By Jessica Goodman, 22, reporting from Los Angeles on a new album that lifts the "Call Me Maybe" star out of one-hit wonderdom
Is it late enough into September to start thinking Billboard's 2012 Song of the Summer has year-round staying power? Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" has hovered in the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 29 weeks now, and "the most catchiest song I've ever heard" (that's fellow Canadian and CRJ discoverer Bieber talking) has created a YouTube movement, as lip-synced by Harvard's baseball team, Miss USA contestants, Olympic athletes and just about everyone else. It's so infectiously viral that even Cookie Monster has his hand in the jar.
This is a song you just can't get sick of!
Which means...this is a singer with a lot of pressure on what comes next. Carly Rae Jepsen's freshman album Kiss was released this Tuesday, and it seems the whole world, Sesame Street to Main Street, is watching. One wonders if she's just another one-hit wonder.
Even though I went into to this album with that same skepticism, I believe Kiss is more than a maybe vote for Jepsen's staying power. It's a collection of sixteen songs that any girl can relate to. She pretty much puts music to the unspoken words on the tips of our tongues and telephones—those things we know we feel but just don't know how to say.
"The Kiss," the new single, really captures that universal romantic agony of "The kiss is something I can't resist...I wish it didn't feel like this." I won't tell you how it ends, but it's about learning to trust your heart and take risks.
I think Jepsen has a huge chance at making it beyond the meme. Her music and her passion remind me a lot of Taylor Swift, who has had tremendous success from album to album. "Call Me Maybe" was just the first sign of what this girl has to offer. I expect we'll be calling for more music for many years and most-vieweds to come.