The Loveliest Time – Carly Rae Jepsen

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2023	The Loveliest Time	Carly Rae Jepsen	★★★	68	Pop	Dance Pop	Disco

At this point, Carly Rae Jepsen is a dependable, seasoned pop professional. She has yet to have another song explode the way “Call Me Maybe” did in 2012, and none of her albums have topped 2015’s Emotion in terms of quality, but she consistently makes good pop music. 

On The Loveliest Time, she delivers 13 single-quality pop tracks with danceable beats, lively synths, catchy hooks and her signature flair. Its companion album — 2022’s The Loneliest Times — may have been more emotional and thematic when it comes to lyrics and its association with Covid-19, but 2023’s record is more vibrant musically and fun overall. Horns, saxophones and strings are sprinkled here and there with the synths, while the songs have a good variety of tempo and energy. 

“Put it to Rest” is the most dramatic and interesting track here, with building drums, strings and piano melodies and a moody vocal performance.  “Kamikaze” is a Weeknd-styled dance track, while “Psychedelic Switch” has cool, pounding house elements. “Shadow” and “After Last Night” have some lighter production touches courtesy Rostam Batmanglij, while “Shy Boy” and “So Right” have a little indie pop and rock to them thanks to the production of Cole M.G.N. (who has worked with Ariel Pink, Christine and the Queens) and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Geese, the Gorillaz). The booming, generic “Stadium Love” and lower-energy “Aeroplan” I think are a bit lame in comparison to the rest, but lead to a well-rounded record overall.