Thank the heavens for the return of Carly Rae Jepsen, explorer of all worlds romantic; soothsayer of feelers and people striving to be feelers. Her singular brand of heart-eyed, teen-dream-pop, defined by her 2015 album E•MO•TION, is something to behold.
An EP, a couple of loosies (one of which evolved from soundtracking a children's ballerina film into its own fabulous beast) and a rendition of the Full House theme song later, Jepsen has granted us two gifts for 2019: Today, following hints on social media, she's dropped "Now That I Found You" and "No Drug Like Me."
"Now That I Found You" cleverly fast-forwards the intense desire of the honeymoon period a few "I love you"s down the line, as if the narrators in E•MO•TION found a steady fling and still feel their infatuation as deeply as they did when they first encountered their partner.
"How did we get this far? It came without a warning," Jepsen ponders, the ecstasy of staying in passionate love translated into rousing rave-pop, with the subject matter and its backing in complete sync.
"No Drug Like Me," the track's '80s power ballad B-side, flickers like a spark too worn out to continue lighting a flame, igniting in fits and spurts. Following the self-love kissoff that was "Party for One," it's good to see Queen Carly fully, immovably entrenched in her emotions again.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.