Learning to Like What I Like: Part 2

I was torn this week between talking about 1. my phone addiction or 2. Carly Rae Jepsen.

One of them has to wait another week.

One topic is serious,

the other is extremely serious.

---

---

I was asked a couple of weeks ago about my favorite albums.

At the time I said:

1. Weezer - OK Human (A pretty big margin between this and #2)

2. Green Day - American Idiot

3. Jonas Brothers - The Album

4. Beach Boys - Sunflower

I think that order is still right, at least currently.

I didn’t mention #5 at the time.

5. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion

At times over the last decade, it’s been a top 3.

---

---

Emotion turned 10 years old this week.

I remember when it came out in 2015. I read a review from an obscure website (which mostly focused on punk music) that was raving about it. I thought, “Nope. No way. The Call Me Maybe girl didn’t make a masterpiece of an album.”

Don’t get me wrong: Call Me Maybe remains one of the most perfectly crafted pop songs ever made. Yes, it’s a basic pop song about a guy, but it’s the best possible version of a simple pop song about a guy.

Those strings on the chorus are killer.

The build into the chorus is so good.

Great song. But a whole album? Nope.

---

I was curious and listened.

Immediate fan.

Front to back it’s fantastic.¹

Like Call Me Maybe, every song is about a guy.

Emotion is a bubblegum pop album about a girl who wants a guy.

Not a genre I really listened to at the time.

But this album stayed on repeat.

---

I told some friends about it. They made fun of me.

I told some other friends. They also made fun of me.

I stopped telling people about it.

---

I was 31 at the time. It feels like by 31 a person should be confident about the things that they like, whether or not other people like them.

I wasn’t.

I’m 41 now.

I’m still not.

---

---

Last year I talked about going to a Jonas Brothers concert, and listening to their catalogue before attending.

And then listening some more.

And more.

Eventually becoming a fan.

A big fan. Superfan.

A quiet superfan, because I assumed a lot of ridicule if I told people I was a 40-year-old male fan of the Jonas Brothers; a group that hit the scene in the late 00’s when I was in grad school.

And yeah, there aren’t a lot of 40-year-old male fans of the Jonas Brothers.

You know how I know? I was one of a very few middle-aged guys I saw at the concert.²

There were so few that half of the men’s rooms at Moda Center were changed to women’s rooms for the show (which was hilarious).

---

Turns out, the Jonas Brothers aren’t simply a few 30-something pretty boys like I’d previously thought.

They’re 30-something pretty boys with a banger of a catalogue.

Especially The Album. What a good freaking album.³

---

---

When I wrote that thing last year, I hoped that by this time I’d be more comfortable with people knowing about the movies/music/tv/books that I like, even if it seems out of character.

But being made fun of in high school stays with you.

Being made fun of 10 years ago still hangs with you.

---

Despite the influence Emotion has had, despite it’s cult status, despite punk kids unabashedly loving it, I’m still a wary of telling people how much I adore this album.

I’m still trying to learn to unapologetically like the things I like.

One of these days maybe I’ll get there.

---

---

I’mma go out on a limb and say that without Emotion, there’s no Future Nostalgia. There’s no Lover. There’s no Short ‘n’ Sweet. There’s no After Hours. There’s no After Laughter.

You don’t have to listen to the whole album. You should, but you don’t have to. But at least listen to “Run Away With Me.” The saxophone at the beginning is to die for.

---

1. She hasn’t missed since then. Emotion: Side B. Dedicated. Dedicated Side B. The Loneliest Time. The Loveliest Time. All fantastic.

2. No joke, possibly the best concert I’ve ever attended. I’m going to see them again in a couple of months. Stoked.

3. Their new one is solid too.