There is something just intangibly magical about Carly Rae Jepsen’s sound. Since her breakout hit ‘Call Me Maybe’ some nine years ago, she has been steadily enthralling her fans with her warm, impassioned music.

This time, she goes back to the zingy disco-pop era with ‘Let’s Be Friends’ --- a grooving, catchy tune about the hopeless endeavor of becoming friends with a former flame. The acoustic rhythm of the guitar sets up a spry, lighthearted mood, and so when the familiar synth machine and drum instrumentation of the eighties sneak in, Carly Rae Jepsen’s silky, sassy voice has enough support to paint a picture. 

The lyrical work is mysterious but immensely replayable; indeed, there is something sexy and inviting in the way Carly describes the dynamic between her and her lover. There is an undeniable specificity to how Carly remembers the ‘black dress occasion’, where she questions whether their interactions belong to that of a dinner or a date. There is a cheeky struggle occurring through the emotional beats of the composition, where Carly balances her high spirits with the impending failure of this friendship.  Ultimately, through the verses, you can figure out that Carly has no intention of being friends with this person, and she even confirms so with ‘never gonna see you again’. 

Carly’s fourth album Dedicated came out last May, which received a favorable reception from most publications and critics. Its lead single ‘Party Of One’ was considered a powerful anthem of self-love by most critics and fans. Speaking on how her life has transformed in recent years, particularly the period when Call Me Maybe became a bonafide pop hit, she told The Independent, “I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would have. I found it to be a really jarring experience and I was really confused about how I would fit into that because it was so unlike me”. 

The success with her most recent albums following ‘Call Me Maybe’ marked a critical point in pop music, and by extension, Carly Rae Jepsen’s career. She said;

I think there was a period of time where I didn’t like anything that I was hearing on the radio, and so I wasn’t sure that I wanted to belong to that team anymore.”

  Singer-songwriter 

Author: Shaoni Das

Shaoni Das is a writer/editor currently based in Edmonton, Canada. She remains eager to inspect how the changing culture of music impacts upon the greater world.