The Daily Spin, November 29
Carly Rae Jepsen | The Loneliest Time
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: The Loneliest Time (2022)
Artist: Carly Rae Jepsen
Link:
For the first time, it feels like cracks appear in Carly Rae Jepsen’s unrelenting visage of positivity on The Loneliest Time - and sure, you could have gleaned this from the title, but it’s pervasive throughout the album. This is not the same CRJ that gave us danceable jams like ‘Want You In My Room’ or ‘I Really Like You’ - this is her next step.
The clear standout is the Rostam-produced ‘Western Wind’, airy keyboard and a simple palm-drummed base, very much like a Maggie Rogers or Japanese House track in vibe and fantastic beyond expectation. This is as close as we get to the shimmer pop of Emotion or Dedicated on this record - though there are moments of pure joy, they are few and far between, and ‘Western Wind’ is the closest that we tread to that glee.
In her quest to diversify her sound, she loses a step - and though the album has definitely grown on me from release, I still don’t think this quite hits the same stride that her other work does - when she dims the lights, she loses so much of what makes her sparkle.
Rating: 7.9/10
Best Tracks: Western Wind
Worst Tracks: The Loneliest Time