After dominating the charts and radio with singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” — deemed “songs of the summer” — Sabrina Carpenter has finally released her highly anticipated album “Short n’ Sweet.”
Opening several shows for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour in the summer of 2023, Carpenter enchanted audiences with her performances, going viral for the creative and cheeky innuendos she made onstage.
Now well-known for these playful and bold lyrics, Carpenter has expertly woven her hallmark puns and double entendres throughout “Short n’ Sweet.” Even the album’s title takes on a double meaning, at once describing the length of the record — which clocks in at just 36 minutes — but also Carpenter herself, who is 5 feet tall.
Though it seemed to have happened overnight, Carpenter’s success is certainly no accident. She has been working in the industry for nearly a decade, initially as a staple of Disney’s brand, releasing four albums through its label Hollywood Records and starring in “Girl Meets World.” Despite being Carpenter’s sixth studio album, “Short n’ Sweet” is only her second since breaking away from the Disney umbrella and signing with Universal Music Group in 2021.
Carpenter’s departure from Disney has been far from simply administrative in nature: 2022’s “emails i can’t send,” her first album with Island Records, marked a clear growth in her musical aesthetic. The album showcased Carpenter at her most vulnerable, with more raw and mature songwriting than ever before. Tracks like “Nonsense” saw Carpenter spinning her sweet and innocent persona in a more mature and sultry direction — a striking divergence from the clean and wholesome image characteristic of her child stardom.
Carpenter follows this same trajectory with “Short n’ Sweet,” branding herself as a striking and bold woman empowered in her sexuality with clever lyrics that don’t take themselves too seriously. Tracks like “Espresso” playfully describe Carpenter to be so alluring that she induces insomnia, while on “Good Graces” she reminds her lover of her power over him and suggests that it is a privilege to be with her. Free from the constraints that come with maintaining a Disney-appropriate image, Carpenter dives into this new niche with ease.
Even so, longtime fans will be pleased to find that “Short n’ Sweet” still offers the same painfully relatable relationship woes that have characterized Carpenter’s music since the beginning of her career. Tracks like “Sharpest Tool” show a struggle to navigate love and relationships reminiscent of her early music. But it is also here that her growth is the most palpable, both in her skill as a songwriter and as a person, as she trades the adorable awkwardness and innocence of 2015’s “Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying” for a greater sense of wisdom, experience and clarity.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of “Short n’ Sweet,” though, is its broad range of sounds and genres. Carpenter’s folk and country-inspired twang on tracks like “Please Please Please,” “Coincidence” and “Slim Pickins” has earned her comparisons to Dolly Parton, while “Good Graces” and “Bed Chem” see her shining just as bright on R&B beats. Though undeniably still a pop album at its core, “Short n’ Sweet” stands out amongst competitors by bending and blending various genres.
Furthermore, the cultural impact of “Short n’ Sweet” can and should be examined within the broader lens of recent music trends. In recent years, many industry analysts have described pop music as a dying genre, arguing that social media has created a difficult environment for the birth of new pop stars as more and more audiences tire of the genre and shift toward rap and R&B.
In the past few months, though, a wave of pop music has gained ever-increasing traction: alongside artists such as Chappell Roan, Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo, Carpenter has dominated the music scene and worldwide zeitgeist with a strength that hasn’t been seen from pop artists since the 2000s, leading many to applaud these women for “saving pop music.”
Campbell Loi, a senior staff writer and copy editor for The Herald, is a junior from Syracuse, NY studying Public Health and International and Public Affairs. Outside of academics, she loves all things music and enjoys performing, arranging, and constantly listening to songs in her free time.
