It’s been almost three years since Carly Rae Jepsen’s viral musical meet-cute “Call Me Maybe” took over the world, but the Canadian singer-songwriter wanted her next move to be worth the wait. “I told her that she couldn’t come out with anything unless it was on the level of ‘Call Me Maybe,'” manager Scooter Braun, told Billboard in January. “And, now we have a new one that is on that level.”
Whether he’s right will depend on how many YouTube parodies, celebrity sing-alongs and Obama supercuts emerge in the next few weeks. But even if “Call Me Maybe” is the kind of song that comes along only once in an artist’s career, “I Really Like You” comes pretty damn close: Over chilly synthesizers and a danceable beat pulled from a 1980s time capsule, Jepsen outlines the familiar early stages of infatuation — fretting over saying the wrong thing, anxiously waiting for the other person to make mov — before launching into another irresistible chorus.
After showing the world she could be more than a one-hit wonder with Kiss, her crush-worthy collection of flirtatious synth-pop, Jepsen proves she’s still the patron saint of anybody who’s wasted an evening staring at a phone, waiting for a text back.
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com