Weekly Wrap: Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake, and the Emmys are so Canadian

In our time is a world class seminar every week. Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? What were lines doing in York in the third century? I'm Misha Glenny and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world. It's one of the first times really that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers. If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure. In our time, listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a cbc podcast. It's been a big year for some of our fave queens of pop with new music from Olivia Rodrigo, Charlie XCX, Robin and Madonna. But for some Canadian pop fans, it's all been a warm up for today because bc's own Carly Rae Jepsen is back with a new double album. The group chat is here to talk about that and more. I'm Ameliazi sitting in for Elimina Abdelmahmoud. This is commotion. Mel Woods, Rowley Pemberton and Megan Lopp here are all here. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for having us. Hello. I am so excited for today and I want to kick things off right here. From her new double album, Day and Night, that's Carly Rae Jepsen. Don't leave me on the dance floor. It's obviously a head bopper as evidenced by everyone dancing here in the studio. Mel, I saw you groven as well. Megan, Carly Rae first blew up in 2012 with Call Me Maybe, an earworm if I ever heard one. And she could have easily slipped into that one hit wonder abyss, but she didn't. She zeroed in on her core group of fans and has kept it moving in a really interesting way. What do you think is the key to that career longevity that she's managed to have? Oh man, it's been such a pleasure to watch somebody kind of maybe poised to be a mainstream pop star with a huge hit or again, a one hit wonder. But she instead sort of realized that what she was doing was just like a little left of center. And the more she has leaned into that, the better the results have been in my opinion. And but I do think there is like a core sense of like unabashed earnestness to her music that we kind of go through phases in the mainstream of whether we're being really sort of like aloof or we're being like overly vulnerable like everything with the parasocial dissection of of lore behind albums from like William Taylor Swift or people like that. And Carly's form of vulnerability is really the antithesis of that in a way. It's just so specific but not in a it's it's specific universality basically. I mean speaking of that vulnerability, there's there's a lot on this album that is a you know very true to sort of her evolution in terms of where she's at in her life. So Mel, where is she at in her life that is sort of shaping what's on this album? Yeah, you know this album is really a celebration of domestic bliss. We love to see our Queen happy and she's married. She just had a baby baby Ilya and you can feel that sort of settling and contentedness. You know earlier albums like Emotion like dedicated, there's all this yearning and there's this longing and this anticipation. And on this album you kind of see the happy ending a little bit where she's just very obviously in love with her husband Cole MgN who's the producer on this album as well. She loves her baby. She loves just having this quiet little life. And as you know Megan was saying it's like for some pop stars can never have that. And Carly Rae has somehow kind of found this niche where her fans we're going to be coming back for decades. I look forward to seeing Carly Rae perform when she's like 65 like Kylie Minogue. But she can still like go to the farmer's market. She can still like have a pretty normal little life and make the music that she wants to make without these kind of really big large trappings. I think you feel that all over this album it's experimental in places but it still has some of those songs like don't leave me on the dance floor that the Emotion heads will be eating up like candy and I think that you can really feel how settled she is with this. It's funny to think about someone like Carly Rae Jepsen having a quiet little life but but I know what you mean it's you know she's sort of getting to have the best of both worlds here. Rowley as the title suggests this album day and night is divided into two halves. So what sort of separates these halves and is the concept working for you? Yeah I really like the concept. I feel like the day side is more organic live instrumentation. More like almost rock pop vibes. Whereas the night side is more what you'd expect more of like the club oriented. But I would say even more you know I'm hearing like some French house influence. Like I think she's gone further than she has previously. And I think it worked really well honestly. Personally I love the day side. I feel like it's new dimensions to her sound that I find really compelling. Almost I hear a bit of you know mutations era back. Like just weird touchdowns that you wouldn't expect. Love that. Megan you reviewed the album for exclaim. Where did you land? I always struggle with with a numeric score and we don't do decimals to the nth degree like like pitchfork. So unfortunately I just went with seven and I feel like I'm going to get hate crime or being or accused of hate crime. But basically for me I think and it might be a bit of a hot take. But I agree with roly that I love the day side. And I think it kind of kind of could have worked as sort of a standalone album. And I think it was so interesting for Carly to do this double album approach because it made so much sense based on the fact that she has become infamous for releasing these albums. But recording so much material that she ends up also releasing a B-sides collection that in some cases people end up loving just as much if not more than the original album. So it just kind of made sense but I it felt to me like there the the night side was kind of missing the the narrative element that that really sort of came together well. It was kind of reads more like a DJ mix with and it's so fun and it's so great. And like roly said she really sort of leans into house influences and goes further in that direction than she ever has before. And I think it's really well executed. I just don't know if it needed to be the double album. The Carly heads are losing their minds right now. Sorry. Yes. Myself included. I can see the rage for me. I want to fight me. And that's okay. Well Mel I know you've spent quite a few weeks grouping to this one. So from day and night that's Carly Rae Jebsen with Motivation. Mel it's your turn on the debate side. Now what do you love about this song Mel? Yeah to bravely come out in favor of the night side of this album. I think especially that first like five or six song stretch of night. I agree it maybe falls off a little bit. But that like first five or six song stretch there is I think a an ode to her queer fans a testament to her queer fans. I think that there are two kinds of Carly Rae Jebsen fans in the world right there are like high brown music critics who appreciate her pop artistry and there are gaze who just want to cut to the feeling on the dance floor. And sometimes the end diagram overlaps I'm here to to represent the overlapping of that then diagram. But I think that the duality of this album is kind of something for both of those audiences in that way. And as somebody who allows to get down the dance floor you know don't leave me on the dance floor came out the day before my wedding this summer. And it was fun multiple times on the dance floor. Let's go. And so what I love about Motivation is it's a testament to those queer fans you know you see this the video featuring a bunch of you know queer relationships. And I think that she knows what they want and she gives it to us. And I think that that's a again a good testament to finding that balance and that what she's putting out of those kind of die hard. The people in the the subreddit who are deeply analyzing the beats and hooks of everything. And then again the the music critic folks who will be able to pull out those back influences pull out the Dijon influences all the other things that are happening on the day side of things. So Mel you feel overall the day night the blend of the two is working for you. I think so and I and I will say I do not think that we are not going to get more this girl. I have a feeling and I think she teased this on the last culture's podcast last week that there is more. She famously had a vault of 200 disco songs that was buried in the backyard. So I think we will probably be getting more from her in this space in the next year for sure. If you listen to less cultureistas that would be my I don't think so honey. Okay we have to leave Carly Ray there and we're going to move on now to another Canadian pop star who's giving their fans a lot to chew on. If you can call this this gentleman a pop star take a listen to this. What if I told you there were two versions of every life. In one you're a void risk and withhold love. You feel like you've gone missing from yourself. You look for something you can't find. In the other version of your life, you find it. That's Drake driving a banana in the--no it looks--if you've seen the new video for Fear of Missing Out. You might think that that was a banana, but it was just a probably very expensive boat that is Drake's not so short film released on YouTube this week. It was pulled offline at some point because he's just so good at drumming up that kind of--that heat, that controversy. It comes in the wake of the three albums he dropped back in May. Really, I know you're trying not to laugh, but what's up with this film? How would you describe the experience of watching it? Yeah, so Drake lately he's been really getting into this thing of having these live drops of these really substantial videos. He did that a lot around the triple album earlier this year, and so this feels like a continuation of that. But the content is basically Drake doing kind of funny things, including dancing around his palatial estate, Michael Jackson style, as well as going on a date with his goth baddie girlfriend to mid evil times. Like these are things that just happen in this. But I think ultimately the purpose of this is to promote the tour he's going to be doing in 2027, and this is what you have to do if you want people to actually go see you on tour. You have to do an insanely high budget short film to promote your tour. Right. Just quickly, what do you make of the film being up and then dropping off line and people having to search, find it, breadcrumbed trails of it on the internet? What happened there? Yeah, I wonder if it was an intentional strategy just to get more people talking. Because I think this is what it's all about. It's just breaking containment, breaking the algorithm. Right. If you just posted this on his Instagram and that's it or whatever, it wouldn't do as much. If people are talking about the fact that, oh, it was pulled off. Why was it pulled off? Was it too controversial? I need to find it. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Megan, you're nodding. Nodding along. What did you make of the film? I mean, yeah, as you said, calling it a short film seems interesting since it wasn't a hour. Yeah. The service to short films. I thought it was very much like the budget was absolutely high. The production value was very there. I'll give him that. I thought it was interesting that it was so largely a Toronto tourism ad. He's at Canada's Wonderland. He's at the Eaton Center. He's at Trinity Bellwoods. He's everywhere. I don't know. This was actually admitting this. My first experience to some of the Iceman songs because it was some songs from those albums, but also some new material interspersed in there. And, you know, there were some of them. I don't know whether they were the new ones or not, but that he kind of seemed to be getting back to his pseudo-RNB sad boy type of thing that kind of was always his best fan. So that was refreshing. It's always under there. The sad boy. Yeah. The sad boy is not far from the service. Yeah. He's like this at a hot topic, you know? Very much so. Mel, I know you're not necessarily the biggest Drake fan in the world, but there was at least one track in this film that you must have recognized. That's Drake featuring Don Tolover and Ella Langley with their remix of Ella Langley's obviously massive song Choosing Texas. It's featured in Drake's new short film Fear of Missing Out. So Mel, did this remix or really anything else in the film make you reconsider those feelings towards Drake? Yeah, you know, I am a Drake skeptic on the all the again. I also was like a short film. That's 15 minutes, right? It's like, oh, there's an hour of this. It's just still going. But then again, here I am being like, I love my Carly Rae Jupps and Double Album give me more, more, more. So for the Drake people, I'm happy. I'm happy for you. I'm happy you're getting this volume of content. You know, I think it's really fascinating that he's doing this remix of Choosing Texas, which again was undisputably chart wise. The song of the summer, whether or not we all agree with that, it was on the charts and it continues to be forever and ever. And it's quite an insertion of himself into the mainstream in that sense and insertion of himself into the conversation, which I think Drake is very good at finding ways to insert himself into the conversation in all the places. But I, you know, to give him credit, the more I've listened to that remix of Choosing Texas, the more I've been like, this kind of slaps, you know, at the end of the day, after all the the persona and the jet skiing on the lake and all the all the other stuff in that video, it's like at the end of the day, the music sometimes does hit. And I fear that that is once again the case. A reluctant listener to Drake is how I would describe my interactions with him. Yeah. And you know what, he's nothing if not, you could say it's hopping on the bandwagon, but I think he's just really good at reading the temperature of the room and going, you know what, let me get in on this. And I think that that's often what it takes to like stay so consistently relevant, Megan. Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you. And I think, you know, obviously Drake had a very difficult 2024. And but like the thing is with that, I, the more I think about it, the more I'm like, there's no reality where he was coming up on top of the Kendrick beef, just like in terms of skill, but also like he is his character. He wants to be an underdog. And I think, you know, everybody loves to see a redemption arc. So to see him sort of out here doing his thing again. And you know, his very dedicated fans embracing it, it's, it is, it is nice. I mean, really picking up on what Megan just said, there was a minute there where people thought, well, that's the end of Drake, I guess, you know, 2024 him and Kendrick are having this beef. He is the, you know, hands down loser of that beef. Yeah. But fast forward to 2026. He's got this massive album, Janice STF use number one on the Billboard 100, the hot 100. Is this something that you could have imagined two years ago? The fact that he's, he's, if not back on top, he's certainly back in a way that did not seem possible or plausible just two years ago. Yeah. I definitely thought just in the throws of the battle, it's like, you know, he, you have to be a one-of-one type artist to be able to survive what he went through there. And I think he's doing really well. I think he's the key for him really after the whole A minor thing. It's like, change the conversation. Yeah. How do we change the conversation? Get away from, I'm a culture of culture, I'm this, I'm that to, I'm Drake. Remember me? I'm the guy who was in Shopper's Drug Mart in the music video. You know, like, I'm from Toronto. I love Toronto. That's what this is about. It's a rebuilding and tapping back into the lore of Drake, tapping back into his legacy, particularly at the end of this short film, where he is going to all the, it's all the locations of the music videos. And then it just does that reveal where it's, you know, he's in the box for, you know, the famous video. Hot Langling. Maybe I'm not as tapped into the legacy. But yes, that is all about, you know, is an image reclamation project that I think is very successful. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to do, but if anyone can do it, it's someone like Drake. And again, if you, you know, if you have to just bring in that patriotism and right now this, it's the time for that. He could not have nailed it better. We're going to have to leave it there for Drake. But, you know, I'm sure we'll be talking about him in another couple of months when he releases his long film. Sorry, Megan, like four hours. Hey, it's Danielle and Cali. Your host of in three, Canada's number one entertainment news podcast. I've spent more time with Taylor Swift than most other people. We're media pros. We hosted the Verity screening festies. How we has become the hottest baxter boy. Said no one but you ever, ever. And insiders who have seen it all, IRL. Oscar's Golden Globes, you name it. We have been there with access to the biggest talent. Welcome to in three Patrick J. Adam. The fun starts in three. You know who's not going to survive this? Dad talk. Oh, new episodes Mondays and Thursdays. Okay, we're back. I'm Amelia Niazzi sitting in for Elemin Abdel Mahmoud. This is commotion. Mel Woods, Rolly Pemberton and Megan Lab here are here talking about some of the week's biggest pop culture stories. And speaking of patriotism, you know, we had a big week at the Emmys for Canada. Have a listen to this. Actually Connor, oh my gosh, her photography who made the Pacific Northwest another character, and it's Canada. Blessed Canada, our neighbors, our friends. (audience cheering) - That was Sally Field accepting her Emmy on Monday night for her role in Netflix's remarkably bright creatures and giving a little bit of a Sally Field-esque. They love me, they really love me. Giving some of that love back to Canada in her speech. And it was just one moment in the night where Canada took center stage at the show. We also saw Michael J. Fox, get a humanitarian award, and of course, the late Catherine O'Hara received a special tribute. Megan, what was going through your mind as you saw Canada show up sort of again and again in these really emotional moments at the Emmys? - Yeah, I think it's obviously very pertinent to the current relations between our two countries or at least between the head of government on one side. And it was just a very sort of moving demonstration of the fact that that is not a reflection of what actual Americans think of Canada. And especially these actors that have often so much is filmed in Canada, they've probably worked here. And they know these also, these big Canadian actors. And it was nice, it was a very kind thing because we are not being painted as the nice neighbors anymore. And yeah, that was pretty cool to see on the world stage. - Yes, it's always nice, Canadians love nothing more than an opportunity to bask in our own glow. But there was one moment that I think had at most of the room feeling very emotional. I want to play a bit of Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy's tribute to her co-star Catherine O'Hara. - After we lost Catherine, I was passed a note on an air-canada flight that said she was so special. I hope you're doing okay. - On a drive up north, I was hugged by an extremely gruff-looking gas station attendant who was also grieving her loss. While buying wine at the LCBO, I was treated to a very lively Catherine mashup, which was a woman saying, ooh, David, where's the baby? - That may be the first time air-canada, the LCBO were both mentioned. And of course, the LCBO, if you're not from Ontario, it was Ontario's liquor commission. Have ever been mentioned on a major American award show. Mel, what did you make of that moment? - Yeah, I think it's just a really good reminder to the culture about how many legends Canada's produced in the Catherine O'Hara is one of the greats. And that pop culture in general wouldn't be the same without Canadians like her in it. And so it was a really good throwback also, too. It wasn't that long ago that we had that one, M.E.'s telecast that was dominated by Shits Creek in the deep pandemic times where it was kind of Canadians all the way down. And one of the biggest TV stories of last year was heated rivalry, which of course wasn't at the M.E.'s because it's not eligible. But I think the television industry in particular feels a deep indebted gratitude to Canadians. And I think it was really well-encaptured by the tribute to Catherine O'Hara there. - Yeah, I mean, it's not new that Canadians show up in Hollywood in a major way, and that we make a lot of the great content, but we also send a lot of great talent down there. But certainly feels like the first time in a long time, really that people were really excited to sort of like attach themselves in any way to Canada. What do you sort of think about that sentiment? - Yeah, well, you know, these award shows, too, in the States, they use them as a way to, you know, strike back politically sometimes. Obviously, there is the trade war hovering over this. But I do think it is, it feels nice to be mentioned, of course. And, you know, we, you know, Hollywood North, we have so many symbiotic ties to the American Film Industry TV. So I feel like it's cool, although I do think it's funny that the mention of L.C.B.O. and Air Canada were not beating the three companies in a trench coat allegations. (laughs) Whatever. (laughs) Well, I mean, at the very least, you know, Doug Ford was probably very happy. (laughs) Megan, I want to give you one chance to weigh in before we go here. - To weigh in, I mean, I agree it is a little bit like, okay, yeah, Canada, we get it. You guys have like those telecommunications companies and then you got like, yeah, you're like your company and you got Air Canada. But, yeah, I think at a time like this, we could use it. And I think it's sort of the actors and the celebrities want to kind of be this sounding board for the general sentiment of the population, which is not reflective of the president's views. - Yeah. - Yeah, exactly. Well, before I let you go, I'd love to get a quick recommendation from each of you, something, you know, we should be watching, reading or listening to right now. Megan, let's start with you. - I mean, on the topic of television with ties to Canada, I would like to recommend FX's show Adults, which just released a second season. It's like a Gen Z version of Friends that is much more grounded in reality, like instead of all living in the same apartment building, they are essentially all squatting in one of their parents' houses. It's very funny, there's a Canadian actor who plays a Canadian character because allegedly he couldn't do an American accent. They just were like, we'll go with this. And it's a fun one. I think a lot of shows have attempted this and it executes it better than most of them. - Yeah, I've actually been catching up on the new season and have had a lot of, like, laugh out loud. - Yes, absolutely, moments. Mel, what about you? - Yeah, another album that came out today is Orville Peck's new album Mewal. I love everything that Orville Peck does. He was born in South Africa, but spent a lot of time in Canada, both in Vancouver and Toronto. He iconically worked at my favorite vegan burrito shop here in Vancouver. And he is just this, you know, rhinestone queer cowboy. And this new album is about heavier topics of addiction, relapse, recovery. And it is just exactly what you kind of want from him. It's very deep. It's full of kind of these big feelings. He has almost like an Elvis-like voice in his performance of these songs. And I just really recommend it if you need, like, a come down after all of the Carly Rays, Sunniness and Joy and Effervescence and get a little bit more heavy hard feelings. Orville Peck's Mewal is a great way to get into it. - I love it. - It's weekend. - Love it, Rolly, last week. - Yeah, I'm really into the new underscores album. It's called You and really amazing production. Very colorful. She's on tour with Charlie XCX right now to give you an idea of the vibe. But it's really like an amazing survey of Y2K music in a futuristic lens. I love it. - Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing those with us. Really appreciate you all taking the time to chat about this with us today. - Thanks for having us. - Thank you. - Rolly Pemberton is a writer and rapper also known as Cadence Weapon. Megan LaPierre is an associate online editor at Exclaim Magazine. They were both with me here in the Toronto studio. And Mel Woods is a senior editor at Extra Magazine in Vancouver. And that's it for the show today. This week, "Comotion" was produced by Stuart Berman, Thai calendar, Nathan Chisholm, Jess Lowe, and Nicki Manfredi. Our digital producers are Vanya Mutabja, Dylan Dubot, Emilie Ekbal, and Ray Mona. Our engineer is Emily Caravaggio. Our director is Daniel Grogan. John Perry is the senior producer. Our executive producer is Beza Saifa. I'm Emil Niazi, sitting in for "Elemin Abdel Mahmoud." "Comotion" is back again on Monday. - For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.