Carly Rae Jepsen’s Day and Night is half a great album

REVIEW Carly Rae Jepsen’s Day and Night is half a great album BRAD WHEELER PUBLISHED 4 HOURS AGO Open this photo in gallery: While the pop-filled first half of Carly Rae Jepsen's Day and Night is quite marvelous, the less innovative disco disc doesn’t always meet that standard, Brad Wheeler writes. DAVID ARDILL/SUPPLIED COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Cole Porter’s Night and Day famously begins oddly: just one note, repeated 35 times over the first eight bars of the 1932 number that is now a pop standard. The persistence sets the tone on the song about an all-consuming love. Carly Rae Jepsen’s eighth album, Day and Night, also has a one-note quality. Over the course of 24 songs and 85 minutes, a dreamy romantic bliss rarely subsides. There are pop hooks for days on the first 12 songs and club beats to dance the night away on the second dozen. “Lock the door, dim the lights, it’s a celebration,” Jepsen coos on the first track, After All, a sublime bit of 1990s-era British house-pop. “I am yours, you are mine, nothing complicated.” On the bass-driven Soft, Jepsen sets an intoxicating groove for a party of two or 200: “The night looks good, the music’s feeling… soft." Jepsen, 14 years after her breakout hit Call Me Maybe, is having a moment. Later this month she headlines (with Zara Larsson, Brandi Carlile, Lola Young and pop band MUNA) the New York stop of the female-centric All Things Go festival. The 40-year-old British Columbian, who in 2014 appeared in the Broadway musical Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, is the co-composer of the new Broadway musical 10 Things I Hate About You, based on the 1999 film. Girls creator/actress Lena Dunham and playwright Jessica Huang are writing the book for a production scheduled for 2027. And, most relevant to the new album, Jepsen fell in love with one of the album’s producers, Cole M.G.N., whom she married last year. This spring she gave birth to a boy. Bryan Adams gets patriotic with new album, plus more music coming up At Massey Hall, Sara Bareilles walked audiences through her grief – and shepherded them through their own Day and Night is half a great effort. While the pop-filled first half is quite marvelous, the less innovative disco disc doesn’t always meet that standard. Lead single On Wires is about the early days of a relationship and a request for a hint of commitment: “Gimme a look,…