about the move. It’s a Monday night, that can’t help.

This album grew on me a lot but it took a bunch more plays than Emotion.

I'm going to see her live on Friday! That venue was upgraded from a bigger one too.

The show on Sat in London I'm going to was upgraded from under 2,000 capacity Roundhouse to 5,000 capacity Brixton Academy. I feel like nothing will live up to seeing her in the 800 size Islington Town Hall on the Emotion tour though, one of my fondest gig memories, certaining from the last 10 years.

the Assembly Hall you mean? (which is next to the Town Hall) I was there and it was like one long ecstasy rush - absolutely incredible.

That’s the one, what a night.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6tcjcJFRSdkIlThUUP39mJ

song seems great but the vocal production is horrible

every sound in this sounds weird not just the vocals

How are you listening? Spotify tells me it’s not out until tomorrow. Am I supposed to understand you all have some kind of cool guy magic that permits you to hear songs from the future?

the cool guy magic of timezones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_OYT396cYw

lol yeah the vocal production is v bizarre, sounds like a low quality kylie minogue demo. song's pretty cute

I'm glad this didn't make the album (assuming it's an outtake) - I'm not a big fan of CRJ in mocking mode