Emotion - Carly Rae Jepsen: 10 Years On
- Ben Dale
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
A decade on, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion remains a pop masterclass, blending 80s-inspired synths with heartfelt, unfiltered emotion. Initially overlooked, the album has become a cult favorite, celebrated for its joy, vulnerability, and meticulously crafted hooks. More than a collection of songs, it proves that sincerity and pure pop craftsmanship endure. The Mic's Ben Dale reports.
Following her 2011 hit Call Me Maybe, everyone expected Carly Rae Jepsen to become pop’s next big thing. For a moment, she seemed unstoppable - a fresh-faced pop star whose song had become an inescapable global phenomenon. But as quickly as she rose, she seemed to vanish. The follow-up singles didn’t stick, radio moved on, and the industry’s attention turned elsewhere. By 2014, Jepsen had seemed to fade into obscurity, another name on the long list of artists swallowed by the one-hit-wonder curse.
What no one expected was that, out of the quiet, she would create one of the most beloved pop albums of the decade. Released in 2015, Emotion grazed the chart — its lead single I Really Like You reaching No. 3 in the UK — but the album’s impact grew far beyond its commercial performance. Over time, Emotion would come to represent a new kind of pop triumph: one built not on numbers, but on sincerity, craft, and connection.
At a time when mainstream pop was dominated by tropical house and the lingering influence of EDM, Emotion seemed to look to the future — “My desire now is to see how far I can stretch pop” she told one interviewer. Where her sophomore album Kiss introduced us to some of her sparkly ‘girl next-door’ charm, Emotion ventured into much more vintage-inspired territory. Driven by gated drums, saxophone solos, and meaty bass riffs, its sound reintroduced 80’s pop to a completely new world. A huge part of that transformation came from Jepsen’s collaborators. Rather than chasing the big-name producers behind the decade’s chart toppers, she built a team of musicians and songwriters who understood how to merge nostalgia with emotional honesty.
Among these collaborators was Dan Nigro — now best known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo and Sky Ferreira — who worked with Jepsen on ‘When I Needed You’, one of the album’s most underrated tracks. Its soaring chorus and layered production epitomise the album’s emotional core: heartbreak rendered through pure euphoria. Other collaborators like Dev Hynes (’All That’) and Rostam Batmanglij (’Warm Blood’) brought their own textures and moods, expanding Jepsen’s world beyond polished pop into something rich and unique. HAIM even make an appearance on Making the Most of the Night, a glossy rush of adrenaline that channels their trademark buoyancy into Jepsen’s world of emotion.
The album opens with the song Run Away With Me, a song that has become a somewhat cult classic among Carly Rae Jepsen fans. Its blaring saxophone riff feels like a pure burst of exhilaration, setting the tone for what follows: an album that treats emotion as something to be celebrated rather than concealed. Jepsen doesn’t just sing about love; she dives headfirst into it, embracing all its chaos and possibility. From there, Emotion unfolds as a series of perfectly crafted pop moments. On Boy Problems, Jepsen earnestly questions: “What’s worse? Losing a lover, or losing your best friend?” — it’s a playful exploration of the moment your friends finally tire of hearing about your relationship drama, turning emotional exhaustion into something tongue-in-cheek and danceable. On Your Type she wears her heart on her sleeve, delivering possibly her most vulnerable performance on the whole album. Her confession of unrequited love is wrapped in glistening synths and aching sincerity, a reminder that beneath all the polish lies something deeply human.
Back in 2015, some critics accused Jepsen of lacking personality, being too polished, and too eager to fit the ‘manufactured pop star’ archetype. However, 10 years on that couldn’t be further from the truth. Beneath Emotion’s sparkling production and pop craftsmanship was an artist with a clear sense of purpose, one who approached pop not as a product but as an art. Jepsen’s strength wasn’t in reinvention or provocation, but in sincerity. Over time, what some had mistaken as blandness revealed itself as a deliberate choice to let emotion, not ego, take centre stage.
Consequently, in the years following its release, Emotion’s reputation grew steadily, fuelled not by radio play or chart success, but by word of mouth and online devotion. The album suffered a tricky release — arriving with little commercial momentum and limited promotion — and its singles struggled to make an impact on the charts. In a pop landscape dominated by streaming algorithms and fleeting hits, Emotion’s carefully constructed sound and sincerity seemed out of fashion with mainstream trends. Yet, this very mismatch became the source of its endurance. What began as a commercial underperformer evolved into a cult phenomenon, celebrated in corners of the internet where sincerity and pop maximalism were cherished rather than mocked. Jepsen’s music offered something rare in pop — joy and vulnerability without irony and spectacle. Her unabashed emotionality created a space where listeners could revel in feeling too much. On Tumblr, Twitter, and even Reddit, fans built a community around that sensibility, treating Emotion less like an album and more like a shared language for unfiltered feeling.
Jepsen’s commitment to lush, 1980s-inspired production and visceral storytelling felt radical for the time. She helped reframe what pop could be — not coolly detached, but gloriously sincere. In the years that followed, the ripple effects became clear. Artists like Dua Lipa, Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, and Chappell Roan would go onto channel that same balance of nostalgia and vulnerability. In helping re-legitimise pop as a serious artistic form, Jepsen helped validate ‘cult pop stardom’ as an alternative to mainstream success, inspiring artists and fans to see artistic fulfilment as separate from chart success. While Jepsen never reclaimed her Call Me Maybe-level chart dominance, her influence helped reshape the genre from the ground up, shifting the culture around what pop is allowed to be.
Ten years on, Emotion isn’t just an album — it’s a masterclass in what pop can be. Carly Rae Jepsen took the heartbreak, the longing, and the messy thrill of love, wrapped it in shimmering synths and turned it into something timeless. It didn’t need to top charts to leave it mark; its influence can be heard in Dua Lipa’s disco-pop, Rina Sawayama’s maximalist bravado, and Charli XCX’s fearless emotional honesty. Emotion proved that pop could be heartfelt and unapologetically fun all at once. A decade later, it still shines as a quiet triumph reminding us that genuine feeling and perfect hooks never go out of style.
Written by Ben Dale
Edited by Ben Dale
Photograph courtesy of Matthew Welch and Carly Rae Jepsen; Videos courtesy of Carly Rae Jepsen