After All

Release date: Jul 16, 2026

Genre: Dance Pop/Pop Soul

Label: School Boy/Interscope Records

After “On Wires” kicked off Carly Rae Jepsen’s huge comeback, she has now released the second single, “After All,” and somehow pushed my anticipation for the album even higher. “On Wires” already is a triumphant return, but “After All” opens up a completely different part of this new era. It is lush, dreamy, fresh, and almost impossibly pretty. Knowing this will be the first track on Side A makes it even more exciting. If this is how the album begins, I genuinely cannot imagine where she is taking us next.

The whole song shimmers. Carly reflects on the life she has built as a spouse and parent through little flashes of terracotta colors, fireworks at midnight, and coastal views. It has this soft chillwave glow running underneath it, as if you are driving beside the ocean after the sun has already gone down. Then the song keeps expanding until it reaches this huge, bright finale. It is exactly the kind of track that will suddenly sound even better two months from now, playing outside on a warm summer night.

I also kind of intentionally kept “On Wires” to the side because I thought she might use the first two singles to tease both sides of the album. Apparently, wishful thinking. So yes, I guess we really do have to wait another 60 days to find out what the other side sounds like. At least she has now given us two songs to obsess over while we wait.

Blog Date: Jul 17, 2026