Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet - Summer Bops & Breezy Anthems

Aug. 25, 2024 • By Jason Elhilow

DescriptionA review of Sabrina Carpenter's album Short n' Sweet and its perfect summer songs.
MessageWe recommend listening to Short n' Sweet to form your own opinions about the album.

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Sabrina Carpenter
IntroductionOn August 23, rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter gifted listeners with the treat of the summer, coming off the excitement of her two massive singles Espresso and Please Please Please.
Carpenter started her career as an actress on Disney Channel, starring in one of its flagship spinoffs, Girl Meets World, and, from it, quickly moved on to music-making with the House Of Mouse. Four albums were released with Hollywood Records between 2015 and 2019, all met with decent success.
But when Carpenter unveiled her fifth studio record, Emails I Can't Send, under a new label in 2022, a sudden shift occurred. Songs like Because I Liked A Boy, Nonsense, and Feather shot her to the top, all following with TikTok trends and unique outros and, of course, the ability to play with Taylor Swift at her historic Eras Tour. To say the least, Sabrina is an ascending star in the pop industry, and whatever she put out to follow would make or break this success.
Well, with Short n' Sweet, she made it. As mentioned, Espresso and Please Please Please were already huge hits off the album, but I am glad to say the rest meets those two amply. The twelve-song LP whips between flowery pop and country-inspired ballads, all with a sense of humor. It truly is a sweet and sultry mix of sarcasm and sensuality, each track following some twisted love story from Sabrina's life.
So, let's take a dive into this summer's bops and anthems, seeing what Carpenter songs stand out the most.
Favorite SongsCoincidence and Juno are wildly different songs, yet both belong at the lower points of my top five. I LOVE these songs, I really do, with Coincidence's guitar-heavy production and scathing lyrics alongside Juno's synthy retelling of her urge for love really acting as the comedic core of my ranking. But that's all they are. One's all about betrayal, while the other is just plain horny, and honestly that, with some remarkable production, is good enough. And yes, just for anyone asking, Juno is named after the film Juno (if you know, you know).
Please Please Please is toward the middle of the road when it comes to favorites. It's been out for a while, with the music video released on June 6. It has one of the best videos of the year, and I will firmly stand by that, but the groovy synths and pulsating drums of the song make it glorious in its own right. The song is playful, yet you know the threat of "don't embarrass me motherf—er" is deadly serious, and when mixed with Sabrina's unique vocal choices on the track, it's all quite addictive. But the best two of this record bring together every element of all these mentioned favorites, making them what very much so may be the greatest of the year.
Sharpest Tool and Lie To Girls are just perfect. Honestly, perfection is not even high enough for these songs. Both are filled with enough guitar strums and bass thumps to last a lifetime, and the stories they tell are simple. Tool takes from the age-old saying, highlighting the emptiness of her relationship with the man she was with, seeing as it slowly devolves into a situationship, and, eventually, a demotion to being his side piece. Lie almost continues this narrative, as Sabrina divulges an all-too-common truth: that many lie to themselves in hopes the relationship will get better. Usually, it never does, and, eventually, they see that the guy was lying just as much as they were. Sabrina wanted to twist her experiences to fit her hopes, but, in reality, it was never going to solve the fundamental problems of the other person she was with. Together, these songs are beautiful and beyond meaningful, and with Jack Antonoff's production, these songs make the whole album the most impactful of the year.
ConclusionI knew Short n' Sweet was going to be amazing, but even then, it was underestimated. Sabrina Carpenter just has that "it" factor, is a hitmaker, and with her radiant personality and wicked sense of humor, she's going places. Every track, even those unmentioned, is unskippable, making me increasingly grateful for this era of pop music. Chappell? Taylor? Olivia? SABRINA? All absolute class acts. And with so many other amazing artists in the world, the music space is really starting to shine (again?). It's all so exciting, and if you give this album a listen, you'll see why. That is beyond a guarantee.