Carly Rae Jepsen – “Emotion”

When Carly Rae Jepsen released Emotion in 2015, most of the world had already filed her away as a one-hit wonder. “Call Me Maybe” had turned her into a meme, and like so many artists caught in the flash-fame trap, she could have easily vanished from the conversation. Instead, she made one of the most finely tuned, emotionally intelligent and criminally underrated pop albums of the decade.

Emotion isn’t just a reinvention, it’s a rebirth. Drawing on ‘80s synthpop, ‘90s Max Martin melodrama, and her own brand of wide-eyed yearning, the album casts Jepsen not as a Top 40 puppet but as a pop auteur. The production is sleek, the hooks are undeniable and the feelings are enormous — romantic, desperate, euphoric, and bruised.

The title track is a perfect introduction. “Emotion” shimmers with retro synths and breathless urgency, its chorus soaring with understated longing. It’s the kind of pop song that doesn’t demand your attention, it earns it. That same confidence carries over to “I Didn’t Just Come Here to Dance,” a disco-tinged standout that plays like a flirty warning. It’s playful and empowered, a subtle shift away from the girl-next-door image people expected.

“Making the Most of the Night” deserves special mention as one of the album’s most emotionally resonant tracks. Co-written with Sia, it rides a pulsing beat toward something close to transcendence. Jepsen doesn’t belt, she pleads, she lifts, she reaches. It’s a song about showing up for someone in the middle of their worst moment, and it somehow makes that act sound like a dancefloor promise.

What’s remarkable about Emotion is how cohesive it feels, despite its rotating cast of producers and co-writers. There’s no filler here — just wave after wave of pop perfection. Even when it veers slightly into melancholy, as on “All That” or “Warm Blood,” it never loses its sense of momentum. It’s an album that understands longing not as weakness, but as power.

That Emotion never broke wide commercially feels like a small tragedy. But maybe that’s also what makes it so beloved — a cult classic hiding in plain sight, passed between listeners like a secret handshake. It deserved to make Jepsen a global pop fixture. Instead, it solidified her as something rarer: a pop artist who leads with sincerity, heart and a clear point of view.

For Fans Of:

• Robyn – Body Talk

• CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye

• Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob