Music to Clean Your House To: Carly Rae Jepsen's Dedicated

Dedicated (May 17, 2019)

The opening wubs of “Julien” kick in. “Do you need to get that?” my mom asks. We’re in her apartment, readying to cover the clay colored walls in something less hideous.

I laugh, “That’s not a ringtone, that’s music.”

Woke up this morning, it feels like every day / I got the blues babe not going away / Another bad dream when you were running away / I’m forever haunted by our time.

As we get to work, the gentle hypnotics of Carly’s latest take over and I’m lost reflecting about how unironically apt the name, Music to Clean Your House To is to the album. Mentioned in a Rolling Stone article as a “working, half-joking title,” it feels appropriate from the clean white cover, to the uncomplicated inner workings of the album. Sure, she’s once again covering the big territory of love, but the stakes have lowered. On Emotion it felt like she was trying to convince herself that a love gone by was okay; on Dedicated, she believes it.

“Sometimes I wish that I could change / but not for me, for you / so we could be together forever,” she sings on “When I Needed You,” a far cry from the, “If you didn’t know that you were right for me / then there’s nothing I can say,” declared on “Party for One.” Her newfound clarity of self comes through nearly every track. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be… Where Emotion was a car album, perfect for belting out every lyric with your friends, Dedicated is the perfect album to clean your house to. Suddenly your broom is a prince, ready to sweep you away… or, at the very least, some dust.

Emotion (June 24, 2015)

Ever since Carly Rae Jepsen owned 2015 with her cult-favorite, Emotion, we waited with bated breath for her next body of music. Would she continue on with the 80s sound that earned her so much attention and respect from critics and fans alike, or would she eschew the past in favor of more trendy cuts?

On Dedicated, Carly does a little bit of everything. She’s still got some play in the 80s (“Want You in my Room,” “Feels Right”), but she’s opened her palette to include a range of music from as far back as the 60s (“Everything He Needs”). Along the way she pit-stops in the 70s (“Julien,” “Now That I Found You”) and 90s (“I’ll Be Your Girl,” “Automatically in Love”), often drawing parallels between the synthpop elements of today and yesterday.

Emotion: Side B (August 26, 2016)

The strength of Emotion was its supplemental material, from the euphoric, surprise hit, “Cut to the Feeling,” to Emotion: Side B, which was so jampacked with top tier pop songs, it was easy to forget that Emotion sagged in the middle. In many ways, Dedicated is the stronger of the two. It’s simultaneously more cohesive and more experimental; however, there are no songs as immediately transcendent as “Run Away With Me” or “Warm Blood.” The closest we come is the heartbreaking, “Real Love.” Even “Julien” and “No Drug Like Me,” the album’s strongest, take a few spins for the magic to fully absorb.

Once again, Jepsen explores the nuances of love and relationships; however, her writing is sharper, while also being more repetitive and economical. It plays into the hypnotic, “chill disco” quality of the album. The laid-back tribal cut, “For Sure,” is a surprising and refreshing check in with her partner. “I’ve been thinking we were over / I’ve been thinking - got to know for sure,” she sings over and over. The whole song is built from about six lines, an astonishing feat that rivals Charli XCX’s knack for careful repetition.

Carly's safe space has always been her teenage personae. She’s ever curious about love, wide eyed and wanting. Most teenage angst comes from a lack of confidence and a fear of rejection. On Dedicated she knows what she wants (such as the jealousy of “I’ll Be Your Girl”), but is okay when things don’t pan out as hoped (such as “Happy Not Knowing,” which recalls “The One” from Emotion: Side B). Carly has matured. Not only is she ready to let a crush just be a crush, but she’s also more self-aware (“Too Much,” “Real Love”) and sexually forward (“Everything He Needs,” “Want You In My Room”).

The trick of Dedicated is that Carly is playing with your perception of her. From the opening number, “Julien,” it seems like Carly is dedicated to someone else, to romance, to love; yet it’s all an illusion. Truly, she’s dedicated to herself. “Julien,” isn’t just a tribute to a great time, it’s about loss. And even when she’s found contentment with someone else (“Now That I Found You”), it’s built on a foundation of contentment with herself (“No Drug Like Me”). After the course of the album, in which she’s fallen “Automatically in Love,” Carly is left to make her own fun. “All alone, all alone, all alone,” she foreshadowed with Charli XCX on the Pop 2 cut, “Backseat.” Though “Party for One,” may not be her strongest single ever, it’s a delightful, inoffensive song that wraps up the album nicely. “If you didn’t know that you were right for me / then there’s nothing I can say,” she begins. “I’ll be the one, if you don’t care about me / making love to myself, back on my beat.”

Maybe the simplest display of self love is the self respect to maintain a clean space, to know that you’re worth the effort. Literally. Metaphorically. ■

I go every day without it, all I want is real, real love. And I've been feeling weak without it only want a real, real love. I'm not even scared about it, all I want is real, real love. But I don't know a thing about it, all I want is real, real love.