After priming listeners tastebuds with “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please,” five foot dynamite Sabrina Carpenter has left quite the impression with her new album “Short n’ Sweet.”
It’s no coincidence that Carpenter’s latest album has captured the spotlight with its nostalgic, genre-bending sound and bold approach. Since her 2015 debut, “Eyes Wide Open,” Carpenter has carved out a successful career, but this new project represents a significant leap forward. For this album, she has teamed up with a stellar group of collaborators, including Jack Antonoff—Taylor Swift’s not-so-secret weapon—as well as John Ryan, Julia Michael, Ian Kirkpatrick, Julian Bunetta, and Amy Allen. Notably, Allen is set to release her own debut album on September 6, adding another layer of excitement to the album’s release.
From the first few notes of track one, “Taste,” Carpenter and her team send fans spinning. In the anthem reminiscent of 90s country, Carpenter proves that there ain’t no wrath like a woman scorned with lyrics like “I heard you’re back together and if that’s true, You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you.” The earworm lingers and leaves a thirst for more.
“Taste” is paired with an official music video co-starring Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Opening with a “Parental Advisory,” the gruesome video embodies the phrase “if I can’t have him then no one can.” The video pays homage to the 1992 film “Death Becomes Her.”
“Taste” is followed by one of the album’s most popular singles “Please, Please, Please.” and continues the record’s story as Carpenter eases back into love after heartbreak pleading with her new suitor “I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherf*cker.”
Accompanying its June release was a cinematic, Bonnie and Clyde video directed by Bardia Zeinali and starring “Saltburn” star Barry Keoghan. Tired of evading the law, the video ends with Carpenter tying up Keoghan, duct taping his lips, and sealing them with a kiss. That lipstick strained duct tape also makes a cameo in the “Taste” video on a stuffed pink bear begging the question, are all the videos connected, especially after internet theorist linked the “Espresso” video to “Please, Please, Please”?
Carpenter affirms that she is unrestrained by genre as “Good Graces” brings in R&B. Listeners can also hear this influence in “Bed Chem.” She also doesn’t shy away from folk in “Coincidence” and electro-pop with some “ducking” in “Sharpest Tool.”
Track 9, “Slim Pickins,” which was first premiered by Carpenter at an intimate GRAMMY Museum performance, brings back the twang from the first two tracks. The slide guitar and sarcastic lyrics are so Kacey Musgraves coded and could have easily fit into Musgraves’ 2015 record “Pageant Material.”
The lead is buried in track 10. From the first few notes, “Juno” steals the number one spot on the album. The danceable track follows in the footsteps of her 2022 single “Nonsense” with its bold and often raunchy lyrics as Carpenter professes “If you love me right, then who knows?, I might let you make me Juno,” a nod to the 2007 film about a pregnant teen.
As the “Short n’ Sweet” story comes to an end with “Lie to Girls,” listeners hear as Carpenter drops the confident armored lyrics for vulnerablility. “You don’t have to lie to girls, If they like you, they’ll just lie to themselves,” she sings.
The album closes with “Don’t Smile.” Carpenter sings in the very apropos lyrics, “Don’t smile because it happened, baby, Cry because it’s over.”
“Short n’ Sweet” is definitely a last-minute competitor for album of the summer.