‘Emotion:’ 10 years of a market failure and a cult success

After coming off the blowout success of the smash single “Call Me Maybe,” Carly Rae Jepsen released her third studio album, “Emotion,” on Aug. 21, 2015. This year, the album is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The lead single of this album, “I Really Like You,” was released with a lackluster performance, only peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100, a ranked list of albums by sales and radio play. While the single worked its way into the public consciousness, it failed to break the mold like “Call Me Maybe” and, to a lesser extent, her collaboration with Owl City, “Good Time.”

While Jepsen’s previous album “Kiss” peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200, “Emotion” only reached #16, selling only 36,000 units in total. This dramatic failure surely would spell the end of Jepsen’s career as a main pop influence, but somehow it was only the beginning.

Cosmopolitan magazine named “Emotion” the best album of 2015, and People magazine lauded it as the second best album of 2015, only behind the monumental “25” by Adele. Time magazine had this album at #4 on their top 10 albums of the year. Despite the album's commercial failure, it reached a critical success that only few pop albums are able to achieve.

On decade-end lists, Paste Magazine called the album the best pop album of the 2010s. Pitchfork named “Emotion” the 47th best album of the 2010s. Truly, there was something monumental about this album, but what?

The album opens up with “Run Away With Me,” a Shellback-produced pop banger that opens with a saxophone. Jepsen and Shellback are able to create a melody that worms its way through your mind and becomes unforgettable. This song describes Jepsen fantasizing about running away with a lover and the music video takes us through a tour of three major cities: Paris, New York and, most importantly, Tokyo.

“Your Type” is the eighth track on the album and another standout for many. This song was the third and final single off the album, and, as expected, did not perform well. However, this song became incredibly popular in online spaces, having 46 million streams on Spotify, the third highest of any of the songs on the album.

The track cultivates a narrative of yearning for a love that will never work out. Jepsen realizes this through the songs, pining for this person who she realizes doesn’t want her the way that she wants.

The album closes with the anthemic “When I Needed You,” a song about moving on from someone who wasn’t there when it really mattered. It was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid and Daniel Nigro, the latter of whom would see incredible success later with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan's smash hits in the early 2020s. A perfect ending to the standard addition of the album, “When I Needed You,” rounds out this monumental album with one more infectious pop melody that leaves the listener wanting more.

In celebration of this album turning 10 years old, Carly Rae Jepsen hosted a one night only show in Los Angeles in a venue that only fit 500 people. At the show, she announced a special edition of the “Emotion” album featuring three new songs and two remixes. This 10-year anniversary edition is set to release on Oct. 17, 2025.

denneyl2@miamioh.edu