Posted by Mike McCready | March 2nd, 2015 | 2 Responses
Has Carly Rae Jepsen stumbled into another “Call Me Maybe”? The Canadian pop singer, now two-and-a-half years removed from the unlikely Hot 100 run of that smash hit, has returned with a hook that’s just as instantly appealing — and replaces the “Hey, I just met you/And this is crazy” with a really, really long list of “really’s” (67 of them, to be specific).
“I Really Like You,” the first single from her next album, was released to digital retailers at midnight ET on Sunday night (Mar. 1) and returns listeners to the sugar high of Jepsen’s 2012 album, Kiss.
Working with producer/co-writer Peter Svensson, Jepsen creates a breathless 80’s banger that comes back to “Call Me Maybe’s” fixation on ultra-crisp percussion and blurted-out flirtation. The chorus doesn’t possess a melodic hook as arresting as the syncopated strings on “Call Me Maybe,” but Jepsen fills the gap by bellowing the words every high schooler screws up the courage to whisper at some point in their lives: “I really really really really really really like you.” It’s darn near impossible to follow up a summer-defining hit like “Call Me Maybe,” but with the giddy “I Really Like You,” Jepsen has put in her bid to rule the spring of 2015.
Scooter Braun discussed the potential of “I Really Like You” during a recent chat with Billboard: “I told her that she couldn’t come out with anything unless it was on the level of ‘Call Me Maybe.’ And, now we have a new one that is on that level.” And in a new press release, Jepsen said of the new single, “Lyrically, it’s about that time in a relationship when it’s too soon to say ‘I love you,’ but you’re well past, ‘I like you’ and you’re at the ‘I really, really like you’ stage.” Jepsen is, of course, correct: the “I really, really like you” stage is one to be cherished.
The “I Really Like You” music video was filmed last month in New York City with Justin Bieber and Tom Hanks, and a premiere date will be announced “soon,” according to a press release. In the meantime, Jepsen will perform “I Really Like You” on Good Morning America on Monday (Mar. 2) and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Mar. 5.
The follow-up to Kiss, which included “Call Me Maybe” and the Top 10 Owl City collaboration “Good Time,” is due out this summer. Jepsen has worked with Jack Antonoff, Tegan and Sara, Ariel Rechtshaid, Max Martin and many others on the forthcoming LP.
What do you think of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “I Really Like You”? Let us know in the comments section below.
Mike McCready is an entrepreneur at the crossroads of music and technology. He pioneered the introduction of Hit Song Science into the music industry and followed up with Music Xray, the company he co-founded and serves as CEO. His companies have been the subject of case studies at Harvard Business School, IESE and he frequently guest speaks at many of the top business schools around the world. He helps the music industry identify high potential songs and talent and helps musicians get deals, get fans, & get better: http://musicxray.com