Two Attempts To Turn Summer Platinum Into Fall Gold

Two big pop albums from two very different artists come out today. Carly Rae Jepsen dominated the summer with her viral hit, “Call Me Maybe.” She follows up with the full-length album, Kiss. Meanwhile, rapper and producer Kanye West releases Cruel Summer. “Mercy,” the single from the album, has been lodged in the hip-hop/R&B charts for the past few months. Both Jepsen and West might aspire to rule the fall music season, but both may fall short.

The inescapable summer anthem of 2012 came from a 26-year-old British Columbia singer who ruled the radio, the club and most of all: YouTube. “Call Me Maybe,” is a perfect piece of pop confection — and I mean that as high compliment. It’s not easy to craft a song that goes over as easily at a bar mitzvah as it would at your parents’ silver anniversary party. You could call the song’s success “magical,” but you’d also have to acknowledge how difficult it is to pull off the same trick more than once.

There’s surprisingly little thematic or musical range on Jepsen’s full-length album, Kiss, despite employing more than a dozen producers and songwriters. Kiss seems content to churn out 11 more songs about teen romantic drama set over fist-pumping dance tracks. Even though she’s about the same age as the last two queens of summer — Adele and Katy Perry — Jepsen somehow seems far younger and less versatile. Perhaps she needs another album or so to mature lest she risk joining a long line of one-hit wonders whose hot summers faded into a cold fall.