I confess I'd discounted Carly Rae. Call Me Maybe may have been the biggest hit of 2012, but album 'Kiss' that followed was a squeaky, sickly sweet affair. And does anyone even remember her 2008 debut 'Tug Of War'? With 'Emotion', though, she's proven she's more than a one-hit-wonder - she's a bona fide popstar.
What a popstar needs is not just one catchy hook-laden chorus, but a whole album's worth. And that's exactly what Carly Rae has delivered with 'Emotion'. You will have already heard the fizzing I Really Like You - a cutesy, anthemic little pop number that you should already really really really really really really like - but there's also the giddy rush of Run Away With Me and its glorious saxophone riff, the bubbling title track, the widescreen joy of Gimmie Love and so, so much more.
Perhaps too much more. The deluxe edition is seventeen tracks long: an extensive collection of songs that does dip a little in quality towards the end. Yet as the title suggests, she covers a variety of emotions over the course of those songs, predominantly falling in and out of love. Mostly this is a frothy but always enjoyable pop album that's quite simply fun to listen to from start to finish.
The overall 80s sound certainly takes a cue from Taylor Swift's '1989', though lyrically it doesn't quite have the same depth. Yet the similarities are understandable with the likes of Max Martin, Mattman and Robin, and Shellback behind the production. There are even writing credits as varied as Sia, Dev Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid and Greg Kurstin. So it's quite the team behind 'Emotion' - some of the best writers and producers in modern pop, in fact. The result is an impossibly polished 80s-influenced album, delivered through the effervescent personality of Carly Rae - just on the right side of adorable/nauseating.
Sprinkled liberally throughout are plenty of unexpected moments too. There's the excitable "yeah" in I Really Like You that comes in a beat early; the plunging bass notes of Gimmie Love; the silky, hushed vocals of the Prince-influenced All That; the chromatic chord change in the chorus of Making The Most Of The Night; or the 90s house feel of I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance.
Most unexpected of all? It's this good.
4/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* Run Away With Me
* I Really Like You
* Gimmie Love
Listen: 'Emotion' is released on 21st August.
