One thing that Carly Rae Jepsen consistently has going for her is cuteness. Whether she's adoring a crush from afar, or frolicking in the backwoods with Owl City, her girlish voice and chipper demeanor make it awfully hard to hate Carly Rae Jepsen, even if her breakout single "Call Me Maybe" relied a bit too much on her cloyingly "cute" persona. Of course, looks and attitude aren't everything; especially when trying to distinguish oneself from the rest of the pop crowd, the ability to sell more than one type of image is crucial. When constructing an entire album, having more than just one type of song is essential, and while the similar aesthetic of sugar and spice runs its course throughout "Kiss", Carly Rae ends up being savvy enough to throw in subtle changes to the "Call Me Maybe" formula. Though that huge lead single favored disco strings, drums, and guitars, lead-off track "Tiny Little Bows" is pure 80s fizz, while cuts like "Tonight I'm Getting Over You", featuring dubstep rhythms and heavy synths, and closing track "Your Heart is a Muscle", recalling early-2000s balladry, are modern enough to keep "Kiss" in the new millennium. So it certainly is fresh: despite the many throwback moments to Madonna and Cyndi Lauper's early careers, "Kiss" never sounds out-dated or old-fashioned. Rather, it feels like Carly Rae Jepsen is just hauling classic techniques into the present, pulling it off with surprising amounts of efficiency, considering how little time she had to rush it into stores before "Call Me Maybe" wore out at mainstream radio. However, this same rush to create a fun, effortless pop album does hurt "Kiss" as well, mostly because the songs that don't qualify as single-material drag the album down considerably. Every pop album is bound to have some filler, but on a record as hastily thrown together as this, it's not surprising to see the songs that are aimed succinctly at the middle of the road almost veer the entire enterprise off course. The Justin Bieber-assisted "Beautiful" somehow benefits from being so lightweight, in contrast to "Guitar String/Wedding Ring", which might be the aural equivalent to cotton candy: fluffy, sweet, but disappears immediately after consumption. As a whole, it can be tiring to ingest all of "Kiss" at once, but in smaller bites, the hooks become stronger and the songs start to separate themselves from each other. Whether or not that's an indication of quality is completely up to the listener; some may appreciate how CRJ has created a record that's pure pop and frivolity, while others will be repelled because of that same reason. All said and done, though, what "Kiss" does undoubtedly succeed in is delivering a stronger sense of who Carly Rae Jepsen is as an artist. She really is here to just have some fun, no matter what the cost.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Tiny Little Bows 2. This Kiss 3. Call Me Maybe
4. Curiosity 5. Good Time 6. More Than A Memory
7. Turn Me Up 8. Hurt So Good 9. Beautiful
10. Tonight I'm Getting Over You 11. Guitar String/Wedding Ring
12. Your Heart is a Muscle
No comments:
Post a Comment