Curiosity

This article is about Curiosity, the unreleased album; for other uses, see Curiosity (Disambiguation)

CuriosityUnreleased album
Overview
Artist	Carly Rae Jepsen
Released	February 14th 2012 ⊺
Recorded	2010 - 2011
Genre	Teen-pop • folk • pop-folk
Label	604 Records
Singles
1. Call Me Maybe Released: September 20th 2011
Album Chronology
Previous	Dear You Unreleased 2004 EP
Next	Third studio album Scrapped 2013 album

Curiosity was originally intended as Carly Rae Jepsen's sophomore studio album, before it would be cut down to a six track extended-play.

The album was intended to release on February 14th 2012 through 604 Records exclusively in Canada.

Track listing

Standard track listing

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Curiosity	Ryan Stewart	3:26
2.	Talk To Me	Ryan Stewart	2:51
3.	Call Me Maybe	Josh Ramsay	3:13
4.	Both Sides Now	Ryan Stewart	3:51
5.	Just a Step Away	Ryan Stewart	3:46
6.	Lost and Found	Ryan Stewart*	3:23
7.	Picture	Ryan Stewart	3:04
8.	Alice In Wonderland	Ryan Stewart*	2:27
9.	Dear Julien	Kevin James Maher*	3:16
10.	Europe	Ryan Stewart	N/A
11.	Angels	Ryan Stewart	3:45

Writing and development

Development as My Beating Heart

Since the release of her first album, Tug of War, in 2008, Jepsen would continue writing new music and by the beginning of 2010 would have a total of 55 songs written.

These songs would be considered by Jepsen for her next project, which had began to materialize in January 2010 with Ryan Stewart, at the time seemingly under the original working title of My Beating Heart. Jepsen would continue working on the project under its original title as late as March and July 2010.

The original concept for Jepsen's second album was to continue in the same direction as Tug of War, pulling from 'cozy folk-pop' influences such as of Natalie Imbruglia. That was until the project's new title track, Curiosity, was written sometime in early 2010 or earlier, though it's unclear when the decision was made to rename the project.

Curiosity and new project direction

Curiosity, the song, would largely inspire the new pop direction the album was heading in. Jepsen states the song had 'come rushing out differently' and was decidedly 'very bubble-gum pop', a notable shift from the folk inspirations of her previous work and early material written for the new album.

Over the course of eight months in 2010, Jepsen questioned how the song was going to fit onto the album. She 'thought about it constantly', wondering if she could take on the new direction, and had been wrestling with the idea alongside Ryan Stewart. Jepsen eventually concluded that the project feature both pop and folk influences in equal parts, and described it as a 'pop-folk collaboration.'

Jepsen states the title of the album represented how she was 'curious' about trying something new, which is how the name was decided upon. 'For me, the title has a double meaning.' As of January 2011, the album had gone through three different name changes.

Development through 2010 - 2011

Throughout 2010, the project remained in development and Jepsen would begin to tease songs such as Alice In Wonderland and Katie's Kicking in the Corner through social media. Similarly in 2011, Jepsen would work with Canadian songwriters Tino Zolfo and Joe Cruz on writing and recording new material for the project. Jepsen and Stewart would also meet in the studio multiple times that year to work on the album. In September 2011, mixing on the last song of the album would be completed.

Jepsen states a total of 35 songs were written for the project, with most of the record made at Ryan Stewart's Wine Cellar Studios in Vancouver, then mixed by Dave Ogilvie at Mushroom Studios. Similarly, Jepsen described she had 'at least three album's worth' of material written for Curiosity, and had let her friends and family pick which ones made the final cut for the album during a listening party she organised.

Announcement and release

Original release and delay into 2012

Jepsen originally planned to release her then-second studio album on Valentine's Day in 2011, which ultimately ended up not materialising. In 2012, Jepsen explained she was 'a little nervous' following-up Tug of War and about 'the idea of the sophomore being a little less-than because it's so rushed.' She stated, 'I wanted to give myself the time to not feel that pressure'.

Another set of plans saw Jepsen hoping to release the first single from the album for Valentine's Day in 2011, with the album to follow 'soon after', though this likewise failed to come to pass. Ultimately, Curiosity would be delayed a year later until February 14th 2012 and release as the reformatted extended-play instead.

Album announcement

Curiosity was first announced by Jepsen as her second studio album on January 12th 2012 via Twitter, after being teased earlier that day. On January 24th 2012, Curiosity was made available for pre-order through iTunes Canada, where preview snippets for the tracks would be also be listed for a short time.

As of 2021, this the only instance where the studio versions of the cut songs are known to have existed for public consumption. Of these songs, Europe is the only track not to be performed live by Jepsen and is considered completely lost. Likewise, Dear Julien is the only song to have its iTunes snippet surface online.

Album scrapped and reformatted

Curiosity, the album, would be cut down to just six tracks by Jepsen's label 604 Records and reformatted into an extended-play sometime prior to its intended release date. It appears the decision was made at the very last minute, as even the day before it was set to release 604 Records had advertised the project as an album still; in a follow-up Tweet made minutes later, Curiosity was now listed as an EP instead.

Later in 2015, Jepsen revealed that the album was scrapped due to the rising popularity of Call Me Maybe, which at the time was only planned to release as part of the album exclusively in Canada. 'I was planning to put out my second release. We had this whole album ready to go. Then, the song took off, and everyone funnelled in with, 'Do you want to come down to LA and meet some writers here?'

'It was my dream to do that, so I threw all those songs into the abyss and went and started new. I had the security blanket that if I didn’t write anything I loved, I could go back and release bits of that album.' Ultimately, Curiosity would remain scrapped as, in Los Angeles, Jepsen would instead work on her then-upcoming second studio album Kiss, released in September 2012.

Singles

Call Me Maybe

The only single from the album, Call Me Maybe, was released on September 20th, 2011 through 604 Records exclusively in Canada and would serve as the intended lead single for the project. After the release of the now-reformatted extended play, Jepsen was signed to School Boy and Interscope Records in February 2012, who distributed the song worldwide as the lead single for her new second studio album Kiss instead.

Album credits

Writing and production

• Written by:
• Produced by:

Performance

Technical

Overview credits

Album cover credits

Navigation

Discography

Curiosity

References