And perhaps her relative obscurity is part of her queer appeal. Perhaps it's because these are particular queer pleasures. Though the album was the subject of several breathless Pitchfork features and made countless year-end best-of lists, it still remained that album that my straight friends kept 'meaning to listen to.' 'Boy Problems' is a shimmering, shoulder-shimmying send-off bop whose accompanying Petra Collins video is cute and campy with that gauzy, of-the-moment aesthetic (which would later get Collins recruited to shoot campaigns for Gucci). 'Your Type' is a sexy, heartbreaking jam that dares you not to you to mouth its lyrics while giving it your all on a sweaty dance floor. TION, is a piece of pop perfection: smart, earnest, synth-y and New Wave-y but also cutting-edge.Her second album, Kiss, is fun, if not mostly fluff. I didn't understand why they didn't get it. The border agent seemed just as confused when we told him who we were crossing into the United States to see. My straight friends didn't know her music beyond 'Call Me Maybe.' They thought it was odd that three other homos and I would schlep to Detroit for her concert because her only Toronto show was opening for Hedley (yes, that Hedley) at the Air Canada Centre. I only realized that Carly Rae Jepsen was a queer icon after discovering that she was not 'straight famous' - that is, as central to the rest of the world as she was to me and my friends.
