A notoriously prolific writer who - by her own admission - creates “all the time” simply to “survive life”, Carly began reaching out to potential producers and co-writers to arrange sessions, including regular collaborators John Hill (Sigrid, Muna), Patrik Berger (Robyn), Captain Cuts (Marina, Allie X) and Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend, Haim). It was with the latter that she created ‘Western Wind’, the album’s utterly gorgeous yet surprisingly subtle lead single. A love story set in California and played out among feather-light brush work, shimmering keys, sonorous guitar and beautifully breezy vocal harmonies, it received its live debut at Coachella.
Back at the peak of the pandemic, Carly began dipping her toe into remote collaborations, actively seeking out fresh voices to work with. Foremost amongst these was Bullion, aka British songwriter-producer Nathan Jenkins, who she discovered via playlists shared by friends.
“I think there were maybe six different times in a row where one of Bullion's tracks would come on, and I was like, ‘Who is this?!’” she raves with the excitement of a true fan. “I loved that the chords he landed on were always surprising. Like, whenever I thought he was resolving a melody, it would instantly evolve into a completely different section of the song. And though I'm from this pop world and he’s more indie-leaning, it worked.”
This idea of blurring - or simply doing away with - genre boundaries proved key when it came to whittling down a final tracklisting from a pool of more than 100 songs. Rather than settling on a singular sonic palette, Carly looked to lyrical content to create a sense of cohesion.
Settling on songs that explored perspectives on loneliness or that originally stemmed from contemplations on the subject, it’s a theme further developed in the Renaissance-inspired album art, which sees her looking quizzically over one shoulder in a nod to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. And by liberating it from any stylistic constraints, ‘The Loneliest Time’ arrives as by far her most wide-ranging record musically, taking in minimal sophisti-pop and Laurel Canyon-inspired cuts as well as shimmering funk, string-flecked disco and a glorious, ‘80s-inspired synth-pop track that more than matches any of ‘E•MO•TION’’s big singles for impact.
That ‘80s influence is no coincidence, it transpires: touch points for the record included Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks and her eternal muse Cyndi Lauper, enjoyed alongside “palate cleansers” like Billie Holiday. “There's so much to learn from ‘80s pop, and the way it really gets to the heart of things,” she enthuses. “I think we really gravitate to the emotion in that era because essentially we're all in our feelings, even though we all look for different ways of hiding it.”
Reflecting on the record’s eclecticism, she continues: “I thought a lot about what I wanted from this album, probably more than I ever have before. Having learned some things in my own personal life, I wanted to document that growth while looking for the thing that can connect [with fans], so that it's not just a journal entry of my intense feelings, but feelings that can be universal.
“Musically I was really trying to fight this idea that these artists are supposed to deliver one type of music. As humans we're a spectrum of different things and I want to be able to play that. Like, women can have silliness and depth, and we can be sexy one moment and then be really serious the next. So why should I have to choose? With these songs I didn’t. And the result is I’m really excited about the colours of these songs, because they’re different to anything I’ve ever done before.”
On her fifth album, pop’s ray of sunshine Carly Rae Jepsen found herself dappled by shadows. Out of the introspection came ‘The Loneliest Time’: a record that finds power in curiosity and self-belief.
diymag.com