Talking to Yourself

[3] Jepsen endured problems in her personal life, being unable to join her family in Canada due to travelling restrictions, dealing with the death of her grandmother, and being newly single.

[6][7] Jepsen wrote "Talking to Yourself" alongside songwriter Simon Wilcox, and Benjamin Berger and Ryan Rabin from the production team Captain Cuts.

[13] Captain Cuts produced the song and recorded it at their namesake studio in Los Angeles, also handling engineering with Rob Kinelski and Eli Heisler; Berger and Wilcox provided programming.

Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood mastered it at the Lodge in New York City and Kinelski handled mixing at the Fortress of Amplitude in Los Angeles.

[17] A dance-pop and synth-pop song with a strong beat and influences from 1980s music,[18][19] "Talking to Yourself" includes a guitar solo,[20] which "battles synth" according to Clash's Gem Stokes.

[21] Entertainment Weekly's Maura Johnston observed that warped 1980s guitar weaves through Jepsen's persistent vocals, succeeded by a piercing bass line and unwavering beat.

[22] Chris DeVille of Stereogum thought it kept with the 1980s pastiche of Jepsen's albums Emotion (2015) and Dedicated (2019),[20] and Jeffrey Davies of PopMatters said it continued the shimmering and buoyant pop of her previous music.

[a][31] Writing for The Line of Best Fit, Sam Franzini cited "Talking to Yourself" among the pop treasures on the album and named it as one of Jepsen's most high-energy songs.

[34] Writing for AllMusic, Heather Phares believed "Talking to Yourself" demonstrated feeling both detached and attached simultaneously, a running motif on The Loneliest Time, and Patton thought the lyrics realized the album's general theme of loneliness.