Once the queen of maybe getting called, having a shadow, holding a microphone, etc., HRH Carly Rae Jepsen is now the confirmed queen of B-sides. In order to create 2019’s pop masterpiece Dedicated, Carly told us that she had to write and record over 200 songs before narrowing the selection down. Today we get another taste of that process.
Carly took to social media yesterday to tease the release, posting a not-so-cryptic video in glorious 8-bit. The clip featured cute animated fan tweets praising her previous B-side records, and clamouring: “CARLY RAE JEPSEN PLEASE RELEASE THE DEDICATED B SIDES WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER”. A huge, huge quarantine mood.
Punctuating her release statement with a winky face, Carly acknowledged the “whispers” around the B-side album, as well as admitting that she’s “bad at keeping secrets”. “Side B for DEDICATED is out now babies,” she wrote on Twitter. “I hope it makes it yah dance your pants off! I owe yah one…or like two albums turns out.” Nothing but respect for my benevolent president.
The new 12-track record features contributions from Dev Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Jack Antonoff, whose backing vocals can be heard on the yearning ballad “Comeback”.
Though we’d all rather be enjoying this slice of dance pop heaven in the sweaty basements of our favourite clubs, Ms Rae Jepsen has well and truly given us all the tools required to shake off those isolation blues. Amen.