After largely owning the 2010s charts with her hits ‘Call Me Maybe’ and ‘I Really Like You,’ Carly Rae Jepsen’s double feature Day and Night is a crossroads into a confused and disparate 2020s pop scene. The record is ambitiously split between, predictably, ‘day’ and ‘night’ sections, reaching a staggering runtime of 85 minutes. This division is beautifully highlighted with psychedelic and upbeat songs in the ‘day,’ and a range of dance pop in the ‘night.’
Even by the standards of an artist who debuted in the folk genre before crafting her catchy “bubble gum” pop anthems and later 80s-inspired disco, Jepsen’s new project is consistent only in its strangeness. In ‘Versailles,’ a piano riff almost nauseatingly fades in and out over fast-paced ticking drums before an instant break into soft guitar strums. The following song — ‘On Wires’ — features a completely unintelligible sample over a minimal sample that could easily feature in a 2000s rap mixtape, before reaching a dreamy climax à la Magdalena Bay, boldly proclaiming “I want you, you, you…”
The romantic themes of the album don’t stop there, beautifully presented again in the final track ‘Super Sage’ — a frank musical reflection on Jespen’s relationship and her family, building on the narrative of ‘Motivation.’ With a fluid structure and minimal rhythmic features, she allows her vocals and lyrics to truly shine in the record’s last moments, over ever-evolving synth chords.
‘No Labels, I Love You’ has a repetitive dance beat carried by its irresistible synth bass and Jepsen’s whispery singing, and its echoing chorus is reminiscent of the aforementioned ‘I Really Like You.’ Then, ‘Hold Me to the Light’ is certainly typical of contemporary pop in some ways but is warmed through the singer-songwriter’s lyrical vulnerability and impressive range, harmonising with herself towards the song’s conclusion.
However, to say one can never expect the movement of each song here isn’t fully true — the album’s sprawling length ensures some more stagnant moments. In songs like ‘Soft’ or ‘Burning Heart,’ Jespen seems to provide very familiar guitar patterns and little expansion on her —while never one-dimensional — romantic focus on this project.
Nevertheless, the former musical theatre child, turned Canadian Idol star, still successfully portrays the beauty, the pain, and the freedom in her musical romance, albeit in a particularly bloated way.
Justin Higuchi, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
