Dedicated Side B | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 21, 2020 | |||
Recorded | 2016–2019 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Dance-pop | |||
Length | 43:24 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Carly Rae Jepsen chronology | ||||
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Dedicated Side B is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It serves as a companion piece to Dedicated (2019), her fourth studio album. [1] [2] [3] [4] It was released on May 21, 2020, by 604 Records in Canada, and Schoolboy and Interscope Records in the United States. The album features 14 outtakes from the original album. [5] The album was preceded by the release of the single "Let's Be Friends", which was ultimately included only in its Japanese edition. Musically, the album is primarily a dance-pop record with disco influences. [6]
The album received positive reviews. It peaked at number 58 in Jepsen's home country on the Canadian Albums Chart. In the United States, it peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart. The album's highest peak position was number eight on the Scottish Albums Chart. It also peaked at number 42 on the UK Albums Chart respectively.
While recording Dedicated, Jepsen confirmed that she had written "nearly 200 songs" for the album. [7] Over the year following the release of Dedicated, speculation grew as to whether Jepsen would release a companion piece to Dedicated as she had done for her previous album with Emotion: Side B . Though Dedicated Side B was subsequently released with no prior announcement on May 21, 2020, Jepsen teased the album while speaking to Mike Wass from Idolator , stating:
"I feel like I should stop pretending. I have every intention of doing that and releasing a part two, I think that's the fun with having this much time to record an album. It gives you a little bit of perspective on what should come first and what should come second. It was easier to narrow down the first part because I knew was going to get to share a lot more songs". [8]
While discussing the influences for the tracks in an interview with Paper's Brendan Wetmore, Jepsen stated that she "wanted the beach-y vibe of Beach Boys, the stoner sort of — where you're following a guy around at the beach and like making love and doing all the things that are very holiday-ish. More allowing ourselves to get as weird as we wanted that day". In a separate question about the retro synths being used heavily in some of Jepsen's projects, she answered:
"Originally with [Dedicated], I was looking to go into '70s disco, and I think we thought that was "Julien", but the rest of it kind of just led me right back to what I think is my idea of one of the greatest eras of pop music, which is the '80s. It's very heart-on-your-sleeve, and it's very to-the-point and not afraid to really be vulnerable and say the things that you really mean. I'm kind of drawn back to that place and I think the synth sound is still so very '80s, and it allows me to be like, 'I'm going to tell you the deep secrets of my heart, let's go!'". [9]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.6/10 [10] |
Metacritic | 79/100 [11] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Consequence of Sound | B− [12] |
Exclaim! | 8/10 [13] |
NME | [14] |
Our Culture Mag | [15] |
Pitchfork | 6.9/10 [16] |
Slant | [17] |
Sputnikmusic | [18] |
Tom Hull | B+ ( ) [19] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 79 out of 100 based on seven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [11]
Ali Shutler from NME described the album as "easily one of the best pop records of the year so far", and goes on to praise specific qualities of the album: "Dedicated Side B provides a joyous burst of escapism from the miserable everyday, the lockdown ying to the yang of Charli XCX's How I'm Feeling Now . Consistently brilliant, Side B might be a collection of offcuts but this is the sort of record that most acts could only dream of making". [14] Natalia Barr of Consequence of Sound praised "how focused Jepsen's writing process has been on every emotion and experience love brings", while noting that "Songs like the '80s bass-heavy, ABBA-inspired 'Summer Love' and soft ballad 'Heartbeat' could have been beneficial additions to Dedicated". [20] Stereogum ’s Chris DeVille wrote that "track for track [the songs are] at least as good as the original Dedicated offerings, if not better" as they "hang together much more naturally". In addition, DeVille complimented the second half of the album, in which "Jepsen plays around with rock sounds on the bass-grooving 'Summer Love' and the frantically upbeat 'Let's Sort The Whole Thing Out'", and finished off by inviting "those of us who were losing interest in the Carly Rae Jepsen show to tune back in". [21] In an article for Exclaim , Angela Morrison called Dedicated Side B a "remarkable" album, noting that "Jepsen [has] found a formula that works well for her — sparkling synth-pop inflected by giddy romantic anticipation". Morrison went into further detail with some of the tracks on the album, noting that "the slinky, sexy 'Fake Mona Lisa' and the bubbly, shimmering 'Now I Don't Hate California After All' sound like nothing she has ever done before", and that "'Felt This Way' takes a melancholic approach", while its counterpart, "Stay Away", "is more cheeky and upbeat". In addition, Morrison wrote that the album was "brimming with starry-eyed euphoria, glittery synth-pop confections and her characteristically odd lyrical syntax", concluding that "In essence, it has everything that makes Jepsen's music lovable and bewitching". [13]
Writing for NPR , Jon Lewis stated that "the album feels like much more than a compilation of outtakes from her last release", expanding that the project "could have easily functioned as a stand-alone record, with a fresh batch of exuberant, lovestruck choruses to get lodged in your head all summer". Lewis also called the new tracks "both a blessing and a curse", because "On the one hand, it can be frustrating to listen to her always perfect dance pop on the eve of a summer likely to be short on dance parties", but "On the other, no one makes music for dancing like nobody's watching or singing along in the shower like Carly Rae Jepsen". [22] In an article from Sputnikmusic, SowingSeason wrote that the "twelve outstanding pop songs with nary a weak link" were "better than the album from which these songs were cast off", and "quite possibly the best Carly Rae Jespen release, period". The writer also described the tracks as "80s-washed, electronic summer pop songs that Jepsen can now craft in her sleep", and called the album "more upbeat, energetic, and memorable than its counterpart, featuring hook-laden verses and explosive choruses that only came through intermittently on [Dedicated]". The writer further stated that the "album is good enough that had Jepsen simply released it with a new title, nobody would have batted an eye – it would have just been assumed that she poured her heart and soul into these tracks and that it is the spiritual successor to Emotion", concluding that as Jepsen "surprise releases her very best album to date – as if they're songs she couldn't care less about – she proves why she's one of the best pop artists in the whole industry". [18]
Callie Ahlgrim from Insider described the album as a "cohesive, sun-dappled, exultant artistic vision", as Jepsen "revels in her feel-good pop dominance and '80s-infused idealism". Ahlgrim commented on how Jepsen "rarely deviates from her sparkling, tingly, edge-free formula", writing that she "doesn't need to", as she "simply continues to stack impeccable, immediately likable bops on top of each other, like an everlasting Jenga tower — no biggie". [23] Writing for Slant Magazine , Alexa Camp wrote that while the album is "less musically adventurous than those [on Dedicated]", it "[doubles] down on pillow talk, lending the album a uniformity that its predecessor lacked". Camp went into further detail about the opening track, writing that "'This Love Isn't Crazy' is as immediate as anything in Jepsen's catalog and finds producer Jack Antonoff at his most unapologetically pop", in addition to describing the album's closing track, "the island-flavored closing track 'Now I Don't Hate California After All'" as a callback to Dedicated's "Right Words, Wrong Time". Camp concluded that the songs on the album represented the "wealth of treasures she had to choose from, [and] her ability to craft a cohesive narrative", and noted that the lyrics of "the meditative 'Comeback', [demonstrate] the tangled multi-dimensionality of both her psyche and the act of sex itself". [17]
In July 2020, the album was included on American Songwriter and Slant Magazine 's lists of the best albums of 2020 so far. [24] [25]
Dedicated Side B peaked at number 58 on the Canadian Albums Chart. In the United States, it did not enter the Billboard 200, but it peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart. The album's highest peak position was number eight on the Scottish Albums chart. It also peaked at number 42 on the UK Albums Chart.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "This Love Isn't Crazy" | Antonoff | 3:53 | |
2. | "Window" |
|
| 3:18 |
3. | "Felt This Way" |
|
| 3:37 |
4. | "Stay Away" |
| Jack & Coke | 3:37 |
5. | "This Is What They Say" |
| Oak/The Orphanage | 3:34 |
6. | "Heartbeat" |
|
| 4:13 |
7. | "Summer Love" |
|
| 3:16 |
8. | "Fake Mona Lisa" |
| Hightower | 2:12 |
9. | "Let's Sort the Whole Thing Out" |
|
| 3:54 |
10. | "Comeback" (featuring Bleachers) |
| Antonoff | 3:44 |
11. | "Solo" |
| Flannigan | 3:16 |
12. | "Now I Don't Hate California After All" |
|
| 4:53 |
Total length: | 43:24 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
13. | "Let's Be Friends" |
|
| 3:10 |
14. | "Always on My Mind" |
|
| 3:15 |
Total length: | 49:49 |
Notes:
Adapted from the album liner notes.
Performance
Technical
Other personnel
Chart (2020) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [27] | 58 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [28] | 60 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [29] | 8 |
UK Albums (OCC) [30] | 42 |
US Top Album Sales (Billboard) [31] | 22 |
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Various | May 21, 2020 | [32] | ||
June 12, 2020 | [33] [34] [35] | |||
Japan | June 17, 2020 | CD | Universal | [26] [36] |
Carly Rae Jepsen is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007. In 2008, Jepsen released her folk-influenced debut studio album Tug of War in Canada before it was internationally released in 2011.
Tug of War is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen, who came in third on the fifth season of Canadian Idol. The album is produced by Canadian record producer and songwriter Ryan Stewart. Initially, the album was limitedly released in Canada on the independent MapleMusic Recordings label via Fontana North on September 30, 2008. However, it was subsequently given a mainstream release by Canadian label 604 Records, following Jepsen's signing to the label in 2011, including a digital release on the iTunes Store of the United States on June 14. In 2013, the album was released on CD in the United States, through distribution from Alliance Entertainment. In July 2015, the album was released on vinyl in Europe.
"Curiosity" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen for her EP Curiosity (2012). It was released as the second single from the EP on May 1, 2012, through 604 Records. Produced and co-written by Ryan Stewart, "Curiosity" is an upbeat pop track that is influenced by dance and synthpop. Lyrically, the track alludes to a girl who is poorly treated by a bad boy, and begs for more of his love. It received generally positive reviews from contemporary critics, who deemed it similar to Jepsen's previous single, "Call Me Maybe". Following its release, the track reached number 18 on the Canadian Hot 100. A new version of the track was included on her international debut album Kiss.
Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen has released seven studio albums, two remix albums, four EPs, 28 singles, 11 promotional singles, and 24 music videos. In 2007, Jepsen finished third in the fifth season of the talent series Canadian Idol. She subsequently signed a recording contract with Fontana and MapleMusic.
Kiss is the second studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on September 14, 2012, by 604, Schoolboy and Interscope Records. After her debut, Tug of War (2008), was only released in Canada, Kiss became Jepsen's first internationally released album. Songs on the album are in the nu-disco, dance-pop, and teen pop genres, drawing inspiration from the Cars, Madonna and Robyn. Featuring production from a wide collection of producers including Dallas Austin, Josh Ramsay, and Redfoo, the album features guest vocals from Justin Bieber and Owl City.
Emotion is the third studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on June 24, 2015 in Japan and worldwide on August 21, 2015 through 604, School Boy, and Interscope Records. Looking to transition from the bubblegum pop-oriented nature of her second studio album, Kiss (2012), Jepsen found inspiration in 1980s music and alternative styles. She enlisted a team of mainstream and indie collaborators, including Sia, Mattman & Robin, Dev Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid, Rostam Batmanglij, Greg Kurstin, and Peter Svensson of the Cardigans, culminating in a largely synth-pop-centric effort.
"Run Away with Me" is a song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released as the second single from her third studio album Emotion on July 17, 2015, by Universal Music Group. The song was written by Jepsen, Mattman & Robin, Jonnali Parmenius, Oscar Holter, and Shellback. Produced by Mattman & Robin and Shellback, "Run Away with Me" is a dance-pop and synth-pop tune with an upbeat production containing a distorted, reverbed saxophone riff.
Freetown Sound is the third album by Dev Hynes recording as Blood Orange. It was released on 28 June 2016, three days before its originally announced release date of 1 July 2016. The album contains guest appearances by Empress Of, Debbie Harry, Nelly Furtado, Kelsey Lu and Carly Rae Jepsen. The album cover is a 2009 photograph titled Binky and Tony Forever by American artist Deana Lawson.
Emotion: Side B is the third extended play (EP) by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on August 26, 2016, by 604 Records, Schoolboy Records and Interscope Records. Jepsen developed Side B as a companion piece to her third studio album, Emotion (2015), in response to fan demand. Side B features unreleased songs that were cut from the original effort.
"Cut to the Feeling" is a song recorded by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen, from the Canadian-French animated film Ballerina (2016). It was released as a single on May 26, 2017, to promote the film's release under the title Leap! in the United States. The song was later included on the track list of Emotion: Side B+ (2017), a Japanese-exclusive expanded version of her second EP, Emotion: Side B (2016), serving as its first track. The song was written by Jepsen, Simon Wilcox, and Nolan Lambroza, and produced by Lambroza. The song serves as the theme song for the MTV reality series Siesta Key.
"Julien" is a song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen from her fourth album Dedicated. It was released on April 19, 2019, by 604, School Boy and Interscope Records as the fourth single off of the record. It is a midtempo funk-pop, synth-pop, disco, electropop and dance song influenced by soft rock.
"Now That I Found You" is a pop song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released as a double A-side single with "No Drug Like Me" on February 27, 2019 by 604, School Boy and Interscope Records, as the second advance single from Jepsen's fourth studio album, Dedicated. "Now That I Found You" was written by Jepsen, Ben Berger, Ryan McMahon, Ryan Rabin and Alexander O'Neill, while production was handled by Captain Cuts and Ayokay. According to Jepsen, "Now That I Found You" and "No Drug Like Me" are about "the giddy sugar rush of opening up to new love" and they "go thematically hand-in-hand".
Dedicated is the fourth studio album by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on May 17, 2019, by 604 Records in Canada, and School Boy and Interscope Records in the United States. The album was preceded by the release of the singles "Party for One", "Now That I Found You", "No Drug Like Me", "Julien", and "Too Much". To support the album Jepsen embarked on The Dedicated Tour with dates in Europe, North America and Asia. A companion album, Dedicated Side B, featuring outtakes from Dedicated, was released just over a year later on May 21, 2020.
"Want You in My Room" is a 2019 pop song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, from her fourth studio album, Dedicated. It was written by Jepsen, Tavish Crowe, and its producer Jack Antonoff. Jepsen released a music video for the song in September, and a live version was included in her Spotify Singles EP in October 2019. "Want You in My Room" was named #32 on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2019.
"Too Much" is a song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, released as a single from her fourth studio album, Dedicated, on May 9, 2019, through 604, School Boy and Interscope Records. Jepsen co-wrote the song with John Hill, Jordan Palmer and Noonie Bao. The song's music video was released on May 17, 2019. "Too Much" was placed at #7 on Time's list of 10 Best Songs of 2019.
The Loneliest Time is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on October 21, 2022, through 604 Records in Canada, and School Boy and Interscope Records. The album was preceded by the release of its lead single, "Western Wind", which was followed by "Beach House", "Talking to Yourself", and the title track. The album received positive reviews and was placed in several lists of best of the year. In support of the album, Jepsen embarked on The So Nice Tour, which began in September 2022.
"Beach House" is a song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released as the second single from her sixth studio album, The Loneliest Time, on August 5, 2022. Jepsen wrote the track with Alex Hope and Nate Cyphert, with Hope handling the production alongside SameSame, who is credited as an additional producer. Inspired by a displeasing experience, the lyrics explore the uncertain and troubling side of finding love in dating apps and Jepsen's frustration with it. Musically, "Beach House" is a disco-pop tune driven by upbeat guitar and synthesizer instrumentation.
"Talking to Yourself" is a song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen from her sixth studio album, The Loneliest Time (2022). Jepsen wrote it with songwriter Simon Wilcox and its producers, Benjamin Berger and Ryan Rabin from the production team Captain Cuts. School Boy and Interscope Records released it as the album's third single on September 16, 2022. "Talking to Yourself" is a dance-pop and synth-pop song, in which Jepsen recalls a relationship with an ex-lover and wonders if he still has feelings for her.
The Loveliest Time is the seventh studio album by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, released on July 28, 2023, by 604, Schoolboy and Interscope Records. It serves as a companion piece to The Loneliest Time (2022), featuring songs from recording sessions for that album. It was preceded by the single "Shy Boy" and received positive reviews from critics.