"Want You in My Room" is a song by Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen from her fourth studio album, Dedicated. Jepsen wrote it with Tavish Crowe and its producer, Jack Antonoff. Conceived as a song about sex, the singer described it as her first to address the subject explicitly. Antonoff, whose vocals are featured on the track via vocoder, incorporated unconventional production choices such as shout-talking, a delayed saxophone solo, and a delayed fade-out, to create a playful and captivating energy. The song was released as the album's sixth and final single on May 17, 2019, the same day as the album's release.
Musically, "Want You in My Room" is a synth-pop song heavily inspired by 1980s music, in which the singer invites a romantic partner to join her in bed. Its lyrics have been described as among the most sexually suggestive of Jepsen's career and received considerable attention from critics.
Jepsen released a music video for the song in September, and a live version was included in her Spotify Singles EP in October 2019. "Want You in My Room" was named #32 on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2019.
Writing and production Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen wrote “Want You in My Room” with Jack Antonoff and Tavish Crowe; Antonoff also produced the track. Jepsen said the song began with a visual process she uses to write her albums, in which she arranges songs on poster boards and writes a word next to each one describing its subject. She wrote “Sex” next to “Want You in My Room”, and later explained that it was rare for her songs to be summarized so simply. The singer noted that although she had alluded to sex in her earlier music, “Want You in My Room” was arguably her most explicit song on the subject. She described it as the most direct song she had been involved in writing and performing. Musically, she drew inspiration from 1980s artists such as Squeeze and Cyndi Lauper, and considered the song an opportunity to explore a bold side of her personality that she typically reserves for private moments.
For her fourth studio album, Dedicated, Jepsen wanted to deviate from the typical Los Angeles pop songwriting scene and sought out Antonoff in New York, where they wrote “Want You in My Room”. Antonoff recalled that the song originated during one of their early writing sessions. Jepsen repurposed the pre-chorus from an earlier song she had worked on with Crowe called "Four Leaf Clover". Although she ultimately disliked the song, she saw potential in its melody, which Antonoff reworked to suit the new song's meaning. For "Want You in My Room", he experimented with a LinnDrum drum machine and a Binson tape echo, before the pair began playing guitar and exchanging vocals. The track took shape once he added a vocoder, which allowed him to deliver its lyrics using a persona he typically would not adopt. Antonoff attributed the song's playfulness to unusual production choices, saying that its unconventional beat encouraged them to experiment with shout-talking, a 1950s girl group influence, and other unexpected elements. He also added a belated saxophone solo intended to evoke singer David Bowie's song “Young Americans” (1975), which was played by Antonoff's Bleachers bandmate Evan Smith. Antonoff said he preferred the song's delayed fade-out to the contemporary emphasis on immediately capturing listeners' attention, noting that the timing of the fade-out gives the impression that the song continues beyond what is heard.
On collaborating with Antonoff for “Want You in My Room”, Jepsen described their dynamic as fun and experimental. She said that their friendship made him someone she felt comfortable sharing its potentially silly lyrics with to see whether they would work, and recalled both of them dancing and shouting as they exchanged lyrics with each other, until the song was finished. Although the pair wrote “an entire record’s worth of material” together, “Want You in My Room” was the only song they co-wrote that made the final track listing of the original album. However, Jepsen admitted that “Want You in My Room” nearly did not make the album altogether. Music and lyrics "Want You in My Room" is a pop, synth-pop, and electropop song, with 1980s-inspired production and instrumentation. The track is two minutes and forty-six seconds (2:46) in duration. Ellen Johnson of Paste felt that the song draws inspiration from virtually “every age of pop”, citing influences such as new wave, 1990s dance-pop, The Bangles, Daft Punk, and the latter's use of AutoTune, while Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine cited traces of pop rock. Built around a "sweeping" musical arrangement and "grinding" bassline, its introduction consists of bass and percussion instruments. Opening with drums, it employs "booming" synth drums, guitars, and electric guitars, ultimately ending with a saxophone solo and fade-out. The instrumental solo, according to Brodie Lancaster of The Saturday Paper, repurposes the saxophone that launched Jepsen's Emotion era, while Lucas Fagen of Hyperallergic said it "panders to received ideas about ‘80s retro". Daisy Jones of British GQ said “Want You in My Room”'s production exemplifies what music critics have dubbed "the Jack Antonoff sound”, and The Guardian's Laura Snapes found it reminiscent of his work on Lorde's "Hard Feelings/Loveless" (2017). Vocally, the song uses stacked harmonies and coy rapping to convey a lustful mood, which it shares with “Julien”, another track from Dedicated. Jepsen's “airy” vocals are echoed and accompanied by Antonoff's own vocoder-processed voice, giving the song the character of a duet. Jepsen's vocal performance on the track, which the artist herself described as shout-singing, has been noted as referencing the early work of Cyndi Lauper, whereas some compared her delivery to the early work of Madonna. Her layered, "breathy" vocals enhance the sensuality of the song. Halle Weber of the Cleveland Scene considered it the album's most light-hearted track.
According to Jepsen, the song's opening lyric compares the feeling of being obsessed with someone to a lighthouse beam, as thoughts of the person repeatedly leave the mind only to return moments later. "Want You in My Room" features sexually suggestive lyrics in which the singer invites a partner to join her in bed, which Paper's Brendan Wetmore described as a "pre-coital instruction manual". The singer herself described its lyrics as “very come hither”. Bluntly detailing the singer's desires, Jepsen addresses the subject directly rather than relying on the innuendo characteristic of some of her other songs, with lines such as “I wanna do bad things to you / Slide on through my window” and “I want you in my room / Baby, don’t you want me to?”. Variety's Rachel Seo considered the line "I’ll press you to the pages of my heart" as its "Modus operandi". Mary Siroky of Consequence described it's spoken chorus as "crunchy". Jepsen does not sing the titular line, which is instead performed by an electronic vocals reminiscent of Daft Punk. On the hook, "I want you in my room / On the bed, on the floor", she exchanges sexual demands with the robotic-style vocalist. Writing for The Saturday Paper, Daniel Herborn interpreted the song as being “about crushing but not a crush”, and Ana Monroy Yglesias of Grammy.com said that Jepsen pairs the song's influences with “lyrics about longing to get a little closer to your crush”.
Some critics focused heavily on the song's sexual lyrics, with Carl Wilson of Slate suggesting that had Jepsen released it as a single earlier, the song “might have dispelled some of the virginal-flirt associations that still linger round your name”. Rolling Stone considered it “her most directly sexual song to date”, and Claire Lobenfeld of Jezebel called it "one of her most lyrically salacious tracks to date". Lancaster found it ironic that the song's sexual lyrics had become such a talking point, given that the album was written and performed by an adult woman, theorizing, "perhaps it’s that Jepsen’s repertoire of high-energy songs about crushes and break-ups have locked her into a state of perpetual adolescence". Emily Miller of The Daily Princetonian described the song as an anthem of agency, saying that "Want You in My Room" exemplifies Jepsen's broader pattern of being “someone who knows what she wants and goes after it”.
Critical reception "Want You in My Room" received acclaim from music critics. Around the time of its release, several publications such as Complex included "Want You in My Room" on lists of notable songs. In May 2019, Paste named it one of the 15 best songs of the month, while Chris Azzopardi of QSaltLake declared it “Song of the Summer”. The week of its release, Michael Love Michael of Paper named it one of "10 Songs You Need to Start Your Weekend Right", calling it a "pre-Pride Month, sex positive anthem". On May 17, Raisa Bruner of Time included it among "5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Weekend", writing that “You can feel how much fun she’s having”. In July, Stereogum nominated it for consideration in its ranking, where it placed ninth.
It has been described by The Independent as Dedicateds "most distinctive [song], both vocally and melodically" and Mother Jones named it the second best song on the album. NME praised the track's "brazen lyrics" and "jubilant instrumentation". Several critics, such as John Murphy of MusicOMH, deemed "Want You in My Room" a highlight of the album, and also called it "one of those songs that instantly cheers you up, no matter what mood you’re in". Alex Robert Ross of The Fader named the song an album highlight that demonstrates the singer's "ability to articulate emotional extremes". Brodie Lancaster of The Saturday Paper called it a highlight, and Ed Condran of The News & Observer identified it as the album's standout track. James Rettig of Stereogum considered it one of the best songs Jepsen had released, while Luis Paez-Pumar of Defector considered it as good as any song on Emotion. AllMusic's Heather Phares said the song "proves that Jepsen is still second to none at crafting pop songs that are infectious precisely because they're so quirky". Writing for the Miami New Times, Patricia Cárdenas called it "one of the most impressive compositions in her entire catalog and proof of her craft as a pop songwriter".
Antonoff's production was also the subject of commentary. Anna Gaca of Pitchfork called it scene-stealing, and George Fenwick of The New Zealand Herald called it a banger and "a pleasantly weird Jack Antonoff collaboration". Cárdenas described his production as captivating and spellbinding. Grace Robins-Somerville of Stereogum, who expressed mixed opinions of Antonoff's work overall, said that “Want You in My Room” was one of the occasions when he “occasionally hits the nail on the head”. Similarly, Kish Lal of The Sydney Morning Herald called it “a rare sonic success” for the producer.
In a more negative review from Consequence of Sound, the song was criticized for the "childlike tone" paired with sexual content. Lindsay Zoladz of The Ringer felt that on songs such as “Want You in My Room”, Jepsen's vocals and overall presence were obscured by excessive production and vocal effects.
After its release, "Want You in My Room" has become a fan favourite. It has made the list of Top 50 Songs of 2019 compiled by Pitchfork readers. The song was also selected as one of the best tracks of 2019 by a number of The Guardian journalists. Paste ranked it the 13th-best song of 2019 out of 50, while Rolling Stone ranked it the 32nd best song of 2019. Rachel Seo of Variety ranked the song as Jepsen's third-best, and Ellen Johnson of Paste ranked it fifth. The Guardian ranked it her eigth-best song. In 2024, Mary Siroky of Consequence ranked “Want You in My Room” as the 21st-best song produced by Antonoff.
Year-end lists