Dedicated isn’t a grand statement; it’s a well rounded record that finds Jepsen sounding confident and relaxed. The whole thing glistens thanks to an endless run of warm, shimmering melodies and rich production details.
Fortunately, Jepsen is just as committed to her music as she is to the ideal of true love, and the way she's grown without sacrificing her uniqueness makes Dedicated a master class in what a 2010s pop album can be.
Through envy, happiness, uncertainty, and self-assuredness, Dedicated tells us that every emotion we feel is another important step in our own personal saga.
Dedicated fizzes with the feverish enthusiasm, crisp melodies and incomparable sense of cool that Jepsen's fans have waited four years to hear, and it's been worth that wait.
The 33-year-old’s fourth album, Dedicated, covers the full, but generic, spectrum of relationships: dizzying love, lust, and break-ups
With less of the belt-it-out bombast, Jepsen presents her more confident, seductive and cheeky sides – all are welcome.
If the extra edges had been sloughed off, the album might pack a slightly more powerful punch. Even considering all of that, Dedicated is effective and, in the most Jepsen way, a consistent slice of ultimate pop music that will get its hooks into you and make you move.
Dedicated is a more nuanced and subdued work than Jepsen's 2015 masterwork, trading in some of her last record's razzle-dazzle for a more refined emotional palette, but losing none of the songs' staying power.
Dedicated is packed with the sort of earworms that burrow into your subconscious, only to burst free later in a hail of bus stop humming and unaccompanied impromptu karaoke.
Following up the cult favourite that was ‘Emotion’ was always going to be a tough ask, but Jepsen has done a more than admirable job with her fourth album.
Carly Rae Jepsen's Dedicated lives in the explosive lift-offs and devastating crash-and-burns of coupling, those meaty emotionally hefty peaks of relationships that form the inverted bell-curve of the heart.
This is easily one of the best pop albums of the year as it is.
Dedicated could’ve easily been either a woebegone heartbreak record or a carefree, lovestruck free-for-all had it been dreamt up by someone else. Instead, thanks to Ms. Jepsen’s talent for processing feelings, it’s an intersection of those two ends of the pop spectrum and a daring display of chart-topping sounds from across the decades.
While Jepsen has once again delivered a stunning hook-filled record that frankly gets catchier every time you hear it, Dedicated may not quite satisfy our lust for connection.
On Dedicated ... she’s let us into her head more than ever before. She’s confident enough about her thoughts and her abilities to open up about her life, which is shown by the confidence she expresses within the actual songs.
Compared to E•MO•TION — which will be the active listening experience for many — Dedicated is a more emotionally incisive and insular album; smaller in scope, but no less polished.
Dedicated mostly sounds like a second helping of Emotion, which isn't such a bad thing.
Jepsen’s fourth album, Dedicated, is a carefully calibrated attempt at brand extension, reprising the effervescent pop of her last two albums while at the same time acknowledging that the 33-year-old is now a full-grown woman.
With all its polish and production, Dedication can sound less like an artistic benchmark and more like throwing gum drops at the ceiling to see which ones stick.
Even amongst the overabundance of drab, Carly Rae still shines through the cracks.
Dedicated plays it safe sonically and loses sight of the adventurous spirit of its predecessor.
As solid a collection as Dedicated undoubtedly is, it’s missing the magic that made Emotion such a cultural phenomenon.
There's a lot to love in Dedicated, but Jepsen tries to cover too [much] ground even if they follow similar song structures, to the point where it may bring some boredom.
The tunes are precision-tooled bursts of longing, but Jepsen is always most likely to catch when she’s at her most throwaway … But mostly it’s an album of creamy middles.
Before Release: DO NOT LISTEN TO THE LEAK CARLY NEEDS THE STREAMS im so sorry im like this ill try to be as objective as possible when i review this MASTERPIECE (srry)
Full Disclosure: I am completely obsessed with her like... it's kinda unhealthy. I just luv her so much, emotion is one of my favorite albums ever. It is so innocent, cute, retro and relatable, her voice is so sweet and hearing her sing makes me so happy !! The 80s synthpop direction is genius and just her mind is so powerful! ... read more
Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it!!!!!!!!!
There was no way that Carly Rae Jepsen was going to meet everyone’s expectations with “Dedicated”. “E•MO•TION” mythologised Jepsen as some unsung folk hero, worshipped by a newly-established cult whose increasingly performative praise felt more and more disingenuous as time passed, because ‘Jepsus’ herself has never been performative. So perhaps it’s no surprise that in “Dedicated”, she doesn’t bother to reach pople's ... read more
Yet another fun album from Carly. Worth a listen, especially for "Julien", "Now that I found you", and "Happy not knowing".
This album opened up my eyes to the wonder and potential of liking dance-pop. I honestly want to thank her for making one of my favorite albums in existence.
With that said though, am I the only Jepsie (or Jeppo) who did NOT like I'll Be Your Girl... there's no way it's better than Everything He Needs!
1 | Julien 3:54 | 88 |
2 | No Drug Like Me 3:28 | 88 |
3 | Now That I Found You 3:20 | 87 |
4 | Want You In My Room 2:46 | 89 |
5 | Everything He Needs 3:38 | 77 |
6 | Happy Not Knowing 2:41 | 81 |
7 | I'll Be Your Girl 2:58 | 80 |
8 | Too Much 3:17 | 84 |
9 | The Sound 2:51 | 76 |
10 | Automatically in Love 3:33 | 80 |
11 | Feels Right 2:43 feat. Electric Guest | 75 |
12 | Right Words Wrong Time 3:20 | 75 |
13 | Real Love 3:54 | 80 |
#5 | / | Slant Magazine |
#6 | / | Fresh Air: Ken Tucker |
#7 | / | Paste |
#9 | / | PEOPLE |
#10 | / | Albumism |
#11 | / | The Young Folks |
#13 | / | Idolator |
#20 | / | Billboard |
#20 | / | FLOOD |
#22 | / | The Wild Honey Pie |