Generally speaking, pop music is a young person’s game. The record business and its cache of producers and hitmakers are constantly on the prowl for incipient talent to transform into pre-fab, overnight smashes. It’ll chew you up and spit you out.
Which makes Carly Rae Jepsen something of an industry anomaly—the 30-year-old, Canadian Idol finalist’s breakout release, Kiss, was largely received as a middling pop record, a lackluster imitation of early 2010s dance-pop. And “Call Me Maybe”—the album's centerpiece—certainly seemed to suggest that Jepsen was little more than the top-40 diva du jour. But she’s still here, and she’s better than ever.
“I Really Like You,” the lead single from Jepsen’s latest album Emotion, may be the ultimate “Netflix & Chill” anthem, but it hardly hints at how great and eclectic the rest of the record actually is. A technicolor smorgasbord of Madonna, Michael Jackson, and new jack swing, Emotion is one of the best and most original albums released by a pop star in years. Fuck the '90s revival: this was the best emo album of 2015.
Jepsen’s show at the Wonder Ballroom last night was perfectly emblematic of her pseudo-stardom—the audience of roughly 700 felt equal parts teeny-boppers and graying pop apologists, but it’s safe to say that very few were there ironically. As members of the crowd slowly trickled in during the first two openers, there were whispers of “How come Carly Rae Jepsen is playing a venue this small?”—but that ultimately says more about the way we contextualize pop artists and less about Jepsen’s actual success. When Bob Mould plays the same venue in May, it’ll be viewed as a testament to his endurance. For Carly Rae Jepsen, it’s perceived as the definitive coup de grace to a floundering career. The difference is that Jepsen is the victim of a failing machine, and Emotion doesn’t feign any sort of indie credibility. But if you think that means she's washed up, then the joke's on you.