''The Loveliest Time'' is the seventh studio album by Canadian singer

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

, released on July 28, 2023, by

604 __NOTOC__ Year 604 ( DCIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 604 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe f ...

, Schoolboy and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

. It serves as a companion piece to '' The Loneliest Time'' (2022), featuring songs from recording sessions for that album. The album was preceded by the lead single "

Shy Boy "Shy Boy" is a 1982 song recorded by the English girl group Bananarama which was written and produced by the production team of Steve Jolley and Tony Swain and marked the first in a long line of studio collaborations between them and Bananarama ...

Background

In February 2020, while embarking on

The Dedicated Tour The Dedicated Tour was the third concert tour by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. Launched in support of her fourth studio album, '' Dedicated'' (2019), the tour began on 23 May 2019 in Stockholm and traveled across North America, Europe, Asia ...

, Jepsen began collecting ideas for her sixth studio album. Her creativity was stimulated by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, prompting her to transform an old office space in her

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residence into a home studio. The recording sessions for what would become '' The Loneliest Time'' produced over 65 B-sides, which Jepsen told her A&R representative that she "could make something of." In July 2023, nine months after the release of ''The Loneliest Time'', Jepsen confirmed that a "B-side" companion album would be released. The singer previously released "B-side" albums '' Emotion: Side B'' and ''

Dedicated Side B ''Dedicated Side B'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen. It serves as a companion piece to '' Dedicated'' (2019), her fourth studio album. It was released on May 21, 2020, by 604 Records in Canada, and Schoolboy and In ...

'', which featured songs recorded during sessions for their respective "A-side" albums. In an interview with ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', Jepsen explained the decision to make another "B-side" album without including it in the album title:

Composition and themes

The project featured production credits from

Rostam Batmanglij Rostam Batmanglij (, ; born November 28, 1983), known mononymously as Rostam, is an American musician, producer and songwriter. He was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend, whose first three albums he produced. He has been described by ...

and James Ford. Batmanglij shared that the material he had contributed was upbeat, tweeting, "The two we did for ''The Loveliest Time'' have

BPMs Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business pr ...

—get ready to dance." Jepsen said that the album was "sort of the completion to ''The Loneliest Time''", adding that the songs were inspired by "fantasies" about being able to "travel again and fall madly in love and live life like it's an adventure."

Critical reception

''The Loveliest Time'' received a score of 79 out of 100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

based on 8 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Kate Solomon of the ''

The i Paper ''The i Paper'', known as ''i'' until December 2024, is a British national newspaper published in London by Daily Mail and General Trust and distributed across the United Kingdom. It is aimed at "readers and lapsed readers" of all ages and c ...

'' called the album "really cohesive, exciting and very, very fun". Steve Erickson of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' said the "more joyful, vibrant songs" act as a "sonic and thematic counterpoint" to '' The Loneliest Time,'' but claimed that the album is "less consistent" than Jepsen's 2020 release ''

''. ''

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''s Harry Tafoya wrote that "where ''The Loneliest Time'' was steeped in personal loss and pandemic malaise, ''The Loveliest'' is strutting and extroverted, drunk off new love and bracingly direct about desire", calling it "a solid counterpart to its sister album". Upon the album's release, the song "Psychedelic Switch" was featured as ''Pitchfork''s "Best New Track".

Track listing

Notes

* "

" contains an interpolation of "

Midas Touch Midas (; ) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. His father was Gordias, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek m ...

" by Midnight Star, written by Boaz Watson and June Williams.

Personnel

Musicians

– vocals (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 2, 7, 8, 13) * Patrik Berger –

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

(1, 11), drums (1), keyboards (4, 6, 11) * Elliot Bergman – horn (1) * Markus Krunegård – programming (1) *

Jakob Hazell Jack & Coke (formerly known as SeventyEight) is a Swedish production and songwriting team consisting of Svante Halldin and Jakob Hazell. They have produced and written songs for artists such as Rita Ora, Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Nick Jonas and Hayley ...

– bass guitar, drums, keyboards, programming (2) *

Svante Halldin Jack & Coke (formerly known as SeventyEight) is a Swedish production and songwriting team consisting of Svante Halldin and Jakob Hazell. They have produced and written songs for artists such as Rita Ora, Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Nick Jonas and Hayley ...

– bass guitar, drums, keyboards, programming (2) *

– drum programming, percussion, synthesizer (3, 7);

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

, strings (3); synth bass (7) *

Angel Deradoorian Angel Deradoorian (born July 18, 1986), also known mononymously as Deradoorian, is a musician based in Los Angeles, California. She is best known for her work with Dirty Projectors as full-time member from 2007 to 2012. She left to pursue a solo ...

– background vocals (3) * Joey Messina-Doerning – piano (3) * Jesper Nordenström – keyboards (4, 6, 11) * Cristoffer Cantillo – drums (4), percussion (11) * James Ford – bass guitar, drums, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer (5) *

Rob Moose Rob Moose (born 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, conductor, and orchestrator. He primarily plays the violin, viola, and guitar. Early life and education Moose was born in 1982. He was raised in Windsor, Connec ...

– strings (5) *

Danielle Haim Danielle Sari Haim (born February 16, 1989) is an American musician. She is the lead guitarist and vocalist of the pop rock band Haim, which also consists of her two sisters, Este Haim and Alana Haim. Danielle also serves as the group's drummer i ...

– drums (7) * Nate Cyphert – background vocals (8, 9) * Kyle Shearer – background vocals, bass guitar, drum programming, guitar, synthesizer (8) * Cole M.G.N. – drum programming, electric bass, electric guitar, synthesizer (9) * Evan Smith – saxophone (9) * Jordan Palmer – bass guitar, drums, guitar, synthesizer(10) * John Hill – bass guitar, drums, guitar, synthesizer (10) *

Nils Törnqvist Amason is a Swedish musical band made up of vocalist Amanda Bergman (also known as Hajen, Jaw Lesson, and Idiot Wind); guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist Gustav Ejstes (from Dungen); keyboardist Pontus Winnberg (from Miike Snow and Bloodshy & ...

– drums (11) * Oliver Lundström – additional vocals, bass guitar, drums, synthesizer (12) * Lewis OfMan – sampler, synthesizer, synthesizer programming (12) * Ethan Gruska – bass guitar,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

, percussion, programming, synthesizer (13)

Technical

* Ruairi O'Flaherty – mastering *

Lars Stalfors Lars Stalfors is an American record producer, mixer, and audio engineer based in Los Angeles, California. Stalfors began his career as a touring member and engineer for the progressive rock band the Mars Volta The Mars Volta is an Americ ...

– mixing (1, 14) * Alex Ghenea – mixing (2) *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is a Guatemalan-American record mixing engineer. He has been credited on albums for high-profile pop, R&B, hip hop and rock acts. He has worked with artists including Rihanna, Kanye West, Katy Perry ...

– mixing (3, 7) * Anthony Dolhai – mixing (4–6, 11, 12) * Ike Schultz – mixing (8) * David Wrench – mixing (9) * Tom Norris – mixing (10) * Patrik Berger –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(1, 4, 6, 11) * Michelle Amkoff – engineering (1, 4, 6, 11) * Jack & Coke – engineering (2) * Rostam Batmanglij – engineering (3, 7) * Joey Messina-Doerning – engineering (3, 7) * James Ford – engineering (5) * Kyle Shearer – engineering (8) * Cole M.G.N. – engineering (9) *

Rob Cohen Robert Alan Cohen (born March 12, 1949) is an American director and producer of film and television. Beginning his career as an executive producer at 20th Century Fox, Cohen produced and developed numerous high-profile film and television progr ...

– engineering (10) * Oliver Lundström – engineering (12) * Ethan Gruska – engineering (13) * Nacho Sotelo – mix engineering (4, 6, 11, 12) * Anthony Vilchis – mixing assistance (3, 7) * Trey Station – mixing assistance (3, 7) * Zach Pereyra – mixing assistance (3, 7)

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loveliest Time 2023 albums 604 Records albums Albums produced by Rostam Batmanglij Carly Rae Jepsen albums Interscope Records albums Schoolboy Records albums Sequel albums