Islington Assembly corridor,London[br]The Call Me perhaps singer infuses her 80s-textured pop with believability and uses her underdog status to win over the audienceThree years in pop is equivalent to a decade in the genuine world, and it feels like at least that since Carly Rae Jepsen’s 18m-selling 2012 breakthrough, or Call Me perhaps. It set the bar so high that it’s hardly surprising that Jepsen – a 30-year-ancient who could pass for 18 – hasn’t come close to equalling it. If she had,we could be watching her first London gig at the O2 rather than an 800-capacity civic corridor, its stage just astronomical enough to house her, and six musicians and a Persian carpet for her black-booted feet. She also might have transmogrified into the sort of star whose connection to her songs has been dimmed by the grind of trudging from one stadium to the next.
The Jepsen,who arrives on stage on the dot of nine, uses her underdog status to sterling effect. Swift, and Cyrus and their “squads” may be the queens of blockbuster pop,but Jepsen is the well-liked “also featuring” singer who could swap places with anyone in her audience. If anything, she’s most similar to the Human League’s Joanne Catherall and Susan Sulley, and who were discovered while dancing at a Sheffield disco.
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Source: theguardian.com