Carly Rae Jepsen’s 15 Best Songs, Ranked (2024)

Oct 21, 2022 2:00pm PT

• This Love Isn't Crazy — Dedicated Side B (2020)

  

  In the lead track off “Dedicated Side B,” Jepsen makes a convincing case to a lover that their connection is worth the investment. The song’s breathy, intentionally sparse opening escalates in the chorus when, framed by glittering synths, Jepsen’s delicate vocals balance against Jack Antonoff-supplied percussion. The singer, who placed third in the fifth season of “Canadian Idol,” has often said she writes hundreds of songs for each album. “This Love Isn’t Crazy,” among other tracks like “Higher” and “Fever” from 2016’s “Emotion Side B,” remain proof that Jepsen’s B-sides deserve as much as attention as those on her full-length albums.

• Comeback (ft. Bleachers) — Dedicated Side B (2020)

  

  Featuring production and vocals from noted Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, “Comeback” begins with Jepsen proclaiming, “I’m at war with myself,” a line that belies the song’s mellow, even-keeled depiction of a relationship that seems to be both over and still ongoing. Faces give way to façades (“Take my makeup off/ Show you my best disguise”), coming to a head at a bridge that ebbs and flows with a declaration of acute self-realization (“I’m the keeper of the beat/ And the fire under your feet”). It’s a palate cleanser from a musician whose more recent releases have expanded her artistic sensibility to encompass both indie-pop bangers and sophisticated almost-ballads that feel specific even in their nebulousness.

• I Really Like You — Emotion (2015)

  

  Carly Rae Jepsen says the word “really” 67 times in “I Really Like You,” which feels like it caters to the quintessential experience of the teenage crush. Jepsen’s narrator exists in the upswing, peeks out shyly behind side bangs and, most of all, really, really can’t help herself. “I want you. Do you want me? Do you want me too?” reads like a succession of desperate Snapchat messages, but Jepsen’s ascending soprano seamlessly weaves through Jeff Halavacs and Peter Svensson’s electro-pop production, sounding more enthusiastic than anything else. Plus, even if she has zero chill, at least she’s self-aware: “It’s way too soon, I know this isn’t love.”

• When I Needed You — Emotion (2015)

  

  The shimmering 12th track off “Emotion,” “When I Needed You” — which chronicles a relationship that ends when Jepsen realizes that she’s changing herself in order to stay in it — initially had a more sorrowful tone before receiving an ’80s glam makeover at the hands of producers Dan Nigro, Nate Campany and Ariel Rechtshaid. Ethan Farmer’s blistering bassline bolsters the song’s backbone, while Jepsen’s soprano arches upward into a falsetto and back down again in a chorus punctuated by her ad-libs (take a shot every time you hear “Hey!”). A dream’s a dream, Jepsen sings, until it isn’t.

• Call Me Maybe — Kiss (2012)

  

  There isn’t much about “Call Me Maybe” that hasn’t already been written, said or parodied, but the fact that it’s graduated from mid-2010s hit to karaoke staple attests to its staying power as a song that exists simply to do what pop songs do best: be fun. The chronically catchy track evokes memories of 2012, which, among many things, was the year when Marvel’s “The Avengers” debuted in theaters and former President Obama was reelected. Call it overplayed and outdated, but if there was a song that could be considered most likely to bring about world peace, “Call Me Maybe” might rank second (after John Lennon’s “Imagine”).

• Body Language — Emotion Side B (2016)

  

  It might not have been released with “Emotion,” but 2016’s “Body Language” found its place on the compilation of stellar B-sides that Jepsen released a year after her third studio album. The explosive chorus packs a punch with the pop star’s signature penchant for repetition — “I just think we’re overthinking it/ Think we’re overthinking it” — backed by layers of vocals, to anthemic effect. “Body Language” winds an endless loop in listeners’ heads, running circles around other songs that might try to imitate the charm in its cotton candy confection.

• Emotion — Emotion (2015)

  

  The second track on “Emotion,” “Emotion” is about emotion — a concept that, while frighteningly on the nose, is reined in by the fact that the song is such a sly kiss-off, it doesn’t even feel like one. “Be tormented by me, babe,” she sings, blithe and innocent. “Wonder, wonder how I do.” Unlike other revenge songs, “Emotion” contains no slashing of tires or “Carly Rae Jepsen can’t come to the phone”; it’s simply a wish, framed by persistent usage of the imperative, for her ex-lover to be so haunted by the idea of her that she grows “ten feet, ten feet tall” in their head. Maybe she’s got the right tack. Keyed cars and sardonic voicemails are all very well, but perhaps being unforgettable is vengeance enough.
  

• Now That I Found You — Dedicated (2019)

  

  “Now That I Found You” is about the rush. Its first verse and pre-chorus trip, trip, trip up the chain lift before vaulting forward into a sky-high declaration of infatuation: “There’s nothing like this feeling, baby / Now that I found you.” The song’s accompanying music video features Jepsen as a chic cat lady who rescues aforlorn feline sitting in an empty cardboard box on the street. She prances around a lime green kitchen (which predates Dakota Johnson’s landmark “Architectural Digest” video), smokes “catnip” and is transported to a galaxy full of cats—a peculiar and charming narrative that serves as testament to Jepsen’s playfulness as an artist, one who cares a lot about feelings while, at the same time, never dips too far into self-seriousness.

• Favourite Colour — Emotion (2015)

  

  Carly Rae Jepsen loves love, but her songs, which usually have a BPM that places them squarely in “disco” territory, are rarely as mellow as 2015’s “Favourite Colour,” which gives intimacy a Technicolor dreamcoat. Jepsen is “bright baby blue” as she falls into the arms of her lover; together, she says, they “blend into [her] favorite color.”Soft, distorted vocals suffuse the background and become fully choral in the bridge, in which she extends the metaphor further by urging her lover, “Paint me up, up.” At track 15 on “Emotion,” it’s Jepsen’s perfect conclusion to a body of work that is as heartfelt as it is scintillating.

• Your Type — Emotion (2015)

  

  Even Carly Rae Jepsen gets friendzoned sometimes. Produced by Rami, who notably co-produced Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time,” “Your Type” melds lovelorn angst with pulsing synths and a bombastic snare, creating an uptempo spin on a classic tale about pining for someone unattainable. Jepsen oscillates between denial (“I used to be in love with you”) and confession (“But I still love you, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I love you”) in a state of contradiction within a situation that seems destined to be her own eternal secret. What also stands out here is the complete lack of characterization that often defines Jepsen’s songs: we never learn what type of girl her object of affection likes, and we never know what type of girl Jepsen considers herself to be — only that she isn’t what her crush wants. But the lack of specificity doesn’t really detract from the universality of the feeling Jepsen describes: knowing one is just a “flicker” in someone’s head.

• Boy Problems — Emotion (2015)

  

  Carly Rae Jepsen just broke up with her boyfriend, but, as she reminds you repeatedly throughout the song, she doesn’t really care; she’s more upset by the fact that her best friend is tired of hearing about it. Sia, who co-wrote “Boy Problems,” makes a convincingly apathetic turn as the aforementioned best friend in the track’s intro, and the song unwinds into a zany, idiosyncratic dance-pop number that indicates Jepsen might be more upset with the idea of her relationships failing than the failure of the relationships themselves. But whether listeners are trying to cheer themselves up or actually attempting to adapt Jepsen’s nonchalance about her interpersonal drama, the song has a bassline so deep in the pocket that it might compel even the most dejected person at the party to run to thedance floor. (Watch the music video, and you might catch a certain “Euphoria” actor dancing with the pop star.)

• Cut to the Feeling (2017)

  

  Included in the animated film “Leap!” and not on any full-length release save the Japanese reissue of “Emotion: Side B,” “Cut to the Feeling” arguably epitomizes the entirety of the singer’s oeuvre. The opening trill, the rapid-fire succession of claps, the endless anaphora of lines beginning with “I wanna,” all culminate in a track as indefatigable in its earnestness as it is insistent on skipping the buildup and getting straight to the good part. It also serves as tribute to Jepsen’s talent for capturing how the promise of romantic fulfillment feels earth-shattering — while simultaneously making the process of composing such music seem effortless.

• Want You in My Room — Dedicated (2019)

  

  Seduction has never been more straightforward than in this track from 2019’s “Dedicated.” Jepsen somehow manages to pull off singing “I want to do bad things to you” in a way that sounds more coy than cringe, tempering her overtures with a tenderness that underscores her whole MO (“I’ll press you to the pages of my heart”). The song’s production, buoyed especially by Jack Antonoff’s vocoder work that both echoes and duets Jepsen’s airy vocals, makes its entire thesis — which is essentially a 2 a.m. “u up?” text written to someone she not-so-secretly likes — sound chic and daring. Just imagine the glow of the iPhone illuminating her pout as she types: “Baby, don’t you want me, too?”

• LA Hallucinations — Emotion (2015)

  

  Los Angeles is a city songwriters both love to love and love to hate, but here Jepsen treats it as a psychedelic backdrop for a world — and industry — that spins faster than she can keep up, sending her spiraling into memories of when she and an unnamed lover were “young freaks just fresh to LA.” Its syncopated beat dances across a sonic background that evokes “La La Land” on shrooms, breathing life into some of Jepsen’s best lyrics. “The teeth come out when the camera flashes” reminds listeners that there’s a bite in every smile. “There’s a little black hole in my golden cup” nods to a line in “Bucket,” a track on her debut album that reckons with the helpless impossibility of a failing relationship. But even when caught in a funhouse, Jepsen finds solace in the wanting. “Take me into your arms again,” she sings. “Save me from LA hallucinations.”

• Run Away With Me — Emotion (2015)

  

  If a special alchemy made it possible to bottle up the opening sax call of “Run Away With Me,” it would be the kind of drink best knocked back while riding shotgun down Pacific Coast Highway with the windows down. The song’s galloping beat and soaring chorus is the stuff of every coming-of-age swan song for those whose bildungsromane were written, or re-written, during the second decade of the 21st century, joining the array of tracks — like Lorde’s “Green Light” or Taylor Swift’s “Style” — that have emerged as frontrunners of music written to express something profound about growing up and falling hard. “Run Away With Me” feels the same played anywhere at any time of day: transcendent, timeless and completely given over to the feeling, with an intentional disregard of whether that feeling is love or its imitation. Knowing the difference is beside the point.