Carly Rae Jepsen: The Loneliest Time album review

Irony is usually an unwelcome visitor at Carly Rae Jepsenfort. she Sword A cult hero with an army of believers: in the power of a fluttering heart, in the gap between desire and despair, and most importantly, in the healing power of poetry, chorus, and bridge. Since she unleashed her star destination with the hit “Call Me Maybe” that came out in 2012, Jepsen has written songs like Ask Polly letter, filled with scathing confessions and earnest questioning.

However, there is an underestimation to be found lonely timeJepsen’s fifth album. It’s tucked into “Beach House,” the second song, which chronicles the singer’s adventures with a string of unsavory men, from a pitiful mama’s son to someone else’s husband to the (probably fictional) genre of Jeffrey Dahmer. Sacrificing the melody for the sake of the characters’ voices, the song oscillates mechanically, as if it had been played by Chuck E. Cheese House. In an imprecise attempt to get its relevance at a time when social media is awash with articulated first-person horror stories, “Beach House” looks tacky and dated on arrival. Even worse, from Gibson’s mouth, it seems like a clear mistake. Dating sucks. Men are terrible. We’ve heard this before – but from the one who brought us”cut to feelAnd ‘now that I’ve found you’?

Although in many ways, “Beach House” indicates that Jepsen, who invested heavily in the 1980s, is looking to diversify its portfolio. lonely time Consider possible paths: connect as much as possible to pop to gruesome new levels of camp; Call it back for easy listening. But Jepsen seems more interested in personalizing ideas than crafting an overall aesthetic proposal. In the spaces between these experiences, she is in familiar form, cheerful lyrics fall into sparkling songs like sugar cubes in champagne. lonely time It’s not a precursor to a new age—a marketing concept that requires artists to reinvent themselves every few years (especially if they’re women who have outlived the term “genius”). It’s just a new album. that’s good.

Jepsen’s best new ideas are found in “West wind“A wonderful meeting of music and message where Rustam She stops to play congas and helps Jepsen realize her earthy dreams with a love as natural and holistic as the elements. His fingerprints are scattered all over this track, indicating the gentle rhythm of Haim‘s “summer girl‘The graceful unspooling Maggie Rogers“”waterfall“Two other notable singles by their artists. I’m happy to take five more songs from ‘Western Wind’, but the next closest is Far Away, a song about trying to stay grounded that ends up rolling down a rainbow road, aux rhythm section.” In Clouds Rustam appears again only in the song “Go Find Yourself or Whatever”, a lighter song whose affection is successfully cut off with a dash of grunt.