Carly Rae Jepsen, a Top 40 staple at this point in her career, covered Wham!’s holiday classic “Last Christmas” just in time for cold weather and winter holidays.
The song is mostly upbeat and poppy, just like the original by Wham!, but Jepsen has definitely added her own modern flair to it. The backing instrumentals, largely synth-based, are noticeably different from the 1980s holiday song, as is the saxophone that is present on and off during the run of the song. The three and a half minute track is a refreshing spin on “Last Christmas,” largely due to the fact that Jepsen makes the song her own rather than trying too hard to stay true to the original. As Spin noted, the cover track “wouldn’t have been out of place in an alternate-universe version of Wham!’s original, nor on a deluxe version of Jepsen’s softly neon-hued sophomore album.” Listen to her rendition below.
Jepsen released her aforementioned sophomore album, Emotion, in September 2015. In addition to radio hit “I Really Like You,” the LP featured 11 other songs. She has released music videos for two of them: “Your Type” most recently and, before that, “Run Away With Me,” for which she gave fans a fun interactive video.
Another track featured on Emotion is “All That,” which Jepsen co-wrote with Dev Hynes of Blood Orange and songwriter Ariel Rechtshaid. Jepsen and Hynes performed the song together live earlier in November at Irving Plaa in New York City. Emotion isn’t even the only album the pop star has worked on this year – she is also one of several female singers featured on Bleachers’ re-release of their debut, for which they had female artists cover each track. Others included on that album are Sara Bareilles, Tinashe and MØ.
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