Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Take A Picture”: Hear The Crowdsourced Summer Song

Sam Lansky | May 16, 2013 9:36 am

Well! Fairytale princess Carly Rae Jepsen premiered her new single “Take a Picture” last night on American Idol. Here’s the good news: This means that Carly Rae Jepsen has a new single. Here’s the bad news: This provides less opportunity for her to promote her objectively flawless track “Tonight I’m Getting Over You,” which peaked at the blistering heights of #8 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, so everything is hopeless and there is no joy left in the world. (If it’s any consolation, Wikipedia reports that the song “has become a top ten hit in Belgium.” Sigh.)

But this is a story about “Take a Picture,” not “Tonight I’m Getting Over You,” so here goes: “Take a Picture” may not be as good as “Tonight I’m Getting Over You,” but it’s still pretty good, especially considering that it was cobbled together from the Facebook statuses of random Canadians and recorded on a Pinterest board, or whatever. (Much hay was made of the fact that the song was “crowdsourced” via fan vote for Coca-Cola’s Perfect Harmony campaign, meaning viewers got to vote on their favorite lyrics, which were then recorded in the final song.) So “Picture” is bright and summery, but it sounds more like an album track from Jepsen’s excellent Kiss than anything that could rival the success of “Call Me Maybe.”

Ah, well. I’m moving to Brussels.

Listen to the full studio version of the song below. (It hits retailers May 21.)