Slow jams, smash hits and Popeye samples: Carly Rae Jepsen’s 20 best songs – ranked! | Carly Rae Jepsen

20. Something to Be With You (2023)Carly Rae Jepsen likes to squirrel away killer songs for her now-standard B-side collections. The opener to The Loveliest Time (the companion to 2022’s The Loneliest Time) evinces a number of CRJ emblems: a love of wierd manufacturing within the drily funky guitar and playful percussion, breathy falsetto – and obsessive, intense lyrics about being prepared to do something for love.19. This Kiss (2012)You may plot Jepsen songs on a spectrum of “laser-eyed depth” to “dreamy reverie”. This Kiss, from her first pop album Kiss (after her dreary post-Canadian Idol debut, 2008’s Tug of Warfare), epitomises the previous, with EDM-era synths that rattle and gleam like arcade machines and a sledgehammer vocal efficiency about wanting forbidden pleasures.18. Cry (2016)In Austin, Texas in 2016. {Photograph}: Rick Kern/WireImageCRJ is a fiend for pure sensation who actually referred to as an album Emotion: typically her lyrics skip over any particular object of affection and reduce straight to the sensation, as a tune later on this listing spells out. So when she sings “he by no means needs to strip right down to his emotions” on this pained ballad from Emotion Facet B, it’s terminal.17. No Drug Like Me (2019)Anybody who’s solely ever heard the radioactively perky Name Me Possibly and (wrongly) considers CRJ a one-hit marvel is likely to be surprised to be taught that she’s elite at genuinely sultry come-ons. No Drug Like Me lives as much as its narcotic premise – a dangerous cliche to promote – with its slinky, muted boogie and Jepsen’s gasped guarantees to “blossom for you”.16. All That (2015)Avant garde collaborators love Jepsen, however not like, say, Caroline Polachek or Charli xcx, she’s by no means made leftfield cool her model. These moments really feel extra like shock gems in her enjoyably wayward catalogue: All That, made with Ariel Rechtshaid and Dev Hynes, is a glowing devotional that varieties an ideal interval trifecta with Sky Ferreira’s Every little thing Is Embarrassing and Solange’s Shedding You.15. Joshua Tree (2022)The verse to Joshua Tree is all sharp, hungry anticipation of – what else – some sort of sensory excessive. Jepsen makes it definitely worth the wait when the stress breaks right into a refrain of rapturous satisfaction, à la Jessie Ware’s sultrier disco moments: “I want it / I really feel it,” Jeppo sings, her unusually fragmentary lyrics evoking the strobe-lit half-memories of an ecstatic night time out.14. Boy Issues (2015)The cutely funky Boy Issues solidified CRJ’s homosexual icon standing – you’ll seldom see a crowd yell louder than when she sings, “Boy issues, who’s received ’em?” – and gave the idea a self-aware spin, acknowledging how bored her associates are of listening to about her messy love life. The sing-songy refrain sends up her predicament and is completely addictive.13. Tiny Little Bows (2012)Supposed for Jepsen’s scrapped second album Curiosity, Tiny Little Bows received a glow-up from its espresso shop-pop demo to the machine-tooled whirling strings and snapping bass of its incarnation on Kiss. The lyric about chasing Cupid and his dinky arrow makes little sense (how do you suppose it goes with these tiny little bows? Err, fiddly?) but hits like the most effective of Scandi-pop nonsense.12. Every little thing He Wants (2019)CRJ performing in LA in 2019. {Photograph}: Michael Tullberg/Getty ImagesCRJ had did not clear this tune’s pattern of He Wants Me, from Disney’s 1980 Popeye movie. So, naturally, she went to Disneyland and received Mickey Mouse to signal a pretend contract approving it, then despatched it to the publishers: “The massive star boss says it’s OK.” They relented, and thank god, in any other case this slice of flirty insanity, with its refrain that ascends like a starlet climbing a light-up staircase on a TV particular, would by no means have existed.11. Gimmie Love (2015)“‘Trigger I would like what I would like / Do you suppose that I would like an excessive amount of?” might be the Jeppo MO. On Gimmie Love, she lunges for, then immediately withdraws from her crush, scared by the enormity of the sensation. It echoes throughout the cavernous, bass-wobbling manufacturing, offset by her effervescent vocals – and a decided cheerleader chant pivot within the center eight.10. Julien (2019)No stranger to gothic depth, Jepsen sings that she’s “eternally haunted by our time” on this smooth, luxurious recollection of a formative romance. It was initially written for a scrapped disco album, its cool bass and enveloping sparkle hinting at a pupil of the French contact sound.Carly Rae Jepsen circa 2012. {Photograph}: PR Firm Handout9. The Sound (2019)The Sound affords a rarity within the Jeppo catalogue: unequivocal exasperation, anger flashing as she rebukes an unpredictable lover. “Love is greater than telling me you need it,” she sings over an abrupt beat, craving – as soon as once more – the sensation. The tender piano within the verses drives residence what she’s lacking.8. Need You in My Room (2019)To not accuse co-producer Jack Antonoff of recycling, however this tune’s bass/percussion intro very a lot remembers his work on Lorde’s Laborious Emotions/Loveless. Anyway, it units up a fantastically feral CRJ second: “I wanna do dangerous issues to you!” she rhapsodises, with teeth-baring pep to rival early Madonna and robotic zip out of the Daft Punk playbook.7. Western Wind (2022)Jepsen’s lead singles have typically did not recreate former glories: see Name Me Possibly redux I Actually Like You, a crimson herring for the depth of Emotion. However for the primary style of The Loneliest Time, she ditched her bangers-first strategy for this attractive, dusky Rostam collab, a pandemic rumination on reminiscence.Charli xcx (left) and and Carly Rae Jepsen in LA, 2018. {Photograph}: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images6. Charli xcx – Backseat (ft Carly Rae Jepsen) (2017)Charli has kind for drawing out surprising sides of well-known artists, and the primary style of mixtape Pop 2 confirmed off an unusually, captivatingly desolate CRJ. The pair spun a story of powerless self-sabotage in relationships, their Auto-Tuned voices fluttering “on their own, on their own, on their own” over AG Prepare dinner and Easyfun’s tweaky ghost-in-the-machine ballad.5. Shy Boy (2023)Jepsen could also be nearly as good a successor to Kylie as we’ve ever had: a beloved, benign pop presence with an limitless thirst for cheeky disco. Shy Boy is Minogue-worthy: a commanding, tart invitation to the dancefloor, though CRJ fabulously overplays her hand in a wordy bridge that reveals simply how frazzled need has left her.4. Reduce to the Feeling (2017)One billion occasions higher than a tune written for an animated children’ movie a couple of ballerina needs to be, Reduce to the Feeling is uncooked Jepsen ID: she’s sticking her hand straight within the socket of need, and conducting it by means of the rowdy, euphoric refrain, written at peak leaping-around tempo. It’s principally Run Away with Me 2.0, however this can be a tune about overcoming cause, so simply give in to it.3. Name Me Possibly (2012)The primary time I heard Name Me Possibly I assumed it “wasn’t that catchy”. Like biting right into a chilli and declaring it “not very spicy”, solely to be left weeping and demanding pints of milk, its delirious strings, pogoing beat and Carly’s nuclear-force but endearingly harmless crush received the higher of me. And rightly so.2. Run Away With Me (2015)Emotion arrived a yr after Taylor Swift’s 1989, the latter laden with lyrical Easter eggs that clearly recognized her songs’ topics. Emotion hit sure listeners onerous as a result of it felt so free from subtext, hungering as an alternative for BIG FEELINGS shot straight to the center. The brazen sax and “oh-oh-whoa / OH-OH WHOA!” of RAWM are a direct hit.1. Heat Blood (2015)The second a crush turns into actuality is uncommon and exquisite. Typically, it merely by no means occurs. If it does flip right into a relationship, that second of tingling anticipation can nonetheless solely occur as soon as. Right here, Jepsen and Rostam exactly seize the feverishness of lastly being so near somebody’s face, you’ll be able to really feel their breath. Their delicate rapture softens the arpeggiated judder of Robyn’s Name Your Girlfriend right into a beat that rushes like adrenaline, the tune’s physique warmth contrasting the parched desperation in Jepsen’s voice. It skips the cathartic peak of a lot of her hits to circle this valuable feeling, prepared it to final so long as potential.