Album Review: Sabrina Carpenter – Short ‘n’ Sweet
3 min read
You could say that 2024 has been the year of Sabrina Carpenter. Despite being in the limelight since a young age with starring roles on the Disney channel, Carpenter’s music career has only recently really taken off. Opening for Taylor Swift, and having two number one hit songs this summer, Carpenter has become one of the most talked about artists of the year . With her sixth studio album Short ‘n’ Sweet, Carpenter cements herself as one of the new school of pop princesses.
The album opens with Taste, her most recently released single. The music video that dropped only days before the album, made a big impact with its “Death Becomes Her” inspired aesthetic featuring Jenna Ortega in a starring role. The song itself is a fun and catchy pop number. The playful lyrics about haunting her ex’s new girlfriend, along with the repetitive drumline and Carpenters breathless vocals make it a powerful opener, that sets the playful tone of the album.
The other two singles on this album, Espresso and Please, please, please, also made a big splash on their release. It’s unlikely that you haven’t heard Espresso somewhere this summer, the infectious tune and catchy lyrics made it her first number song, and it’s currently fighting for the title of song of the summer. Please, please, please sees Carpenter offering an exasperated plea to her partner to please not “prove her right’ and threatening “Heartbreak is one thing my egos another”. The fun lyrics and accompanying video featuring her real life boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan, made it her second number one song in as many months and proved that Carpenter was more than a one-hit-wonder.
Aside from the three big hitters the rest of the album impresses with more fun pop sound and clever lyrics. Good Graces is a wildly catchy number about her penchant for getting revenge on those who wrong her. Bed Chem uses a talk-singing style and occasional almost medieval-style lyrics, asking “Where art thou?”, to great effect in a light comedic track. Coincidence uses upbeat guitar backing in a retro style track with high pitched vocals and seventies feel.
Amongst the light pop, there are a few more stripped-back emotive tracks. Don’t Smile has a dreamy melancholic sound and uses layered vocals to mourn a lost relationship. Slim Pickins has a slight country inspiration and uses angelic vocals that contrast the lyrics about being unable to find love. However, these tracks still utilise the Carpenter’s trademark wordplay and playfulness, as she sings “Since all the good ones are deceased or taken I’ll just keep bitchin and moaning”.
This may be Carpenter’s second album but in many ways, it feels like her second. After she first began to gain mainstream success with her previous album Emails I Can’t Send, she embraced a new fun exaggeratedly feminine aesthetic that she continues with Short ‘n’ Sweet styling it as her sophmore album. With a total length of just over half an hour the album certainly lives up to its name, maintaining a playful tone thoughout with not one track feeling out of place. There might not be much soul searching but it absolutely succeeds as a fun cheerful pop album that proves Carpenters’ status as one of the next big things in pop.
