- 2023-07-31
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MUSIC
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Carly Rae Jepsen Releases New Album “The Loveliest Time”
Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen released her seventh studio album “The Loveliest Time” on July 2023.
The album serves as a companion piece to the 2022 album “The Loneliest Time”, featuring songs from recording sessions for that album.
She made 65 B-sides during the recording sessions of the previous album.
The album comprises 13-track, produced by Cole M.G.N., Ethan Gruska, Jack & Coke, James Ford, John Hill, Jordan Palmer, Kyle Shearer, Lewis OfMan, Patrik Berger, Oliver Lundström, and Rostam Batmanglij.
Carly Rae Jepsen said of the album, “After a season of hibernation comes the season of blossoming. I got to know loneliness and discover the beauty in it. The loneliest time taught me that growth comes from being planted in darkness. But now the world has opened itself back up again and in turn so have we. It’s time for celebration and for all the lessons we have learned to burst into joyful action. The Loveliest Time...”
She continued, “I can’t really call it a b sides as if these were cast off ideas - it’s the completed set to a body of work that taught me so much about love and loneliness and myself.”- Carly Rae Jepsen told Rolling Stone about the album, “I think that I look at it more as a complete set with The Loneliest Time. It’s definitely a companion project to it, but it is also a 'B-sides' in every sense of the word - that it is songs created during an era, that I always had intended to put out. But I think as I was even selecting [tracks for] The Loneliest Time, it became clear to me that these weren’t just songs I cared any less about. These are songs that in their own right had a place on this album.”
She continued, “I should probably state that my favorite process, and why I love 'B-sides' so much is that it’s one thing to write a song during a period of your life and to put it out. It is another thing to write a song about a period of your life and put it away and then come back a year or more later, look at who you were back then, the decisions you made back then, why it got frozen in time, why it didn’t make it to that album and then go back in and workshop it. I didn’t just have these songs and go 'Oh, B-sides is due let’s put it out.’ I went back in. It’s almost harder than putting out a first album because you’re going in and trying to workshop and problem solve and rethink. Sometimes it’s easy because you’ve had that time and perspective and you’re like, 'Oh, my God, the chorus was visibly over here. What were we doing?' And sometimes it’s like, 'Oh, I know, there’s something here. I need help. Let’s just try to get some new fresh eyes on it.'” -
Carly Rae Jepsen shared on social media, “'Try not to try too hard it’s just a lovely ride.'
My favourite James Taylor lyrics. James Taylor is one of the reasons I started making music. I can remember sitting on the rooftop of my parents house one night as a kid and really digging into his discography for the first time. I was just old enough to finally be left alone without a babysitter. They went to dinner and I stayed up late listening to his albums one after the other, start to finish. Enjoying my new found liberty, I blazed his records loud as they would go – feeling every word. Windows open, looking at the stars and street lamps from my rooftop view in Mission BC, the experience left me very affected. It was my first time alone w just music for company and it was thrilling.
I loved imagining experiences I hadn’t lived yet. (I still love that feeling and search for it when I write.)
I took Cole to see James Taylor when he came to LA last year. We were newly dating and I warned Cole that James was a childhood fav of mine and that I might cry a little. Haha - nope. I bawled.
Cole would look over concerned as a steady stream of tears poured down my face for the entirety of the show. These songs were my life now. 'Secret O'Life' is what my Mother and Aunt listened to when they drove my Grandmother to her resting place.
'You Can Close Your Eyes' is a song my father
and I would perform together over the years and 'Song for You Far Away' is a song my sister sent me w a slide show of family pictures when I was on the road for too long one year. I could go on and on with memories that includes his soundtrack in my life.
Cole knew all of this and squeezed me close. 'How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)'
I drove home thinking – that’s the type of artist I want to be for people. Or rather the type of experience I want to create. Music has always been to me this beautiful invitation saying 'you’re invited to feel all of it safely.' It’s therapeutic. It’s joyful and it’s healing! It turns out I was gifted all of that and more while writing for these sister projects.
The Loneliest and the Loveliest Time. A few pages from my life to yours.
It’s sad sometimes, it’s experimental, and it’s ecstatic too. It’s what happens after you’ve survived your first night alone and you realize - I’m okay. In fact, I can thrive like this.
Connection comes next. Find the people that get you and never let them go.
As James would say 'The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.'
So here is to all of us climbing up on the roof one night soon and feeling the weight of the world slip away...
I want that for you with this album. Have The Loveliest Time indeed. Thank you James for showing me the way. For all those reasons and more I decided to dedicate this album to you. And thanks to everyone reading this little open love letter of sorts.” - source : Apple Music
