Short n' Sweet

Sabrina Carpenter

Released on 8/23/24 by Island Records
Main artists: Sabrina Carpenter
Genre: Pop

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Former Disney kid Sabrina Carpenter described her 2022 album Emails I Can't Send as her "first big-girl" record. But the follow-up has her blooming into a full-grown femme fatale. A bleach blonde, old-school pin-up with a wicked sense of humor, she is every bit still an actress: at once playing a "little old me" maneater and America's meta-modern sweetheart. On summer-of-'24's inescapable "Please Please Please," she starts off as a helpless damsel, hitting the featheriest of high notes to implore a beau not to betray her ("Don't bring me to tears when I just did my makeup so nice"). But then she reaches down, ever so briefly, to a low growl—"I beg you don't embarrass me, motherfucker"—before turning right back on a dime. Who's the one flirting with danger here? The Jack Antonoff-produced song is catchy as anything, cheesy but delectable, burbling synth on ice.

"Espresso," an insidiously hooky song that evokes Doja Cat's "Say So" era, comes on like one big fake-eyelash wink as Carpenter basks in her confidence with loopy poetry. She coos "Say you can't sleep, baby, I know/ That's that me espresso" and "I Mountain Dew it for ya" shamelessly, but also mutters "stupid," almost snorting, and you can practically hear the eye roll. "Good Graces" finds Carpenter delivering threats with a butter-wouldn't-melt smile ("I'll tell the world you finish your chores prematurely/ Break my heart and I swear I'm moving on with your favorite athlete") to chill, lite R&B, tra-la-la repeating "I won't give a fuck about you." Doe-eyed folk bleeds into a skittering synth-pop beat on "Sharpest Tool" as she dismisses a guy she had sex with as "not the sharpest tool in the shed" after he went and "found god" with an ex. She's got a sad boi's number on "Dumb & Poetic" (rolling her eyes again at guys who "jack off to lyrics by Leonard Cohen"), a soft-boil bit of café folk. But she also can't resist these himbos.

Borrowing from '80s Japanese city-pop—laced with an impishly knowing guitar solo—fun "Juno" finds Carpenter so "fuckin' horny" she just might be willing to get knocked up (like the teen-pregnancy comedic movie of the same name). Flipping the script, "Taste" addresses her ex's new girl, promising that the singer made such a lasting impression you can still taste her on his lips—and everywhere else. Carpenter delights in the lewdness, all breathy sighs and mischievous giggles as she describes how "He pins you down in the carpet/ makes paintings with his tongue" but "every time you close your eyes/ And feel his lips, you're feelin' mine." There's also "Slim Pickins"—cowgirl cosplay, complete with banjo—that finds her lamenting the curse of being attracted to men: "And since the Lord forgot my gay awakening." Immediately after the album's release, that line got a lot of attention online; and isn't that really the point? As Carpenter reminds us, again and again, she's in on the joke. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Short n' Sweet

Sabrina Carpenter

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Taste

00:02:37

Julian Bunetta, Producer, Guitar, Percussion, Bass, ProgrammingEngineer, Keyboard, DrumKit - Nathan Dantzler, MasteringEngineer - Serban Ghenea, MixingEngineer - Ian Kirkpatrick, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Aaron Sterling, DrumKit - John Ryan, Producer, Guitar, Percussion, Bass, ComposerLyricist, RecordingEngineer, ProgrammingEngineer, Keyboard, DrumKit - Sabrina Carpenter, Vocalist, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist - Julia Michaels, ComposerLyricist - Jeff Gunnell, RecordingEngineer - Amy Allen, ComposerLyricist - Bryce Bordone, MixingEngineer - Harrison Tate, MasteringSecondEngineer - Jackie Winkler, A&R - Gabrielle Rosen, AAndRAdministrator - Gloria Jozwicki, AAndRCoordinator