Featured Album

Carly Rae Jepsen once seemed destined to go down as a one-hit wonder. After a third-place finish on Canadian Idol, a couple of middling records and a tune titled “Call Me Maybe” (perhaps you heard it?), none of her other bubblegum singles were sticking. Then, in 2015, she blindsided listeners with E•mo•tion, a playful yet mature trove of eighties-inspired synth-pop hits. If Jepsen found her groove on that album, she settles into it on Dedicated (604 Records/Universal). She wrote two hundred songs for the new record, and it shows. Each of the fifteen winning tracks is a polished three-minute marvel, stuffed with radio-friendly hooks that bring to mind Bieber (the tropical house of “Too Much”), Lauper (the shamelessly goofy “Want You In My Room”) and Robyn (take your pick, honestly). The production is pristine—a cornucopia of club beats, deep digital basses and glossy electronic ...