Carly Rae Jepsen - Disco Sweat (2016)

'Disco Sweat' was originally conceived by Carly Rae Jepsen as early as October 2015, during a really prolific writing phase she was going through after the release of that year's 'E•MO•TION' album. The project was envisioned as an understated, dreamy, sexy disco type of sound, inspired by the likes of ABBA, the Bee Gees, Feist, and Donna Summer. In June 2016 Jepsen worked with musician Dev Hynes to record and produce the original demos that she'd written on tour, and later in the year she took a trip to Sweden to work on new material for the project, as she was eager to meet Swedish songwriter and producer Patrik Berger, being a fan of his work on Robyn's 2010 song 'Dancing On My Own'. Whilst in Sweden, she also worked with 'E•MO•TION' collaborators Mattman and Robin, Shellback, and Rami Yacoub, developing seven or eight new song ideas. While working on the project, Berger felt that the disco influence was too constraining, and he advised her to 'open the doors to everything', and after their discussion, Jepsen and Berger wrote 'For Sure' together, alongside fellow Swedish songwriters Pontus Winnberg and Noonie Bao, foreshadowing the new direction that her next album 'Dedicated' would take. In August 2016, she attended a writers camp in Maderas Village, Nicaragua, and this led to her reworking the original 'Disco Sweat' demo of 'Julien' into the version that was included on 'Dedicated', along the way inspiring the new direction that the album would take. From this point on, 'Disco Sweat' was scrapped and work commenced in earnest on what would later become the 'Dedicated' album. Some songs from the initial 'Disco Sweat' sessions would later be reworked for 'Dedicated' and its companion 'Dedicated Side B' albums between 2016 and 2019, such as 'Julien' and 'This Is What They Say', but ultimately 'Disco Sweat' was no more. According to reputable insiders, the album was in a rough state, not making it past initial production, and there are only about three tracks could actually be considered disco in genre, but we know that 'Disco Sweat', 'Disco Darling' (a reworking of 'Hungry Heart'), 'Tenderly', 'Ricochet', and 'No You' were all recorded during the sessions, and there are also leaks of tracks from the albums before and after those 2016 recordings, so by adding in some of those which fit the feel of the other songs we can hear what the album could have sounded like before it was re-worked into 'Dedicated'. 

Track listing

01 Disco Sweat  
02 Very Best Friend (I Woke Up With My Bestfriend) 
03 I Believe You 
04 Still In The Game 
05 Tenderly
06 Bullseye
07 Disco Darling
08 No You

09 Addict
10 Ricochet
11 Black Light
12 Favourite Night
13 Feel Fine