Those not paying careful attention to the intricate world of pop music may have heard “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter on the radio about a thousand times this summer and assumed she was a new artist. While this would be a reasonable assumption to make, in reality, Sabrina Carpenter has been in the music industry for years.
Despite releasing her first album in 2015, Carpenter has flown largely under the radar until 2024, often written off as just another Disney starlet. While other artists like Olivia Rodrigo skyrocketed to stardom, Carpenter trudged along with modest album releases and minor movie roles. Her career had a slight uptick when she signed with Island Records in 2021 and subsequently released her fifth album “Emails I Can’t Send” in 2022, which peaked at number 23 on the Billboard charts.
Carpenter’s breakthrough came when she opened for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2023 and 2024. This gave her access to a massive audience hungry for another pop girl sensation. Swift’s support gave Carpenter’s career the final push it needed to launch her into the upper echelons of pop music. Her singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” were both huge successes, the latter earning Carpenter her first Billboard chart topping hit. Soon after, on August 23rd of 2024, she released her newest album, “Short n’ Sweet”.
Despite being in the music industry for over a decade, this 2024 version of Sabrina Carpenter does feel like a new artist. After years of trying, Carpenter and her team have finally honed in on an aesthetic and sound that works. “Short n’ Sweet” Carpenter is not the forgettable Disney Channel star or the villain in Olivia Rodrigo’s failed relationship; she is something new and entirely her own. The new Sabrina Carpenter is a girl’s girl, fun and sexy, with seemingly innocent 1950s looks and lyrics chock-full of cheeky innuendos. This latest album gives her the chance to reintroduce herself.
Don’t get me wrong, I was all aboard for the Sabrina Carpenter hype train; I even went to an official “Short n’ Sweet” midnight release party. However, on my first listen, this album didn’t wow me. I felt it lacked cohesiveness. The order of the songs failed to take the listener on an emotional trajectory, and some even felt like they were from a different album entirely. Fun pop anthems like “Taste” and “Juno” seemed out of place surrounded by sad girl ballads like “Lie to Girls” and “Don’t Smile”. The lone country song “Slim Pickins” seemed very out of place, almost like a Kacey Musgraves reject that was given to Sabrina at the last minute.
That being said, not a single song on this album is bad. In fact, most are excellent. Producer Jack Antonoff’s influence is clear; his signature dreamy synth instrumentals feature in many of the songs like “Sharpest Tool” and “Please Please Please”. One of the strongest tracks, “Juno”, has a 1950s-esque bubblegum-pop beat that contrasts deliciously with its explicit message. Underneath the great instrumentals, a second or third listen of “Short n’ Sweet” reveals some witty and truly delightful lyrics. Some of my personal favorites include, “What a surprise / Your phone just died / Your car drove itself from LA to her thighs” from the song “Coincidence” and “Come right on me / I mean camaraderie / Said you’re not in my time zone but you wanna be / Where art thou why not uponeth me” from “Bad Chem”.
In a genre that has become bogged down with exhaustive emotional authenticity, “Short n’ Sweet” is breathing life back into pop music. There are no heart-wrenching breakups here, just silly flings that come and go. In the context of this album, failed relationships become self-deprecating, sad little stories to laugh about with your girlfriends. Men are playthings to have fun with and discard, a flip of the patriarchal typical narrative. “Short n’ Sweet” paints a picture of young adulthood that is exciting and sexy with just the right amount of melodrama. Unlike her pop genre contemporaries, Sabrina Carpenter is not trying to be a soul-bearing tortured poet; she is just having a good time.
