Short n' Sweet - Sabrina Carpenter: Review

Review by Lavender:

Sabrina Carpenter may seem like the latest Disney girl turned pop star at first. She arrived on the music scene a few years ago playing opposite to Olivia Rodrigo in a losing game beef over drama that only true pop nerds had to care about. Olivia took that one by a landslide, but in the process of licking her wounds Carpenter also dropped her 2022 album emails i can't send. Ever since separating herself from Olivia, she's become staggeringly more successful with each new release. Nonsense led into Feather which led into Espresso, Snort n' Sweet's lead single and one of the biggest pop hits of the year. Now for the first time in her career, Sabrina Carpenter has the eyes of the entire pop world on her and chose to lean into her casual demeanor and clever but down-to-earth lyricism to try and set herself apart from the crowd. 

If you know one thing about Sabrina Carpenter, it's probably Espresso, the song of the summer. I wasn't in love with the song at first mainly because its lyrics are complete gibberish. But she's made writing nonsense work in the past and Espresso grew on me as the summer months went by. It's one of those pop songs so magnetically catchy that I can't even be mad at its flavorful meaninglessness. 

There's a lot to unpack with this record but I have to go straight to its best track Juno. This song is an absolute fucking masterpiece that deserves to enter the echelon of critically acclaimed pop songs the likes of Dancing On My Own, Run Away With Me, and Chandelier. It pairs shimmery guitar chords with an absolutely irresistible beat that has the same ethos as so many classic life-affirming pop songs. But Sabrina is so down to Earth as a writer that even through her breathy singing her personality comes through in spaces. It's a remarkable song. 

Elsewhere on the record, highlights abound. In both its best and ugliest moments, Short n' Sweet is about eviscerating men, or one man in particular perhaps. But at her best Sabrina does it with the same immeasurable swagger that has propelled her to this point in her career. Good Graces is a great example of this. The song is centered around not giving a fuck about someone but when she says it it's actually believable. On the hook when she warns everyone to stay in her good graces she sounds like she really means it. 

Despite the fact that Dumb & Poetic is performed as a heart-rearing ballad, it's a hilarious song. Sabrina piles one punchline on top of another throughout the song absolutely eviscerating the shitty man at the core of the track in fantastically explicit detail. Sharpest Tool seems like it would be similarly cutting, but it's mostly focused on communication and some of the more subtle ways Sabrina feels disrespected. It's one of the more reserved songs in terms of sonic demeanor but it leaves you with plenty to think about. 

I have mostly positive feelings towards the opener and 3rd single from the album Taste. The theme of addressing a song to the new girl dating your old boyfriend is familiar, but Sabrina has a nice twist. In this version the new girl also previously dated the boy in question before Sabrina and she cleverly works this in multiple times which, alongside a killer bridge, saves the song. Coincidence has the demeanor of a bubbly indie pop song with its blown-out acoustic guitar strumming. It's a pretty bitter song which is only slightly derailed by the silly "seven percent" line. Something similar takes place on Bed Chem which contains the viral "come right on me" line. Sure, it's dumb, but honestly, I don't think it sticks out too badly and the song is full of catchy refrains. Finally, the closer Don't Smile is an R&B-flavored finale to the record that switches up Sabrina's performance style in a way that doesn't exactly feel natural, but it works well enough. 

I wasn't crazy about the album's second single Please Please Please, but I've been waiting for it to grow on me. Turns out I'm still waiting. Sabrina's singing is pretty but the awkward swearing on the chorus is a huge momentum killer and the pacing of the song doesn't help overcome it. Slim Pickins is another supremely weird song that sounds straight out of the Kacey Musgraves album from earlier this year. It has a weirdly regressive tone save for a line in the end about god forgetting Sabrina's gay awakening and it makes for a very strange moment on what is otherwise a summery pop album. And I'm also not crazy about Lie To Girls, the most sonically nondescript song on the entire record, It's a shame because it has a well written hook about how the boy in question doesn't have to lie to girls, because if they like him enough they'll lie to themselves. 

Short n' Sweet isn't a masterpiece, but it shows exactly why Sabrina Carpenter is capable of one day making one. Her slick songwriting isn't exactly outside the box for pop fans, but she consistently delivers punchy refrains over a variety of stylistic instrumental palettes. But where she really shines is as a songwriter and lyricist. She consistently elevates a variety of pop staples with extra details that make the tracks much more interesting thematically. It also comes soaked in all of her unique and idiosyncratic personality traits which manifest with playful and often hilarious lyrics. The result is a strong pop record that has its slip-ups, but does an excellent job at introducing the world to a superstar in the making who isn't going anywhere any time soon. 7/10

For more pop music check out my review of Billie Eilish's HIT ME HARD AND SOFT