"Gimmie Love" by Carly Rae Jepsen, Monday, March 14, 2022

 

I listened to an episode of The New York Times' Popcast reviewing the critics' top singles of the year 2015 when looking for new perspectives on Carly Rae Jepsen's masterclass in pop music E-MO-TION this evening. For that particular episode, the critics tried to pick singles that either were released without an album or the song far outshined the album. However, they came up with the "Carly conundrum." The critics felt that Carly Rae Jepsen's 2015 album contained many good songs, but it wasn't a great album. They compared it to a box of candy, and they said you wouldn't want to eat the whole box in one sitting.

'CAUSE I WANT WHAT I WANT. DO YOU THINK I WANT TOO MUCH?  I think that there's certainly more substance to this album than a pixie stick. I've talked about this album being a calculated, smart indie pop record. Jepsen moves to more mature themes, assuming adult relationships. She's not going to win the Rebecca St. James award from PluggedIn.com,  but no lyric is overt or in poor taste. The lone profanity on the album "damn" is less offensive than the strong language on Christian Bieber songs. But as far as "eating the whole box," though, if you're comparing E-MO-TION to the new Springsteen record that might be the case, but I don't think Jepsen's record is empty calories. True, some days, long work days--Mondays, in particular, it's nice to come home and enjoy something light and fun. You might eat your vegetables on Tuesday night with some Sufjan Steven and delve into Oregon geography, but Monday night it's all I can do to get dinner and get to an evening Korean class. Not much extra time to think about music. Let's delve into our emotions rather than our thoughts. It's okay to eat the whole box, sometimes.

WANNA FEEL LIKE THIS FOREVER. Rhetorically, I understand that I kind of proved the point of the snooty New York Times music critics by my intellectual laziness tonight. But in spirit of eating the whole box, today is two sugary holidays. First it's Pi Day. However, the kids in Korea, unless the math department is on it, don't think about Pi Day. Instead, they think of White Day. What is White Day? In some Asian countries women give men candy on Valentine's Day and the men give women chocolate on White Day. Both holidays are on the fourteenth of the month. If you didn't receive any chocolate or candy, on April 14th, you are supposed to go and eat black-sauced noodles, in Korea, called Jjajang myeon (짜장면). My female students always ask me to give them chocolate, and I say, "Where were you on February 14th? I didn't receive any candy!" "But we didn't have school then." Then I say something about how White Day isn't part of my culture so I don't celebrate it. I'm a mean teacher. I won't give you candy, but I'll recommend some ear candy. Go and listen to E-MO-TION!


Live at Pitchfork Festival:

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