Carly Rae Jepsen on ‘Experimental’ Album ‘The Loveliest Time’: It’s a ‘Place to Get Wild and Freaky’

variety.com:

Rachel Seo Fans of indie-pop darling Carly Rae Jepsen know that when the singer-songwriter releases a studio album, a second related project — known as Jepsen’s B-sides — will likely follow.

The “Call Me Maybe” singer started the trend when she released “Emotion Side B,” a follow-up to 2015’s “Emotion,” and continued it with her “Dedicated” and “Dedicated Side B” double feature in 2019 and 2020.

So when Jepsen released her sixth studio album “The Loneliest Time,” a sophisticated work inspired by funk and disco, last year, her audience clamored for a follow up.

Sure enough, she officially announced “The Loveliest Time” on July 6, writing on Instagram: “I can’t really call it a B sides as if these were cast-off ideas — it’s the completed set to a body of work that taught me so much about love and loneliness and myself.” Created by Jepsen in collaboration with producers such as John Hill, Patrik Berger, Rostam Batmanglij, Kyle Shearer and more, “The Loveliest Time” features tracks that range from ethereal “Aeroplanes” to the danceable “Kamikaze” to seductive number “So Right.” Ahead of the album’s release on July 28, Variety spoke with Jepsen about the process of conceptualizing, writing and recording “The Loneliest Time.” This is your first album of B-sides that doesn’t have “Side B” in its name — it’s not “The Loneliest Time Side B”; it’s “The Loveliest Time.” What went into that decision? Since doing this B-sides offering, from “Emotion” to “Dedicated” to now, I really leaned into it being one of the most exciting processes for me.