Skinny Dipping (song)

On August 18, Carpenter shared a post with several clues from the song, including the mention of the first verse, "it'll be a Wednesday", in the post’s description, the lines "if we could take it all off and just exist?" and "water under the bridge".^[2] On August 23, Carpenter sent an email to her fans with the song’s codified title on a message and, later, posted a snippet of the song with the title revealed.^[3] On August 30, Carpenter finally revealed the single's cover art and release date.^[4] The song was released on September 9,^[1] along with its music video.^[5] It was written by Carpenter, Julia Michaels, JP Saxe^[6] and Leroy Clampitt in New York during the summer of 2021.^[7][8]

Musically, "Skinny Dipping" is a two minutes and fifty-eight seconds acoustic guitar-driven midtempo pop song.^[9] In terms of music notation, "Skinny Dipping" was composed using ⁴
₄ common time in the key of E major, with a moderate tempo of 92 beats per minute.^[10] The song follows the chord progression of E–B-Amaj7-B.^[10] Carpenter's vocal performance on the verses in sung on a speaking style and her range spans, approximately, from the low note of E₃ to the high note of E₅, giving the song two octaves of range.^[10]

The official music video^[11] was released along with the song and was directed by Amber Park.^[5] In the music video, Carpenter writes letters to herself and puts them in a box labeled "this too shall pass" and, at the end, after dancing barefoot in a green dress on the streets of New York, she throws the letters into the air.^[12] The letters put in the box allude to the emails Carpenter wrote for herself, from which the inspiration for the songs on her album came.^[7] There are easter eggs to the follow-up single, "Fast Times", including the end of the music video where a different version of Carpenter riding a motorcycle appears, providing a snippet and a clue to the song's music video.^[13]

On October 29, 2021, Carpenter performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon^[14] wearing a black and white gingham sequin dress, playing a Nord Electro 6D, and surrounded by band.^[15]

Recording and management

• Recorded at Jungle City Studios (New York City)
• Mastered at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, New Jersey)
• Sabalicious Songs (BMI), Avant-Garde LOL/Honua c/o Kobalt (ASCAP), Good Deal Publishing (BMI), administered by Songs of Universal, Inc., Music By Work of Art (BMI)/Modern Arts Songs (BMI)/Songs of Starker Saxe (BMI)/Starkersaxesongs (SOCAN), administered by Sony/ATV Songs LLC (BMI)

Personnel

Credits adapted from Emails I Can't Send liner notes.^[17]