The Loveliest Time

The Loveliest TimeSixth studio album
Overview
Artist	Carly Rae Jepsen
Released	July 28th 2023
Recorded	2020 - 2023
Length	43:34 Digital 40:51 Standard
Genre	Dance-pop • nu-disco • contemporary R&B • alt-pop
Label	604 • School Boy • Interscope
Singles
1. Shy Boy Released: June 23rd 2023 2. Anything To Be With You ⊺ Released: September 7th 2023
Album Chronology
Previous	The Loneliest Time 2022 Studio Album
Next	Seventh studio album Upcoming studio album

The Loveliest Time is the sixth studio album from Carly Rae Jepsen. It was released on July 28th 2023 through 604, School Boy, and Interscope.

The project serves as a "companion" follow-up to The Loneliest Time. It features 13 tracks, consisting of newly reworked and tweaked The Loneliest Time outtakes.

Track listing

Standard track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Anything To Be With You	Carly Rae Jepsen • Tavish Crowe • Jared Manierka • Noonie Bao • Patrik Berger	Patrik Berger • John Hill	3:17
2.	Kamikaze	Jepsen • Jakob Hazell • Svante Halldin	Jack & Coke	2:59
3.	After Last Night	Jepsen • Rostam • Noonie Bao	Rostam	3:29
4.	Aeroplanes	Jepsen • Patrik Berger	Patrik Berger	3:21
5.	Shy Boy	Jepsen • Kyle Shearer • Nate Campany • Ethan Gruska • Ben Romans • Bo Watson • June Watson	James Ford	3:29
6.	Kollage	Jepsen • Patrik Berger	Patrik Berger	4:17
7.	Shadow	Jepsen • Rostam	Rostam	2:49
8.	Psychedelic Switch	Jepsen • Kyle Shearer • Nate Cyphert	Kyle Shearer	4:32
9.	So Right 🅴	Jepsen • Nate Cyphert • Cole M.G.N.	Cole M.G.N.	3:36
10.	Come Over	Jepsen • John Hill • Jordan Palmer • Nate Campany	John Hill • Jordan Palmer	2:54
11.	Put It to Rest	Jepsen • Patrik Berger • Noonie Bao	Patrik Berger	3:18
12.	Stadium Love	Jepsen • Lewis OfMan	Lewis OfMan • Oliver Lundström	2:51

Bonus track

§ Included on worldwide digital version and Japanese physical edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	Weekend Love	Jepsen • Ethan Gruska	Ethan Gruska	2:42

Background

Previous Side B projects

With her previous studio album releases, Emotion and Dedicated, Jepsen would write over 200 songs for each project, although just around twenty or less would make the final cut for the album. She described how the process of narrowing down each album's track listing was very involved, consisting of multiple revisions and listening parties to discern which songs should be released. As a result, Jepsen released Emotion Side B and Dedicated Side B, two companion projects which feature a collection of outtakes from the original albums.

The Loneliest Time Side B

With the release of The Loneliest Time, Jepsen revealed that she had written over 100 songs for the project between 2020 and 2022, and had narrowed it down to just 30-40 in consideration for the album's track list. As such, it was also expected the album would receive its own Side B release.

Jepsen first teased the possibility of The Loneliest Time Side B in an October 2022 interview with The Cut, in which she stated, "We'll see. I’m not sure if the world’s ready for more of that indulgence." That same month, Jepsen revealed she had been discussing potential Side B contenders with her A&R manager and stated there were 65 songs to narrow down a selection from. Jepsen further teased the possibility of The Loneliest Time Side B on October 28th 2022 by posting a snippet of an unfinished song to social media, stating, "A song we started there but never finished… who knows b-sides baby?"

The Loveliest Time

In June 2023, Jepsen took to Instagram to answer fan questions and, when asked about the possibility of The Loneliest Time Side B, confirmed the project would be "less of a B-sides" and more of a "companion" project to The Loneliest Time. That same day, Jepsen announced the release of Shy Boy. In July 2023, Jepsen revealed that the project would be called The Loveliest Time.

Writing and development

Development across early 2023

The development process for The Loveliest Time would begin sometime after the release of The Loneliest Time in October 2022, and largely took place across early-to-mid 2023 whilst Jepsen was embarking on The So Nice Tour. Jepsen gave herself the constraint of finishing the album before the beginning of summer, due to a series of live dates she had planned with boygenius and the Anything To Be With You concert-series in July and August 2023.

Whilst on tour across the U.K., Ireland, and Australia, Jepsen worked on The Loveliest Time in hotel rooms, studios, and tour buses. The album was intended to best tell "the other side of the story" from The Loneliest Time, as "yin and yang" type of balance - the album was inspired by "the joy and elation of getting over a break-up and a too-reflective time in pandemic isolation, coming out on the other side to find new love and a new perception of herself."

In a departure from the ways Emotion Side B and Dedicated Side B were developed as a simple collection of album outtakes, development of The Loveliest Time was instead characterised by reworking and tweaking songs originally written for The Loneliest Time. On the process of doing so, Carly explained:

"it’s one thing to write a song during a period of your life and to put it out and its's another 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 states that The Loveliest Time is her favourite album that she's put out to date.

Deciding on the album's title

It was originally speculated that The Loveliest Time would be titled 'The Loneliest Time Side B', following the previous pattern set by Emotion Side B and Dedicated Side B. However, going into the new b-sides project, Carly stated she knew the direction she wanted to head in, and approach it as its own body of work. The decision to rename the album came as Carly thought it was "already quite weighted to call something 'The Loneliest Time'" and felt the 'Side B' title would be too much of a "downer" - "I just couldn’t do it," she stated.

Track list finalisations

The track listing for The Loveliest Time was finalised with Tavish Crowe, in Los Angeles, in May 2023. Jepsen discussed how she felt it was important to open the album with something that "felt big," in a similar vein of the cassette tape on First Time. As such, she knew she wanted to album to begin with Anything To Be With You, and end with Stadium Love (which closes out the standard edition of the album), as a "mini musical" moment. Jepsen finalised the track order and shared it with her bandmates, prior to her performance at BottleRock in Napa Valley, on May 27th 2023 - Carly stated that there was "one switch" made from the suggestion of her band.

Announcement and release

Jepsen released Shy Boy as the first single from the album on June 23rd 2023. In the following weeks, The Loveliest Time was officially announced on July 6th 2023, with a release date set for a month's time.

"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."

The album cover for The Loveliest Time was unveiled on July 12th, alongside the announcement of the album's official release date. On July 13th, Jepsen posted a video teaser for the album to her social media - a continuation of the same video that was made for The Loneliest Time prior to its announcement. The album's official track listing was unveiled on July 18th with a crossword puzzle. On July 20th 2023, digital copies of the album were made available on the 604 Store website, causing the album to leak early.

The Loveliest Time was released on July 28th 2023 as a then digital and streaming-only release. The Japanese edition of the album, including Weekend Love as a physical-exclusive bonus track was released in September 2023. CD and vinyl copies of The Loveliest Time were released worldwide on September 8th 2023.

Release history

Country	Date	Edition	Format	Label
Worldwide	July 28th 2023	Standard edition	Digital Streaming	604 School Boy Interscope
Worldwide	September 8th 2023	Standard edition	CD Vinyl	604 School Boy Interscope
Japan	September 2023	Japanese edition	CD	Universal

Singles

Shy Boy

Shy Boy is the first single from The Loveliest Time, released on June 23rd 2023, under 604, School Boy, and Interscope Records. It serves as the project's lead single.

Gallery

• § Visit The Loveliest Time gallery: Gallery • Photoshoot Gallery

Gallery

Album booklet

Album credits

Writing and production

• Carly Rae Jepsen - songwriting (all tracks)
• Tavish Crowe - songwriting (1)
• Jared Manierka - songwriting (1)
• Noonie Bao - songwriting (1, 3, 11)
• Patrik Berger - songwriting, production (1, 3, 4, 11)
• John Hill - songwriting (10); production (1, 10);
• Jakob Hazell – songwriting, production (2)
• Svante Halldin – songwriting, production (2)
• Rostam Batmanglij – songwriting, production (3, 7)
• Kyle Shearer – songwriting (5, 8); production (8)
• Nate Campany – songwriting (5, 10)
• Ethan Gruska – songwriting (5, 13)
• Ben Romans – songwriting (5)
• James Ford – production (5)
• Bo Watson – songwriting (5)
• June Watson – songwriting (5)
• Nate Cyphert – songwriting (8, 9)
• Cole M.G.N. – songwriting, production (9)
• Jordan Palmer – songwriting, production (10)
• Lewis OfMan – songwriting, production (12)
• Oliver Lundström – production (12)

Performance

• Carly Rae Jepsen – vocals (all tracks); background vocals (tracks 2, 7, 8, 13)
• Angel Deradoorian – background vocals (3)
• Nate Cyphert – background vocals (8, 9)
• Kyle Shearer – background vocals (8)
• Oliver Lundström – additional vocals (12)

Instrumentation

• Patrik Berger – drums (1), keyboards (4, 6, 11)
• Elliot Bergman – horn (1)
• Jakob Hazell – bass, drums, keyboards (2)
• Svante Halldin – bass, drums, keyboards (2)
• Rostam Batmanglij – drum programming, percussion, synthesizer (3, 7); drum machine, strings (3); synth bass (7)
• Joey Messina-Doerning – piano (3)
• Jesper Nordenström – keyboards (4, 6, 11)
• Cristoffer Cantillo – drums (4), percussion (11)
• James Ford – bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer (5)
• Rob Moose – strings (5)
• Danielle Haim – drums (7)
• Kyle Shearer – bass, drum programming, guitar, synthesizer (8)
• Cole M.G.N. – drum programming, electric bass, electric guitar, synthesizer (9)
• Evan Smith – saxophone (9)
• Jordan Palmer – bass, drums, guitar, synthesizer (10)
• John Hill – bass, drums, guitar, synthesizer (10)
• Nils Törnqvist – drums (11)
• Oliver Lundström – bass, drums, synthesizer (12)
• Lewis OfMan – sampler, synthesizer, synthesizer programming (12)
• Ethan Gruska – bass, mellotron, percussion, synthesizer (13)

Technical

• Ruairi O'Flaherty – mastering (all tracks)
• Patrik Berger – programming (1, 11); engineering (1, 4, 6, 11)
• Markus Krunegård – programming (1)
• Lars Stalfors – mixing (1, 14)
• Michelle Amkoff – engineering (1, 4, 6, 11)
• Jakob Hazell – engineering, programming (2)
• Svante Halldin – engineering, programming (2)
• Alex Ghenea – mixing (2)
• Rostam Batmanglij – engineering, drum programming (3, 7)
• Manny Marroquin – mixing (3, 7)
• Joey Messina-Doerning – engineering (3, 7)
• Anthony Vilchis – mixing assistance (3, 7)
• Trey Station – mixing assistance (3, 7)
• Zach Pereyra – mixing assistance (3, 7)
• Anthony Dolhai – mixing (4–6, 11, 12)
• Nacho Sotelo – mix engineering (4, 6, 11, 12)
• James Ford – engineering (5)
• Kyle Shearer – engineering, drum programming (8)
• Ike Schultz – mixing (8)
• Cole M.G.N. – engineering, drum programming (9)
• David Wrench – mixing (9)
• Tom Norris – mixing (10)
• Rob Cohen – engineering (10)
• Lewis OfMan – synthesizer programming (12)
• Oliver Lundström – engineering (12)
• Ethan Gruska – programming, engineering (13)

Navigation

• Discography
• The Loveliest Time

Discography

The Loveliest Time • 2023

The Loneliest Time • 2022

Dedicated
Side B • 2020

Dedicated
2019

Emotion
Side B • 2016

Emotion
2015

Kiss
2012

Curiosity
2012

Tug of War
2008

The Loneliest Time & The Loveliest Time

References