Carly Rae Jepsen - Day and Night
Carly Rae Jepsen invites listeners on a nearly 90-minute romantic adventure with her eighth studio album, Day and Night.
Carly Rae Jepsen has long since become something of a veteran of the pop scene, largely thanks to her 2015 album Emotion, which became a cult favorite within the pop community and established a blueprint for countless releases that followed. The decade since has been an exceptionally productive one for the artist: alongside Dedicated and The Loneliest Time, fans were also treated to full-length companion albums for both records. Carly herself refers to these releases as B-sides, though they turned out to be every bit as good as — and in many ways even better than — their primary counterparts. In 2026, however, Carly decided to bring the two worlds together: Day and Night is a double album whose first half is softer and more subdued, while the second leans into dance-pop and pure exhilaration.
The first half opens with the tender sophisti-pop of “After All”, a song carried by a gentle breeze from the Mediterranean coast. Overflowing with affection, Carly sounds positively angelic here. On “Habits of Creatures” and “Versailles”, she lists all the things she would love to do with her significant other, filling both songs with an almost palpable sense of longing. Much of Day and Night feels like a romantic comedy: scenes from an imaginary movie seem to materialize in your head as you listen.
One of the finest tracks on the entire album is the lead single “On Wires”, an explosive rush of a song that delivers the same euphoric high as some of Carly’s greatest cuts, like “Run Away With Me” and “Psychedelic Switch”. “I want you, you, you,” she howls in the chorus, and suddenly you’re being launched straight into outer space.
Nearby sits another album highlight, the gorgeous “Burning Heart”, which recalls the breezy romantic pop hits of the 2000s. Carly slips in a sweet nod to the romantic film Thelma & Louise before the track plunges into a mind-bending saxophone solo. But Day and Night isn’t solely concerned with love: heartbreak makes an appearance on “Something Tragic”, where Carly sounds cold and distant as she looks back on how good the relationship once was — and how tragically it came to an end.
The Night half kicks off with the dancefloor-ready “Never Let a Good Thing Die”, a nu-disco-inspired track that feels like getting ready for a night out: you’re picking an outfit, ordering a cab, and the evening already seems destined to be a good one. The crown jewel of this side is “Amalfi Coast”, a mesmerizing psychedelic number in the vein of Magdalena Bay’s “Image”. Despite clocking in at just under three minutes, it pulls you into a trance almost instantly, leaving you desperate to hit repeat.
“Don’t Leave Me on a Dancefloor” can inspire the same rush of euphoria as ABBA’s finest hits, while “Near or Far” sounds as though it escaped straight from Madonna’s CONFESSIONS II. “Motivation”, meanwhile, may remind some listeners of Robin S.’s now-iconic “Show Me Love”. Across the second half, Carly pays tribute to the legends of dance music while making plenty of room for the genre’s modern heroes.
Still, not everything on this album shines. The biggest issue is its sheer length. There’s a lingering feeling that Carly might have been better off releasing these as two separate albums. Despite her consistently charming delivery and the spectacular production, the record starts to wear you down toward the end. Trim the tracklist from 24 songs to around 18, and the whole thing would feel considerably fresher and more focused.
Even with Day and Night feeling somewhat bloated by the final stretch, it remains a good record. Carly’s lyrics are still as catchy as ever, the production sounds significantly more polished and expensive, and the album genuinely feels like the soundtrack to a romantic movie. Carly is overflowing with love — and she’s more than ready to share it with her listeners.
7.4/10
