‘E•MO•TION’ – Carly Rae Jepsen‘s 2015 third album, featuring such hits as ‘I Really Like You’ and ‘Run Away With Me’ – marked a significant turning point in the Canadian star’s career. Not only did it cement secure her place in the cultural landscape as one of the premier pop artists of the 21st century – it also marked the beginning of her penchant for releasing multiple bodies of work in the same era.
That album, along with its successor ‘Dedicated’ (2019), was follows by a ‘Side B’ record of outtakes from the original album recording sessions, while Jepsen later went all in and paired ‘The Loneliest Time’ (2022) with ‘The Loveliest Time’ (2023). This time around, her eighth album arrives as a fully-realised double-LP, bringing together two 12-song discs – the bright, breezy ‘Day’ and sleek, synth-laden ‘Night’ – for a fully-rounded celebration of love and commitment.
The subject matter is reflective of Jepsen’s personal life; while creating the record, she was falling in love with her now-husband, musician Cole M.G.N., who appears as a co-writer and -producer on ‘Day & Night’. The pair became engaged in 2024 and last year became pregnant, welcoming their first child earlier this year.
It’s the life she envisions on album opener ‘After All’, on which she envisions a life with a ‘baby, one bedroom apartment / Daddy and me’ – even if the journey is more complex than she may have initially envisioned. Across a body of work that displays Jepsen’s finest storytelling yet, daydreaming trips to Versailles and declaring her unwavering longing for love as ‘the whole world is on fire’ (‘On Wires’) while confronting a yearning for stability (‘Habits of Creatures’) and her own needs and insecurities (‘That’s Just Me’).
‘Day’ builds upon the brand of wistful pop Jepsen first dabbled with on 2022’s ‘Western Wind’, leaning into folk (‘Wild Child’) and psychedelic (‘Something Tragic’) influences, while maintaining the disco-inflected edge she’s made her own. On ‘Night’, she leans into the latter more heavily, bringing synthesisers to the fore one a blend of disco and house that directly juxtaposes the more organic opening half.
‘Hold tight tonight, it’s serious’ she announces on ‘Never Let a Good Thing Die’, the opening cut on ‘Night’, before channeling ABBA on the melodic, sing-out-loud ‘Don’t Leave Me on the Dancefloor’. Although there’s a sharp distinction between both sides of the project, there’s a cohesiveness in the storytelling that gels ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ together; when dusk arrives and the sun sets, emotions arise and feelings intensify, be that late-night melancholy (‘Near or Far’) or tackling family dynamics (‘Motivation’), both of which Jepsen explores on house-inspired tracks.
Come the tail end of the album’s 24 tracks, there’s a full-circle acknowledgement that the desires and expectations she set out in the record’s early songs have been met and fulfilled. Reflecting on the highs and lows along the way, she admits on ‘Super Sage’: ‘We faced the night and we’re still alive.’
Dropping ‘Day & Night’ as one bumper package is a double-edged sword; Jepsen’s songwriting remains untouchable and what’s missing in the pure pop hooks casual fans may expect is made up for in a broad exploration of genres and layered production that makes for an intriguing, immersive experience. And is ‘Day & Night’ for the casuals anyway? For years, Jepsen has fought to break free from the bounds of her earliest commercial successes and follow her artistic muse in whatever direction it takes her, and this time around she emerges without question with her most realised body of work yet.
