Boutique-pop deity Carly Rae Jepsen is a mere month away from releasing the new album Dedicated, the four-years-later follow-up to her absolute fucking monster E•MO•TION. She just shared the new jam "Julien" earlier this week. And these days Jepsen is engaging in all the promotional rituals that pop artists have to do whenever they have new albums coming out. One of those rituals is a visit to BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, the place where artists go to record live-in-studio covers of other artists. In her visit, Jepsen has taken on "Talk," currently a big hit for Khalid.
Khalid's entire rise to pop stardom has come in the year since E•MO•TION, so its sort of adorable to hear Jepsen tell BBC host Adele Roberts, currently subbing for regular host Clara Amfo, that she basically had no idea who Khalid was until recently. To hear Jepsen tell it, she only heard "Talk" when she and some friends were trying to figure out a song to cover, and the song is her "introduction" to Khalid. I'm glad Jepsen likes the song, and I'm also glad that she doesn't feel any apparent pressure to keep up with whatever's happening in pop music at any given moment.
Khalid's original "Talk," which was produced by Disclosure, is already a pleasantly stripped-back piece of music. In her in-studio version, Jepsen does an even more skeletal take on it, turning it into a synthy slow-burner and showing off a bit vocally. Watch below.
Dedicated is out 5/17 on School Boy/Interscope.
