Who would have thought back in 2012, when Carly Rae Jepsen’s ubiquitous “Call Me Maybe” reached No. 1 in 18 countries and she was touring arenas with Justin Bieber, that the Canadian Pop singer’s latest album, E•MO•TION, would become a critical favorite and that general audiences would relatively ignore it. Sure enough, E•MO•TION placed third in the Village Voice’s long-running Pazz & Jop critics’ poll, finishing ahead of releases by such critical heavyweights as Sleater-Kinney, Sufjan Stevens and Grimes.
While Jepsen says she’s surprised by the critical adoration, her main goal was to move away from focusing on modern-radio-/YouTube-baiting singles and craft a cohesive collection of songs — an actual “album.” Read more in this week’s Sound Advice.
Carly Rae Jepsen plays Madison Theater Thursday with Cardinox and Fairground Saints. More info/tickets:
madisontheateronline.com .
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2016.