Throughout the long history of music, love has been compared to every drug in the world. But in this summer’s intoxicating hit, Sabrina Carpenter claims she’s so irresistible that it drives her lovers to the brink of insomnia. “Is it so sweet? I guess so,” she coos on “Espresso,” eyelash extensions fluttering innocently. “Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know, that’s my espresso.” Her allure is so scorching that it melts grammar into something deliciously stupid and possibly genius. Atop a light nu-disco beat, Carpenter delivers absurd, syntax-ripping lines—“Walked in and dream-came-trued it for ya”… “I know I Mountain Dew did it for you”—with the yoo-hoo cheek of a Gen Z Betty Boop.
“Espresso” and its even more successful follow-up single, “Please Please Please,” propelled Carpenter, 25, to a new echelon of pop stardom. It was a long time coming. She spent her teenage years starring in a spin-off of the sitcom A boy meets the world and she released her first four albums under the Disney umbrella. Like many before her, she eventually ditched the mouse ears to release her first “big girl” album, in 2022. Emails I can’t send.
So here we are at Carpenter’s sixth album, Short and sweeta tee-hee title for a 36-minute album by a singer who stands just under five feet tall. In a pop landscape recently gripped by seriousness and a tedious obsession with authenticity, Short and sweet is a refreshing escape drink. Rest assured, Carpenter did not skip over a vulnerable phase…E-mails discussed a number of personal experiences, including breakups, parental infidelity and the aftermath of a love triangle involving a certain “driver’s license.” But on Short and sweetCarpenter is here to have a good time. As she establishes on the opening track, “Taste”: “Singin’ ’bout it don’t mean I care.”
Across 12 tracks, Carpenter toys with familiar pop trappings. There’s shimmering pop-rock (the semi-Sapphic “Taste”), Dolly-indebted twang (“Slim Pickins,” “Sharpest Tool”), and at least one retro R&B steamer (“Good Graces”). Though the sing-song vibe of “Coincidence” leans a little too close to campfire folk-pop, Carpenter largely pulls off these stylistic crossovers thanks to a big-ass voice she wields with ease. It also helps that she’s backed by a who’s who of pop songwriters and producers. Short n’ Sweet’s The main co-writer is Amy Allen, who has a string of hits to her name, including four No. 1 songs this year. Other familiar names include Julia Michaels, One Direction mastermind John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick. Jack Antonoff is also there: his twinkling synths are unmistakable on the dazzling “Please Please Please.”
