FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
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LIKE many songs that I highlight…
in this feature, there are two different schools of thought regarding Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2012 superhit, Call Me Maybe. On the surface, it is a great Pop song with a catchy chorus, thought there are many people who think it is throwaway, sugary and embarrassing. Some Pop songs are very much aimed for a demographic and can alienate people but, like all classic Pop, Call Me Maybe is not restrictive and it welcomes everyone in. I have seen the track included in lists of songs that should be seen as a guilty pleasure and, whether you believe in guilty pleasures, there are plenty of people who are not hot on Carly Rae Jepsen’s anthem. She is an artist who we have not heard a lot from lately. Her current studio album, Dedicated, came out last year and critics noted how her vocals are less impassioned and belting, but the passion and sheer commitment to the material Jepsen shows is amazing. It is a brilliant album but, heading back to 2012, Kiss got some praise from various corners. Many noted how Jepsen’s voice is one of the most powerful and expressive (despite not having a huge range), whereas others observed there were some big hits but some filler too. I should cover Kiss for Second Spin as it is a great album that has been overlooked by some. In September 2011, Jepsen released the first single from the album a full year before Kiss arrived.
If you are going to put out a single and try and build intrigue and excitement, then Call Me Maybe was a pretty good choice! Actually, Call Me Maybe was released first as part of the Curiosity E.P. of 2012. To deliver a solid and excellent E.P. and album in the same year is amazing! As her debut album, Tug of War, came out in 2008, I guess there was a big demand for new music. Call Me Maybe is a brilliant Bubblegum Pop song; it is one that provides energy and fun without taxing you too much. That sounds dismissive, but I mean modern Pop has become more complex and layered - and it does also lack a sense of fun. Call Me Maybe has maturity, but it is also quite teenage in its lyrics and feel. Maybe that is a reason why some people do not like the song: they feel it is a bit juvenile and does not have the same depth and quality as some of the best Pop. Call Me Maybe reached number-one in many countries – including Canada, the U.S. and U.K. -, and it reached the top of the Canadian Hot 100 (the British Columbia-born artist became only the fifth Canadian to achieve this feat in their home nation since 2007). I want to bring in a segment from Wikipedia, where we learn about the critical reception of Call Me Maybe:
“The song received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone journalist Melody Lau considered "Call Me Maybe" "a sugary dance-pop tune ... about hoping for a call back from a crush," while Kat George of VH1 described it as a "guilty pop pleasure."
Emma Carmichael of Gawker did a long review on the track, which she described as the "new perfect pop song." Carmichael further added that the song is "flawless" and that "we will be virtually incapable of escaping the song and its strident disco strings and that horribly catchy hook." Nicole James of MTV revealed that "Call Me Maybe" is probably the catchiest song she has ever heard, and added that "I don't even want to tell you what the play count is in my iTunes for that song, but the moment you press play you're sucked in."
The Village Voice's Maura Johnston deemed it as an "utterly earwormy" song. RedEye's Emily Van Zandt began her review of the track saying, "screw you, Internet. Thanks to a couple of posts on blogs that I refuse to own up to following, my afternoon has been dedicated to Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe'." Van Zandt continued to state that "all I know is that I have co-dependency issues when it comes to my music. When it's sad, I'm sad. When it's angry, I'm angry. And when it's ridiculously over-produced, up-tempo bubblegum pop with terrible lyrics on a beautiful day in Chicago when I'm wearing pink pants, I just kind of want to start skipping around handing my number out to random bros, you know?" Jim Farber of the New York Daily News said, "In lyrical construction, melodic flourish and instrumental arrangement, 'Maybe' has the urgency and sweep of the greatest teen pop songs ever recorded."
Pitchfork Media named "Call Me Maybe" the 29th best song of 2012, while Rolling Stone named it the 50th greatest single of that year. It was voted the best single of 2012 by The Village Voice's 40th annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. As of April 2017, Billboard ranked at number 1 on list "The Best Chorus of the 21st Century”.
I guess a ‘guilty pleasure’ implies a satisfaction in addition to a bit of an embarrassing love, but one cannot say Call Me Maybe is a guilty pleasure!
The Curiosity E.P. and Kiss album are fantastic, as they showcase a versatile and brilliant artist who could deliver a big and bright Pop classic in addition to being more sensitive and taking things down. Perhaps now, at thirty-five, Jepsen cannot write songs like Call Me Maybe, so perhaps that track was capturing a moment; also, after a relatively successful debut album, a bid for greater awareness and popularity. Whereas the song could have been quite cynical and paint-by-numbers, there is ample nuance and personal meaning behind a song that clearly connected with so many people. As someone who does not necessarily seek out and embrace Pop like Call Me Maybe, it is a song that provides a real rush and still sounds good nearly a decade after its release! If you have not heard the track, then go and take a moment to spin Call Me Maybe. I can guarantee that it will get lodged in the head. If Kiss did not contain another song quite as big and popular as Call Me Maybe, songs like This Kiss, and Curiosity showed that Jepsen had plenty of ammunition! One of the problems with Kiss is that it has so many producers credited and was recorded at a load of different studios - which can make it fill disjointed and incohesive at points. That said, it is stronger than it has been given credit for. Call Me Maybe is a song Jepsen wrote with Josh Ramsay and Tavish Crowe – Ramsay produced the song, so it is quite focused and streamlined in that sense, whereas a song like Turn Me Up is a bit busier. I think those who sniffed at Call Me Maybe should give it another try, because it is a…
PRETTY decent and memorable track!