Since Carly Rae Jepsen's third album, "Emotion", was so ridiculously overpraised, expectations for its commercial performance were set far too high. It only reached the top ten in three countries, spawned no big hits, and sold less than 500,000 copies. This underwhelm shocked the legions of critics who deemed "Emotion" the best pop album of 2015. Of course, those same critics also deemed Carly Rae Jepsen a disposable pop-tart when "Call Me Maybe" swept the globe in 2012. And, of course, it was due to these low expectations that caused them to think of "Emotion" as a masterpiece of sorts. Any objective listener, such as yours truly, would've gawked at the 80s cheese--no more prevalent than in the boring "All That" or the clanging, cluttered "When I Needed You"--and the album's overall flaw of taking itself too seriously. There were fun songs ("Run A way With Me", "Making The Most of the Night"), but the majority of the album set its sights on critical acclaim, winding up over-calculated and chintzy. Nothing really explains why Carly Rae would release a companion EP of unused material a year after "Emotion" flopped, but it's interesting to hear songs that were excised from the original product. Perhaps they could provide a glimpse into the creative process; to put the songs that made the cut into a larger context.
What "Emotion: Side B" does, then, is prove that Carly Rae Jepsen has great instincts when writing pop songs and choosing producers to give them infectious beats and sounds. However, her state-of-the-art does not cross over into constructing a proper album. Even though this EP is billed as a collection of b-side leftovers, the best cuts here should've been included on "Emotion", instead of the twee that took their place. Lead-off track "First Time" is definitely rooted in 80s synthpop, but its balanced by enough modern techniques to give it a contemporary feel. Same goes for the infectious "Higher", the most obvious choice for a single here. Back-half highlights include the shimmery electro-pop of "Cry", and the EP's best dance track, "Body Language". Other than these highlights, the other songs are just OK ("Roses", "The One"), and some songs--particularly "Store"--sound like snippets of other bad songs meshed together. Carly Rae was right to leave the weaker cuts off "Emotion", but it's maddening to see that the better ones were overlooked. "Emotion: Side B" doesn't necessarily holds it own has a cohesive EP, but it ultimately shows that Jepsen can make some kick-ass pop songs when she's up for it. Her biggest challenge now is to translate her considerable skills as a song craftsmen into albums that fulfill her ludicrously large potential.
Recommended Tracks:
"First Time"
"Higher"
"Body Language"
"Cry"
