Carly Rae Jepsen.Photo:Meredith Jenks
Meredith Jenks
After writing about loneliness for her last album,Carly Rae Jepsenis leaning into romance onThe Loveliest Time.
The pop star released her new album on Friday, and the project acts as a companion to last year’sThe Loneliest Time, which largely saw her muse on melancholy events experienced throughout the pandemic. Now, she’s getting out of her head and onto the dance floor.
“I really wanted it to not feel likeThe Loneliest Timeis just this bummer album, and then the other one was just sunshine and flowers,” Jepsen, 37, tells PEOPLE. “This is the victory lap of when you embrace your loneliness, look at it and analyze where you’re at and where you want to go.”
Carly Rae Jepsen ‘The Loveliest Time’ Album Cover.Meredith Jenks
The Loveliest Timemarks the latest iteration of Jepsen’s tradition of releasing aB-sides albumalongside every traditional project. The new body of work was created in the same span of time asThe Loneliest Time, as she started to see many of the tracks she’d made as “sister songs” to one another.
“‘Psychedelic Switch’ feels sort of like the sister song to ‘The Loneliest Time,’ the before and after of the night you decide to run over to your ex’s and what the morning after feels like,” she says. “It just started to be this weird little puzzle that made sense to me.”
During the creative process, Jepsen’s management paired her with producerCole M.G.N., and their relationship soon developed from collaborative to romantic. She describes one of her new songs, “So Right,” as their “meet-cute,” and it even opens with a skit about whether or not it’s a “good idea” for them to hang out after-hours.
Carly Rae Jepsen.Meredith Jenks
“I would’ve been too shy beforehand to be like, ‘Do you want to do a skit at the beginning?’ But now that we’re so close, it was just really fun and playful to be like, ‘Let’s have this very ’80s drama skit at the beginning where you ask me if I should come over and I say no, but then I come anyways,'” she explains. “You have to get to a certain level of comfort with somebody before you can get to those really playful, joyful, experimental places.”
One of the song’s lyrics in particular — “No other guy can help me fly and hold me down at the same time” — acts as a mission statement of sorts for their relationship, as they’re on different paths in the same industry.
“It’s really wild getting to travel and have somebody understand what you do and be like, ‘Go chase everything. I’m here when you’re home,'” says Jepsen. “I think that’s an essential thing for every relationship. You have somebody that’s your cheerleader that’s not holding you back, but also knows how to hold you down.”
Carly Rae Jepsen.Shirlaine Forrest/Redferns
Shirlaine Forrest/Redferns
Any fans who saw one of her recent concerts will likely want to attend again, as she says the experience will be quite different this time around.
“I think that because we’ve been on the road for the entire year, basically everything has just gotten more locked and solid and stronger — even our relationships between bandmates, it’s just grown,” she says. “It’s a lot more playful than it’s ever been. We’re so excited to have fresh material.”
source: people.com
