Single Review: Carly Rae Jepsen - “Cut To The Feeling” / A Pop-Saving Song
How she was capable of hiding this song from us for two years goes beyond me. Maybe Carly Rae Jepsen knew pop music would need saving again in the future?
She saved pop music in 2015 with “Run Away With Me”, but then TRUE pure-pop music kind of went downhill in 2016. Now in 2017, the Canadian singer has had to put her Super Woman costume on again to do some extra saving. She’s released, finally, the full studio version of “Cut To The Feeling” - a “new” song we could preview a little late last year when the “English-language Canadian-French 3D computer-animated musical adventure comedy” movie “Ballerina” hit Canadian theaters. Part of Carly’s song played during the ending the credits. But now that the film is gearing up for an American release this summer, under the new title of “Leap!”, Carly has decided the time has finally come for “Cut To The Feeling” to hit Apple Music and Spotify in its glorious full-length version. And guys, “GLORIOUS” doesn’t even do justice to this song. I’m going to need to come up with a new praising adjective for this song. For no adjective in the current English dictionary can describe the flawlessness of “Cut To The Feeling” with precision.
Fun fact before reviewing this song: “Cut To The Feeling” was recorded during the studio sessions for “EMOTION” (2015). However, she ended up not including the song on the tracklisting, and then when the “Emotion: Side B” EP was released last year, “Cut To The Feeling” didn’t make it on that either. SUCH SACRILEGE, RIGHT? Here’s what Carly had to say about this decision:
“A new song of yours, “Cut to the Feeling,” was featured in the movie Ballerina, which came out in Europe in 2016 and is getting a U.S. release later this year with a new title, Leap!. Is that song indicative of your new sound, or is that leftover from E·MO·TION?
That was definitely from the era of E·MO·TION. That was actually a contender for the b-sides [E·MO·TION: Side B] and, originally, the first album. It was almost too cinematic and theatrical. I was like, “If I had my way with it, this would be great for a musical or movie!” So when Ballerina came along, I met with people as I was doing the voiceover for [the character Odette] and they were showing me a couple scenes. There was one in particular where they were like, “We’re looking for the right song for this, do you have anything?” and I was like, “Actually, this has been in my back pocket. I’ve been saving it for the b-sides, but if this works for you guys, I’d be stoked to share it.”
“This would be great for a musical or movie” was the reason why she held up including “Cut To The Feeling” in the “EMOTION” projects. Is she a witch or something? Because she totally nailed the future! That’s exactly what it happened and she got her way in the end. “Cut To The Feeling” indeed made it into a movie!"
THE REVIEW
How many times have we heard Carly Rae Jepsen talking about falling in love in songs? It all started with “Call Me Maybe” and the list has been long ever since. And of course “Cut To The Feeling” couldn’t be an exception. “I wanna play where you play with the angels / I wanna wake up with you all in tangles, oh / I wanna cut to the feeling, oh yeah”, sings Carly to a boy on the chorus of this song she co-wrote with Simon Wilcox and Nolan Lambroza.
“Cut To The Feeling” is a such a bop, a pop bop, it’s so instant, you know from the first verse that you’re going to love the song, and when the deliciously and infectiously flamboyant LGBT-approved, feel-good chorus hits in, you will confirm you were right. The chorus, oh the chorus. I think I almost shed a tear when I finished hearing the chorus for the first time. It was one of the most amazing and perfect pop choruses I had heard in a long time. And when I finally learned all the lyrics, which didn’t take long, the replays of the song were constant and I couldn’t stop jumping up and down in my room singing along to this song with anything that resembled a microphone. And when the time to hit the streets to do random errands for the first time after listening to this song came up, you better believe the only song I played during my hour-long walk was Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling”. There were a few people looking at me with a weird face for I had this smiling face at all times, and I replied to them silently in my mind: “I’m hearing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s new song, that’s why”.
Thank you for saving pop music again, queen.
PS: With less than a week of being out (it was released on May 26), the audio video of “Cut To The Feeling” on VEVO already has over 1 million views!
UPDATE: A person who Shazamed “Cut To The Feeling” this weekend saw that the information of the song included an album name: “Spread Love”. We knew Carly was preparing a new album but for Shazam to already have the title in their database it must mean the release is nearby!!! So this means, guys, that pop music will be saved more than once this year!
HOLD UP IS CARLY RAE JEPSEN'S NEXT ALBUM CALLED "SPREAD LOVE" pic.twitter.com/ErU0b4liYB
— karl ???? (@karlfranks) 29 de mayo de 2017