“Let’s Get Lost” by Carly Rae Jepsen, Tuesday, August 23, 2022

An understated track on Carly Rae Jepsen's seminal record E-MO-TION, "Let's Get Lost" comes to life in Jepsen's concerts. While most solo artists work with a revolving set of musicians, Jepsen's core band has stayed fairly consistent, with guitarist and fellow songwriter Tavish Crowe, drummer Nik Pesut, and keyboardist Jarod Manierka remaining in her band since 2010 and bassist Adam Siska staying in the band for ten years until 2020. 

I WAS NEVER ONE TO PUT MY TRUST IN SOMEONE ELSE COMPLETELY. In June when I was writing about Carly Rae Jepsen as the foundation of my Pride playlist, I listened to the B-Side Chicks podcast that described one of her concerts. Before going to the concert, he wondered who would be attending a Carly Rae Jepsen concert. Would it be tweens? The mostly clean bubblegum lyrics of the "Call Me Maybe" singer could warrant a younger audience. Instead, the podcaster discovers a venue filled with incredibly "hot dudes." Even though Jepsen hasn't replicated the success of her first hit, it's niche markets in which she thrives. Whether it's headlining pride festivals, playing a set for Pitchfork, of embracing her extremely dedicated fans in Japan where her music seems to be even more mainstream than any other market, Jepsen certainly has carved out a unique career trajectory. After watching several Carly Rae Jepsen concerts on YouTube, it seems that today's song, "Let's Get Lost," is a concert highlight. Despite the song's understated place on E-M0-TION, it's keyboardist Jarod Manierka who steals the show in concert, not with the keyboard but with a saxophone. It's the kind of pay off a retro record has been waiting for.

YOU COULD BE THE ONE. "Let's Get Lost" is a beautiful song about wanting to spend more time with someone. Some nights you don't want to end, and you just want to be lost with a special someone. The speaker of the song hopes her love will "take the long way home." But the feelings this song evokes for me aren't about dating. Since I didn't start dating until I came to Korea, without the daily use of a car and relying on taxis and public transportation, "taking the long way home" would mean, if anything, a longer walk, which is almost always not private like being in a car. Instead, this song brings me back to growing up in the backwoods of central New York. Getting in the car was always an adventure, in many ways. Not counting the many times our old cars and trucks broke down or the road washed out after a heavy snow melt, I loved riding in the car when I was young, just looking out the window at the overgrown forests. Some Saturdays after church, my family would drive around the county just to see where different roads went and how things changed. In high school, I was reminded of these drives when reading Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening," when the poet says: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep." There was something scary and exciting at the same time about being far away from home on a deserted dirt road. Not so fun, though in the winter when the car broke down.

Live:

Read “Let's Get Lost” by Carly Rae Jepsen on Genius