Sabrina Carpenter Embraces Her Silly Side on Sixth Studio Album ‘Short n’ Sweet’

In 2015, Sabrina Carpenter’s debut album Eyes Wide Open came out. With her still being mostly known for her role as Maya Hart in Girl Meets World and under the Hollywood Records umbrella, it was full of ukulele instrumentals (they were cool at the time!) and family-friendly lyrics, and I figured she would immediately blow up. Sabrina was a Disney Channel darling after all, but I guess she was also just a little too late to ride the same wave the original Disney girls like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato did.

There are a handful of contemporaries of hers that similarly got stuck in this weird in between, not fully being able to break out into the music industry and getting stuck as a former child star. Dove Cameron, Miranda Cosgrove, Olivia Holt, and even the infamous Joshua Bassett are some examples. But after years of releasing music and touring nonstop, inadvertently getting involved in other people’s drama, and going from massively hated to massively loved in the span of months, Sabrina has now shown the world that consistency, hard work, talent, and an authentic personality, really do eventually pay off.

Although it is fair to say that Sabrina’s opening gig for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour might’ve gotten her a lot more attention than she had been receiving at the time, there is also a reason why she got that opportunity; she is an incredible performer, with a refreshing personality and eccentric, spicy humor. All of that summed up with her fizzy and fun sound, which she has been crafting and perfecting since emails i can’t send (2022), makes for a perfect pop star. “Espresso” was just a little glimpse into the world that Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet was bringing us into, and it is truly a record that did not disappoint.

From the beginning you can tell the 25-year-old knew what she wanted to say. She has been doing this for quite some time now, and has no issues being straightforward about her feelings. “Taste” is an excellent third single, catchy and upbeat, and different enough from the already released (and massively successful) singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” There are so many theories about the lore behind this song—my favorite one involving a certain Canadian singer-songwriter and his long-term, brown-haired, also-singer ex-girlfriend—which only makes the track even tastier. The first line in the song is already Sabrina making fun of herself, more specifically her height, “oh, I leave quite an impression, five feet to be exact,” letting us know from the get go that the silliness of the “Please Please Please” lyrics will stay present through the album.

A song I immediately thought could be a little dividing is “Good Graces,” because to be honest it sounds like it should’ve been released 10-years-ago, BUT if you’ve been a fan of Sabrina for a while, you just know this is the stuff she loves. It has a lot of touches that remind me of some of Ariana Grande’s bops and PinkPantheress’ old school, arcade-ish sound that everybody seems to love right now. The bubbly song is followed by a much calmer, mellow one, “Sharpest Tool”. It pretty much starts with her calling the involved subject dumb, which I found absolutely hilarious, and then she talks about how this person still manages to hurt her by being so inconsistent. It’s a very self aware track about a classic situationship, and how she just let it happen.

By track five, we are still getting new and different sounds, and it’s such a treat. “Coincidence” is almost folky, with acoustic rhythm guitars and nicely layered ad-libs. This one has SO much lore too, as Sabrina name drops some of the cities that can only make us assume the song is about the same certain Canadian man and his fellow-singer ex. And then, there’s “Bed Chem:” and I don’t even know where to start. It had me screaming and cackling. And to think that this is about my beloved Barry Keoghan makes it all even more hysterical. This one also has a 90s vibe to it that kind of makes it feel a little unserious, but in a good way, in the way only Sabrina manages to do. “Come right on me, I mean camaraderie,” “Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?” Like, is she insane? (Affectionately).

On the opposite end of Short n’ Sweet’s spectrum is “Dumb & Poetic,” which has become one of TikTok’ favorites. It is one of Sabrina’s bluntest tracks –which is saying a lot when it comes to her– and it is so pointedly written for one of her infamous exes. “Try to come off like you’re soft and well-spoken, jack off to lyrics by Leonard Cohen,” “Save all your breath for your floor meditation,” “And I promise the mushrooms aren’t changing your life.” She is angry and tired, she’s encountered way too many so-called “good guys” and she’s so ready to call them off on their bullshit. It’s such a refreshing take on how so many guys think they’re different and have learned, blah blah blah, when really they’re just another dude.

“Guess I’ll end this life alone, I am not dramatic” is how “Slim Pickins” begins, and I can’t think of a more relatable and real approach. On this track, the folky-ish vibe from “Coincidence” is back but in a much softer way, and Sabrina’s vocals are particularly tender and soothing. She’s coming to terms with the mediocrity of her love life—“if I can’t have the one I love, I guess it’s you that I’ll be kissin’”—and the fact that “the Lord forgot [her] gay awakening,” which is probably why she sounds so calm, because she feels like there’s nothing left for her to do about it (other than moaning and bitching).

The variety of styles, genres and sounds, remains until the end of the album. “Juno” to me sounds like… “The Spins” by Mac Miller and Empire Of The Sun, which is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it actually samples Hole’s “Heaven Tonight.” “Lie To Girls” leans into a more acoustic production, and goes back to Sabrina’s earnestness and vulnerability admitting that she’s been played by yet another man, even if she was aware of it. Her unseriousness comes out again in “Don’t Smile,” where she tells an ex lover to be upset about the breakup, and not just move on from her, because how could he.

The entire album just shows how easy being a superstar comes to Sabrina. She doesn’t take herself too seriously, she really is just a girl, who also happens to be hilarious and ridiculously talented. The recognition “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and the entirety of Short n’ Sweet is bringing her way is so long overdue, and I am so incredibly happy to see her finally live to her full potential. She’s always had the voice, the looks, the charisma, and the music to sell out arenas, and she finally, thank God, has the audience she’s always deserved. This is by far one of my favorite albums of the year, and I’m sure it will be a lot of people’s too, as Sabrina ultimately becomes one of today’s powerhouses in pop.

Short n’ Sweet is out now.