This past year has been a sweet success for Sabrina Carpenter. She opened for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, performed at Coachella and had chart-topping hits with her singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” Her witty lyrics and bubbly stage presence led fans online to dub her as one of this generation’s pop princesses.
Fans waited in high anticipation for Short n’ Sweet, Carpenter’s newest album released Friday, after the two successful singles. The 12-track album contains a unique combination of pop, R&B and country music in songs about the shortcomings and sweetness of love with risqué innuendos.
The album kicks off with “Taste,” a song taunting her ex’s current girlfriend by saying she has forever left a print on him. Carpenter released an accompanying gory music video with the song, which starred actress Jenna Ortega. The two women brutally yet comically attack each other in a video inspired by films such as Death Becomes Her and Kill Bill: Volume 1.
Similar to “Please Please Please,” Carpenter threatens her partner not to mess up, or she’ll leave without a second thought in the third track, “Good Graces.” She sings, “You do somethin’ sus, kiss my cute ass bye.” The song has an early 2000s feel, with fast beats, harmonizing vocals and fun post-chorus ad-libs. Truly iconic.
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“Sharpest Tool” features a plucked guitar instrumental that provides a more intimate perspective, especially as Carpenter sings with calmer vocals and less tongue-in-cheek lyrics. The song focuses on the torturous lack of communication in a relationship that left her feeling used and manipulated.
One of the more sensual songs in the album with a dreamy ’70s synth background is “Bed Chem.” Fans have speculated the song to be about Irish actor Barry Keoghan, whose recent relationship with Carpenter has become a hot topic. Carpenter conversationally sings bold lines like “Come right on me / I mean camaraderie” and “How you pick me up, pull ‘em down, turn me ‘round.”
“Don’t Smile” shares a similar synth beat, but paired with clever lyrics mixing up the phrasing of popular advice. Carpenter sings how she wants her ex to regret the end of their relationship and “cry because it’s over.”
My favorite track on the album is “Lie to Girls,” which comments on the willingness of women to ignore red flags in relationships because they don’t want to lose something. The lyrics resemble the message of Carpenter’s song “emails i can’t send” from her previous album, both unpacking how her parent’s relationship has impacted her ability to trust.
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The album features two guitar-heavy country songs — “Coincidence” and “Slim Pickins.” In the latter, she bluntly sings about how there are no more “good guys” because they are either dead or taken, leaving her with an unappealing remaining batch of men.
In “Coincidence,” Carpenter sarcastically discusses all the scenarios where her partner’s ex suddenly reappears in their life, literally and figuratively. Lyrics such as, “Now her name comes up once, then it comes up twice / And without her even bein’ here, she’s back in your life” and “Now shе’s sendin’ you some pictures wеarin’ less and less / Tryna turn the past into the present tense” portray her annoyance.
Carpenter doesn’t shy away from calling out the stereotypical actions of people from her past or themes surrounding sex throughout the album, especially in songs such as “Dumb & Poetic” and “Juno,” respectively.
This album is honestly what I expected it to be based on Carpenter’s two previous singles — provocative and carefree. She taunts past, present and future lovers and lovingly thinks about the future. The album truly exposes Carpenter’s duality — easily shifting from short and sweet to sharp and bold.
