How Carly Rae Found New Love And A New Sound

Her upcoming album is full of sparkling, openhearted dance pop. All it took was four years, a breakup and 200 songs.

- Brittany Spanos

‘You have to promise you won’t think I’m a maniac,” Carly Rae Jepsen says, sitting in the living room of her Spanish-style home on L.A.’s east side. A devilish grin spreads across her face as she jumps offa plush blue couch and runs to the dining room. When she returns, she’s clutching a few large, sturdy poster boards.

On the largest — scrawled in different colors and surrounded by a bouquet of Post it notes — are the titles of nearly 200 songs Jepsen wrote for Dedicated, her fourth album (due May 17th). Her latest tracklist is on the smallest board. That one is a mere two dozen or so songs.