Experimental, joyful, and surprisingly daring — this companion piece to 2022’s The Loneliest Time might just be her finest hour since Emotion.
Picture this: you’re cleaning your room, it’s summer, the window is open, and a song comes on that makes you stop what you’re doing and just… feel something. That’s what The Loveliest Time does, consistently, for 43 minutes straight.
Released on July 28, 2023, this is Carly Rae Jepsen’s seventh studio album. Technically, it’s a companion piece — a collection of songs that didn’t make the final cut of her 2022 album The Loneliest Time. But here’s the twist: these “leftover” songs are arguably better than the main course.
Critics noticed. Fans went wild. And now, with a brand new album reportedly coming in 2026, this is the perfect moment to revisit the record that reminded everyone why Carly Rae Jepsen is one of pop music’s best-kept secrets.
What Even Is a “Companion Album”?
Carly Rae has a long tradition of releasing so-called “Side B” albums — collections of songs written during the same sessions as a main album, but left off the final track list. She did it with Emotion: Side B in 2016, and with Dedicated Side B in 2020.
But The Loveliest Time feels different. She didn’t call it “Side B” this time — and that’s intentional. In an open letter to fans, she described the two albums together as two halves of a whole:
“It’s sad sometimes, it’s experimental, and it’s ecstatic too.”— Carly Rae Jepsen, open letter about The Loneliest Time & The Loveliest Time
While The Loneliest Time leaned into isolation, melancholy, and introspection, The Loveliest Time is its emotional mirror — brassy, headlong joy. The darkness gave way to dancing.
Context CheckYou don’t need to have heard The Loneliest Time to enjoy this album. But if you have, The Loveliest Time feels like the emotional payoff — the moment the sun comes out after a long, dark chapter.
The Sound: Bolder, Stranger, Better
Carly Rae Jepsen has always been a pop perfectionist. But The Loveliest Time takes more risks than any of her previous albums. The production palette is genuinely wild — and it works.
We’re talking French-house grooves, futuristic R&B, 90s trance energy, flamenco-inspired percussion, drum ‘n’ bass textures, and moments of dreamy, barely-there whisper-pop. Sometimes all within the same album. And somehow, it hangs together beautifully.
Producers on this album include Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend fame), Patrik Berger, James Ford, and others. The result is one of the most sonically diverse pop albums released in recent years.
Why It Sounds DifferentCarly recorded over 200 songs during the sessions that produced both The Loneliest Time and The Loveliest Time. The “leftover” tracks weren’t rejected for being bad — they were set aside because they didn’t fit the mood of the first album. On The Loveliest Time, they finally found their home.
What the Critics Are Saying
The critical reception was glowing — and notably more enthusiastic than what The Loneliest Time received. Here’s the consensus:
- Slant Magazine called it “a wild success” and praised its fragmentary brilliance — exactly what a companion album should be
- Beats Per Minute praised the production’s range and highlighted Carly’s vocal intimacy as a key strength
- Album of the Year called it “a big breath of fresh air” and argued it might be her best album to date
- Multiple critics praised how the album counterbalances the darker Loneliest Time with its brighter, bolder energy — “trading quiet, introspective power for brassy, headlong joy”
- Metacritic consensus: “sharp, upbeat, and sonically diverse” — “Jepsen has us in the palm of her hand”
Why Carly Rae Jepsen Is Underrated — and This Album Proves It
You already know “Call Me Maybe.” But Carly Rae Jepsen has spent the last decade quietly building one of the most creatively adventurous catalogues in pop music — and most of the mainstream hasn’t noticed.
Emotion (2015) is now considered a cult classic — one of the best pop albums of the decade. Dedicated and The Loneliest Time showed she wasn’t slowing down. And The Loveliest Time proves that even her so-called “B-sides” can outshine most artists’ best work.
“She eschews the notion that art needs to be dark or complicated in order to be expressive, and she isn’t afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve or even sound uncool.”— Slant Magazine
That’s the thing about Carly Rae Jepsen. She doesn’t chase trends. She doesn’t try to sound cool. She just writes genuinely, feels fully, and trusts the music. And somehow, that ends up sounding cooler than almost anything else out there.
Who Will Love This Album?
This album is for you if:
- You loved the disco-pop revival of recent years and want something more weird and daring with it
- You’re a fan of artists like Charli XCX, Robyn, or Caroline Polachek — Carly sits in great company
- You want a feel-good record that isn’t shallow — full of real emotion wrapped in genuinely inventive production
- You’ve been sleeping on Carly Rae Jepsen since “Call Me Maybe” and need a proper reason to wake up
- Worth noting: if you prefer slow, introspective, lyrics-first music, The Loneliest Time might suit you better — this one leads with feeling and rhythm first
The Verdict
Joyful, Daring, and Completely Skip-Proof
The Loveliest Time is one of those rare albums that makes you feel like the sun came out. It’s not a collection of B-sides — it’s a fully realised artistic statement that happens to be built from songs that didn’t quite fit elsewhere. And that freedom shows. Carly takes more sonic risks here than on any of her previous records, and almost every single one pays off.
Whether you’ve followed her career for years or you’re discovering her for the first time, this is an irresistible 43 minutes of pop music at its most inventive and its most human. The Loveliest Time is exactly what its title promises.9/10Highest recommendation — start with “Shy Boy,” then let it run
Over to You — Which Track Hit Hardest?
Have you heard The Loveliest Time yet? Which track grabbed you first — the wild “Anything to Be With You,” the breezy “Shy Boy,” or one of the weirder gems like “Psychedelic Switch”? Are you a long-time CRJ fan, or is this your first time exploring her music? Tell us in the comments — we genuinely want to know.