My straight friends didn't know her music beyond "Call Me Maybe." They thought it was odd that three other homos and I would schlep to Detroit for her concert because her only Toronto show was opening for Hedley (yes, that Hedley) at the Air Canada Centre. The border agent seemed just as confused when we told him who we were crossing into the United States to see. I didn't understand why they didn't get it. Her second album, Kiss, is fun, if not mostly fluff. TION, is a piece of pop perfection: smart, earnest, synth-y and New Wave-y but also cutting-edge."Your Type" is a sexy, heartbreaking jam that dares you not to you to mouth its lyrics while giving it your all on a sweaty dance floor. Though the album was the subject of several breathless Pitchfork features and made countless year-end best-of lists, it still remained that album that my straight friends kept "meaning to listen to." "Boy Problems" is a shimmering, shoulder-shimmying send-off bop whose accompanying Petra Collins video is cute and campy with that gauzy, of-the-moment aesthetic (which would later get Collins recruited to shoot campaigns for Gucci).
Perhaps it's because these are particular queer pleasures. Gay men love an underdog: a pop star who's struggled publicly (think Britney, Kesha) or one who they feel has been mismanaged by their label (Tinashe, Ciara).Īnd perhaps her relative obscurity is part of her queer appeal.
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It seemed clear that Carly's management didn't seem to know how to market this post-"Call Me Maybe" version of her.