“Talking to Yourself” by Carly Rae Jepsen, Sunday, September 25, 2022

We’ve been waiting for a new full-length record from the teen pop queen Carly Rae Jepsen since 2019’s Dedicated or 2020’s Dedicated Side B if you consider a b-sides record a canonical release. Coming on October 21st is The Loneliest Time, Carly Rae Jepsen’s fifth studio record. “Talking to Yourself” is the third single from the record, following the light, breezy “Western Wind” and the comedically catchy late-summer hit “Beach House.” 

YOU WERE NEVER JUST MISERABLE. In 2022, Carly Rae Jepsen released the funny holiday single, “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries,” talking about the mixed bag that being around the ones you love brings. It seems that The Loneliest Time builds on that 2020 single’s theme. Given Jepsen’s release date leading up to the holiday season and the album artwork featuring what looks like harvest decorations, the album seems at least partially referring to compounding feelings of loneliness from wanting to meet the one and being single around friends and family members who are in committed relationships unwittingly or not flaunt their status. It’s the subject of Hallmark movies and memes, and now what looks like a record that’s vying a high placement on my album of the year list. All Carly Rae Jepsen records have shown maturity, starting with schoolyard crushes (“Call Me Maybe”) to somewhat adolescent sexual fantasies (“Want You in My Room”) to songs that mention sexual trysts but not in explicit terms (“LA Hallucinations” and “Fake Mona Lisa”).  The Loneliest Time deals with being single in her thirties. “Talking to Yourself” is a song about being with someone who is more in love with himself or somebody else, treating the speaker like a third wheel in the relationship.

DON’T IT HIT YOU SUBLIMINAL? “Talking to Yourself” doesn’t list all the ways the speaker was hurt by multiple immature guys like in “Beach House,” but both songs show a portrait of the same maybe girl who was left waiting by the phone for a guy who never called. The same story continues to play out year after year and that’s the state of The Loneliest Time—a state of unfulfilling sexual relationships and romantic fantasies in which neither partner is on the same page. Isn’t that the nine-season plot of How I Met Your Mother? When I met my boyfriend, his best friend Rae had been in a relationship for over two years. But over time the love grew to tolerance, and in 2020, they broke up. When we met up in June together, Rae was telling us how hard dating in his 30s is, always second-guessing each other’s intentions. Always meeting up with guys who want something different, something just casual or just fun. It’s a lonely story and I’m glad only to have secondhand knowledge of it. But when I listen to Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest songs, I think about compounding that lonely feeling of being attractive, being famous, and having guys coming up to you asking to “borrow $10,000.” 

 Read the lyrics on Genius.