Crash Into Me…
When was the last time you heard a B-sides/deleted tracks compilation that was better than anything the artist had released in years (which is saying a lot because this particular artist has consistently released only very good-to-great work in that time)? Never, that’s when. It has never happened, until now, and dear lord is it so very, very special.
The Loveliest Time
Carly Rae Jepsen
Dance-Pop
Carly Rae Jepsen is no stranger to second chances. After realizing her monster teen-bop hit was as hated by as many people as it was loved, she ditched the pure bubblegum pop route and wrote EMOTION, arguably the greatest dance-pop album of the 2010’s, and maybe the whole dang new millennium to this point.
Ever since that complete change in approach, Jepsen has become an eminently likeable everywoman with a fantastic voice. And while she has never strayed far from the mainstream pop framework, there has always been just enough about her music and lyrics that’s non-standard so as to remain utterly captivating.
I thought last year’s The Loneliest Time was very, very good. But in the bloated ocean of artists who were waiting for lockdowns to end to release new, tour-able material, it got a bit washed out—too late to be a pandemic album (you know, really capitalize on the “loneliest” part), not bold enough to really capitalize on the disco revival that Jessie Ware had started back in 2020.
But these B-Sides… I mean god damn!
“Kamikaze” is weapons-grade 80’s synthpop that may very well become my most played song of the year (seriously, I can’t stop, I think I have a problem). And while the overall theme of doomed relationships and breakup damage is familiar territory for Jepsen, the way it’s presented here is absolutely phenomenal. Muscular drum machines and whirling Mororder-esque synths bring the track roaring wildly to life, while the obvious Italo-disco influences and the tried and true dark-lyrical-content-hidden-in-a-pop-song trick give it a 2022-Mitski vibe that I still can’t get over. This track is hot like a lithium-ion fire.
“Shy Boy,” the only single from this collection, brings in more true disco influences, including hand claps and falsetto group vocals in the chorus. I can easily hear this being played in a vodka-drenched club with a light-up floor. Meanwhile, the dusky, sunburnt “Kollage,” with its reverb-soaked keys and Kevin Parker-style guitars, is a hard left turn from the other offerings on the album, but it makes for a gorgeous retro-ballad that stands alongside the best of the R&B revivals from the past couple years.
Then there’s “Psychedelic Switch,” with its looping vocal samples and almost-assuredly Daft Punk-inspired beats, that provides a massive, glorious surrender to sheer ecstasy in the form of a Euro-house track. It’s the perfect counterpoint to this album’s source, The Loneliest Time. There, there was the introspective, genteel, yet quietly powerful Carly. Here, here is the brash, not-to-be-silenced Carly brimming with pure joy.
2023 has been exceptionally good to pop listeners, almost to the point of gluttony. And now, here comes Carly Rae Jepsen to not only make sure you’ve cleared your plate, but sending you home with leftovers (get it… ‘cause it’s a B-side compilation). But in a suffocatingly overcrowded field of immensely great pop albums from the likes of Caroline Polachek, Jessie Ware, and Alison Goldfrapp, The Loveliest Time is a standout that’s a head above the rest.
