I was expecting Sabrina Carpenter’s newest album “Short n’ Sweet” to sound like a generic hyper pop album that plays in Kohl’s stores. My expectations were on the ground but Carpenter’s album surprised me in the best way possible.
The album’s singles were drilled into everyone’s head by late July, and by early August I was about ready to rip the radio out of my car. You couldn’t enter a target without hearing “that’s that me espresso.” After hearing Sabrina Carpenter on repeat for months, I went into the new album expecting to hate it.
But songs like “Sharpest Tool,” “Dumb and Poetic,” and “Lie to Girls” changed my opinion. These songs have a sadness lingering that’s just perfection and add to the meaning and depth of this album.
The song “Lie to Girls,” especially with lyrics like “you don’t have to lie to girls / if they like you, they’ll lie to themselves” or “all of your best excuses / no, they don’t stand a chance gainst all the chances I give you.” Excuse me, all of those lines are perfection, and relatable to most girls. This song has me in a chokehold at the moment.
Many of the songs have a very distinct sound that separates them from each other. While they all revolve around similar topics, like cheating, exes, and her current relationship with Actor Barry Keoghan, they all express all emotions like anger, jealousy, and sadness in different ways.
Carpenter shows the complexity and range of emotions a person can feel while going through breakups and relationships, all while keeping the lyrics easy to digest. She goes from “a boy who’s nice, that breathes” to “I swear he’s nowhere to be seen” in her song “Slim Pickins,” which has very country instrumentals, to “you’re running so fast from the hearts that you’re breakin’ / save all your breath for your floor meditation / you’re so empathetic, you’d make a great wife” in “Dumb and Poetic,” which has a very acoustic sound that relies almost solely on Carpenters voice.
This album had complexity and depth hidden behind hyper-pop advertising and digestible lyrics. The intermingling vibes of “Short n’ Sweet” make it the perfect close to summer and open to fall.
Carpenter advertised this as a semi-scandalous and very feminine album, and that’s exactly what it is. This album feels like gossiping with your friends in a car or on a facetime, especially with some of its jaw-dropping lyrics and alternating emotions.
Carpenter has been rapidly growing in the music industry ever since the release of her last album “emails I can’t send,” which charted in the top 100 albums and peaked at #12, and this year she has skyrocketed even further, dominating the charts. Her concert for the album has already sold out nationwide, and she will only continue to grow with the release of “Short n’ Sweet.”
I have no doubt that this album will chart on the Billboard Hot #100. With the release of the “Taste” music video, that song will likely chart within the top 5 just like “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please.” When award season comes rolling around, Carpenter will have tons of nominations, and likely win a fair amount of awards. And she and her album deserve them.
