Carly Rae “Call Me ‘Call Me Maybe'” Jepsen has done the unthinkable. She’s followed up the most indelible hit of Summer 2012 with a sparkly, rainbow-colored pop confection that might, just might stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her first enormous hit. Is it as undeniable as “Call Me Maybe”? Or is it just a hot flash of Nutrasweet that’s quickly forgotten as soon as it’s over? Here’s the kind of nutzoid note C.Jep posted on her site about it. (Muddy Waters??)
One million music critics are currently clogging the webs as we speak with their hot takes on “I Really Like You,” but a song like this is for the people, so that’s what I did: asked a whole bunch of people what they thought. After the jump, we’ve got the initial impressions of Mercury staffers and writers upon hearing Jepsen’s “I Really Like You” for the first time. Let it forever stand as the definitive word on the subject.
(As for me? I think the song is like eating a 41-ounce bag of Skittles in one sitting. At first life seems really great and sweet and colorful, then things go horribly, terribly wrong. The hookline of the chorus is a lyric-writing fail of such egregious proportions that I just… can’t… get past it. Then again, I’m somebody who used the phrases “lyric-writing fail” and “egregious proportions” in talking about the new CRJ song. So enough from me, obviously—what do the people actually think?)
• Wm. Steven Humphrey, Editor in Chief: “I really, really, really, really, really, really like it. Really. No, REALLY! I MEAN REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LIKE IT!!! (Like for really.)”
• Bobby Roberts, Calendar Editor: “Two images flash into my mind as the chorus to this song begins playing: 1) The closing credits of some generic kids film starring anthropomorphic lovesick puppies or something. 2) Taylor Swift, as the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman, clenching her fist and snarling, ‘Where does she get these wonderful hooks?'”
• Campy Draper, Account Executive: “I like the song, I just can’t tell how she feels about the song’s intended subject.”
• Joe Davis, Production Manager: “Shit. [My son] Owen still sings ‘Friday Friday gotta get down on Friday’ when he brushes his teeth on Friday mornings. This is really really really really really really really really not going to help.”
• Erik Henriksen, Senior Editor: “It’s no Katy. To be fair nothing is Katy except Katy.”
• James Deeley, Advertising Director: “This song sounds like waffle cones and Cabriolets. People that hate on it are predictably boring.”
• Suzette Smith, Office Manager: “Huh. Carly Rae Jepsen has energized a story about watching TV with someone and the process of waiting until they’re done with TV and want to fuck. I imagine CRJ bouncing around on the couch next to a zombified hook-up partner. It’s kind of a bleak zone to write such a fun song about. This song also reminds me of Donna Lewis’ ‘I Love You Always Forever.'”
• Tonya Ray, Sales Operation Manager: “To me it says: I really really really really really really should never shop at Forever 21. Ever.”
• Anna Nelson, Account Executive: “I don’t like it, but probably because I just got dumped.”
• Justin “Scrappers” Morrison, Art Director: “My mom will happily pound the steering wheel of her Lexus to this song while stuck in traffic singing along.”
• Mark Lore, Contributing Writer: “I really, really, really, really, really, really think I heard this on the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 in 1986. It’s stupid, like most good pop music should be.”
• Courtney Ferguson, Copy Chief: “Lisa Frank made a song!”
• Katie Peifer, Senior Account Executive: “It’s catchy as hell and I have no shame in admitting that I like it on the first listen, but once it’s inevitably everywhere this summer it’s going to get really really really annoying.”
• Megan Burbank, Arts Editor: “Okay, so I actually kind of love how literal Carly Rae Jepson’s lyrics are. There’s something so pleasing about a song that could actually paraphrase every other pop song on the radio right now, because its refrain is ‘I (infinite really reallys) like you.’ I mean, how nice. How simple. I know some people probably prefer their pop Sia-style, with bleak undertones that are readily apparent if you listen to the lyrics, but this is pop in its purest, most stupid-happy form, and, I don’t know, maybe I don’t need to hear about binge-eating Twinkies and going out, forlorn, to sex clubs. Or hanging from chandeliers. Also, it sounds like Garfunkel and Oates + M83 production, but 100 times more dumb than that would actually be. So that’s pretty great.”
• Morgan Troper, Contributing Writer: “Absolutely brilliant in its stupidity, and an obvious nod to T. Swift’s ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.’ It’s a terrific pop song perfectly emblematic of the blind spot in between actually loving someone and just really (really, really, really, really, really) liking them.”
• Nick Olmstead, Editorial Designer: “Even the summer jams are coming early this year…. Is there a parody song called ‘Call Me Gravy’? I really, really, really, really, really, really, like b&g [biscuits and gravy]. I’m hungry.”
• Bri Brey, Reader Services and Social Media Director: “Bury it before my roommate finds it.”
• Robert Thompson, Publisher: “Get back to work!”
I like it. The chorus is clever in a way. Like on Family Guy when they drag a joke out till it’s not funny anymore, then they just keep flogging until the repetition IS the joke. So it becomes funny again. The chorus makes me smile.