Dedicated Side B - Carly Rae Jepsen: Review
Review By Lavender:
If it wasn't apparent enough that I've been a Carly Rae Jepsen fan for years based on the fact that both Emotion and Dedicated cracked my top 5 albums of their respective years, Emotion Side: B made it onto my list of my favorite EP's the year that it came out. Given how great Carly has been I wasn't surprised that even her rejected songs were as good as her peers and I had no doubt that Dedicated had some excellent leftovers too. I was surprised to see that this was an entire record of B-Sides but after hearing what she had to offer I think there is more than enough worthwhile songs on here to consider it a nearly essential piece of pop music this year.
With very few exceptions this record delivers the consistency of quality that her studio albums do and it kicks off with the opener This Love Isn't Crazy a track that sounds straight out of Emotion. It's simple but instantly catchy with slick vocal harmonies that pretty much embody everything Carly does well. Window by comparison is a much more mellow track with some groovy 80's synths and some raw but absolutely killer vocal harmonies. Her singing totally takes over at a few points on the song and the result is a super dancy and memorable track. Felt This Way keeps the great start going and serves as an instantly pretty love song where Carly delivers her feelings with breathy vocals that I adore. The sequenced drums sound a little bit electronic but all in all the song is pretty good instrumentally and the variety throughout the verses works great with the super warm hook.
This Is What They Say has an absolutely fat bassline that I adore and the track that surrounds it is pretty good too. The song has a sugary sweet hook that evokes some flat out adorable feelings and makes for a great highlight. Heartbeat is a track that's a bit of a slow burner but I have really come around to its progression. Not only is the instrumental dusted with so many beautiful little tidbits but the last minute of the song is wonderful once you get past some of the vocal refrains that have gotten boring. Fake Mona Lisa is a short but incredibly fun track with some of my favorite lyrical moments on the record that help articulate its short but to the point mentality.
Let's Sort The Whole Thing Out sounds like it comes from wayyy back in Carly's discography, like if you told me this was the follow-up single to Call Me Maybe I would have believed you. Not to say it's a bad song but it is one of the most obviously poppy of the bunch which means the verses are a bit dry but the hook is excellent. Solo is a great upbeat tribute to being single and has some of the most inherently charming lyricism and performance Carly delivers on the record. The song has a great hook with some glossy 8-'s synths and a bouncy fun attitude that is totally infectious.
A handful of tracks here like Stay Away and Summer Love aren't bad they just cover territory that Carly's music is very familiar with and remind me of Dedicated songs I prefer for the most part. The record only has two real duds and they both come towards the end of the tracklist. Comeback features Bleachers which had me worried from the moment I saw it and for good reason as it is one of the weakest songs here. The hook just falls kind of flat and the sea of almost never changing synths is pretty rough too. Now I Don't Hate California At All is the closing track and one I wished was as exciting as its title. It is a huge standout from the rest of the tracks here and sounds like a 5 minute breezy summer track that sounds like some super generic industry plant from the 2000's. The song sounds focus grouped and while some of Carly's personality makes it's way into the song but that is the only thing redeeming about it.
Dedicated Side B is further proof that Carly is on another level than the pop girls that surround her. Even the tracks that didn't make the cut on her studio album make up one of the more engaging and enjoyable sets of pop tunes you'll hear this year. With a commercial disappointment or two already in the books not even halfway through 2020 it is refreshing to hear an artist so consistent that a year after dropping one of the best pop albums of the past decade she had one of the best pop albums of this year in her. 7/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
I think this cover in clever when you think about it in the context of being a B Side. With the covers side by side they work really well together and get the point across that this is two parts of a whole. The composition is good and simple, it doesn't have any bells and whistles. The only thing I don't really like is the font used. It's not very readable and I don't think the gold color or the placement of "side b" is the strongest. 7/10
For more great pop music check out my review of Charli xcx's How I'm Feeling Now here
