Singer Carly Rae Jepsen is having a hard time choosing the best of the 100 songs she has written for her new album.
The Call Me Maybe hitmaker hasn’t released a full album since her third studio effort, Emotion, reached fans in 2015, but devotees may have to wait longer than anticipated, because although she has plenty of material, Carly is struggling to decide what direction to go in with her fourth album.
“I am still in the thick of it,” she tells People when asked if her new album will be released this year. “It’s definitely starting to take shape, but it’s always been my process to really write and experiment and allow myself to go in a bunch of different directions before I select the songs that seem to be sticking out the best or seem to be connecting with not just me, but my bandmates and my family and friends.”
Carly performed on a Carnival Cruise as part of the Carnival LIVE Concert Series in February and she used the trip to pick and choose which tracks should make the album.
“Late night on the ship’s deck… after the show we went and sat out on the patio, and the boys and I went through a listening party of something like 100 songs – to start to narrow down our favorites,” she recalls. “I find them to be extremely helpful in that because it’s hard to have perspective when you’ve just been in the studio for so long and working so hard with it; it’s great to have friends who care and are invested enough to give their opinions and help narrow it down.”
Meanwhile, fans are still raving about Carly’s appearance on Charli XCX’s song Backseat and the Canadian singer couldn’t be happier about the collaboration, admitting she has harbored a huge “creative crush” on the British songwriter for years.
“Everyone that we knew that had written with both of us was kind of urging us together at some point because they thought a collaboration made a lot of sense,” she smiles, revealing the song only took a week to create.
“It was a really rushed but exciting project!” Carly gushes.