Music writer Eve Hutchinson reviews Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album, Short n’ Sweet
Triggers: Contains foul language and sexual references.
This summer has been the making of Sabrina Carpenter; the release of the fun, flirty, innuendo-laced single ‘Espresso’ launched Carpenter into the dizzying realm of pop stardom, reaching number one in the UK official charts. The catchy lyric featured in Espresso’s chorus, ‘That’s that me espresso’ is an irresistible hook and a long-lasting earworm. Carpenter’s more vulnerable, country pop follow-up single ‘Please Please Please’ explored Carpenter’s anxieties about her partner’s potential to do her wrong, warning ‘I beg you don’t embarrass me motherf***er.’ With an iconic accompanying music video featuring her real-life boyfriend Barry Keoghan, ‘Please Please Please’ secured Carpenter’s second UK number-one single and helped her to become the first female artist to hold the number one and two positions in the UK singles chart for three consecutive weeks.
Carpenter is not a one or two-hit wonder; she is a music industry grafter who has spent nearly ten years working and refining her craft, with her recent rise aided by supporting Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour and performing at this year’s Coachella. Prior to ‘Espresso’, Carpenter had released five albums, beginning her music career at the age of 15 years old at the Disney owned Hollywood Records. Her 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send – featuring hits such as ‘Nonsense’, ‘Because I Liked a Boy’, and ‘Feather’ – is where Carpenter began to develop some of her trademark features: witty lyrics and memorable bridges and outros. Where Emails I Can’t Send is often introspective and confessional, Short n’ Sweet is cheeky, sexy, and sassy, with heavy topics handled with humour and self-awareness as Carpenter guides her listeners through the minefield of dating in your twenties and the impact of short flings and situationships.
Short n’ Sweet is cheeky, sexy, and sassy, with heavy topics handled with humour and self-awareness
Short n’ Sweet opens with ‘Taste’, the album’s third single with another excellent music video starring Carpenter and Jenna Ortega. ‘Taste’ sets up one of the album’s threads of a tumultuous love triangle, reminding a former lover’s new partner of her lingering, spectral presence in their relationship. The track’s pop rock sound and heavy guitar sound builds up to an addictive bridge where Carpenter declares ‘Singing about it don’t mean I care / yeah I know I’ve been known to share.’ She is looking back and acknowledging the long-rumoured love triangle between herself, Olivia Rodrigo, and Joshua Bassett, which was explored on Emails I Can’t Send and stating her new relationship philosophy for Short n’ Sweet: not falling in love easily.
This sentiment is carried forward into ‘Good Graces’, with an RnB influence that calls back to Carpenter’s early discography. While catchy and upbeat, the Ariana Grande-esque melody of the track makes it feel slightly too familiar and run of the mill. Towards the latter half of the record, Short n’ Sweet dips in and out of various music genres and has an unexpectedly strong country music inspiration. ‘Slim Pickins’ speaks of Carpenter’s despair at the lack of viable romantic partners and the dilemma of choosing between inadequate lovers and getting your ‘fixings.’ The stripped back acoustic-led production by Jack Antonoff allows focus on Carpenter’s rich, nuanced vocal performance which lends itself to country’s storytelling qualities.
allows focus on Carpenter’s rich, nuanced vocal performance
A highlight on the second half of the album is ‘Juno’, which uses the 2007 film of the same name starring Elliott Page as a unique, creative metaphor for the desire to be impregnated by a partner. It is another display of clever songwriting paired with a high-energy, upbeat melody and 80’s inspired synths. The lyrics are littered with double entendre – some of the frankest and most outrageous on the album – adding a light-hearted, humorous provocativeness to the track. The final song on the album ‘Don’t Smile’ serves as a fitting conclusion to the record, expressing a need to not be forgotten by a former lover, but may not be a track that listeners will return to as a stand-alone song due to its repetitive, slightly dull chorus and production.
Overall, Short n’ Sweet is an album which uses its 36 minutes to laser focus on the complex highs and lows of short-term relationships and dating in the modern era; the euphoric thrill of sexual attraction and the disappointment of being let down by unreliable men. Short n’ Sweet’s vivid imagery, witty, self-deprecating lyrics, and lively production makes Carpenter’s latest album one to enjoy and re-listen to. Short n’ Sweet has cemented Sabrina Carpenter’s status as a new major pop girl, and I am excited to see what she does next.
Sabrina Carpenter will be performing at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham for the Short n Sweet Tour on Thursday 6th March 2025
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