“I know I have good judgment. I know I have good taste,” and Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, “Short n Sweet”, has made itself an almost no-skip album. Carpenter’s sixth studio album dropped, on August 23, 2024, and did not fail to deliver the juiciest and most amusing lyrics. The 12-song, 36-minute album has given fans ALL a huge debrief on her most recent relationships, and it seems like Carpenter might have found herself in a throuple again.
Like many other popular musicians, Carpenter first originated as an actor on the Disney Channel. When Carpenter was just 12, she starred in “Girl Meets World,” with almost three million viewers in the first season alone, Carpenter’s career blew up. In April 2015, Carpenter released her first album, “Eyes Wide Open”, and hasn’t stopped making music since. It was not until the pandemic that Carpenter’s name became well known.
In 2020, Carpenter had been dating fellow musician and Disney Channel kid, Joshua Basset, when Basset’s co-star and ex-girlfriend, Olivia Rodrigo, released her first debut album about Basset and their “messy” breakup. Through her music, Rodrigo describes Basset as a “traitor” and Carpenter as an “older blonde girl”. This caused a spiral of drama around Carpenter with Rodrigo fans sending her death threats and mass hate. Carpenter has since released her album, “emails i can’t send” with some songs about Basset and her now most recent album, “Short n Sweet”.
Carpenter’s first single from the new album, “Espresso,” has easily become her most popular song, and for good reason. It’s bubbly, and as the title implies, it’s like you’ve just had a shot of espresso. When Carpenter released “Espresso” in April, almost five months before the album, it blew up online. This song was so big, that Spotify even declared it one of the “Songs of the Summer.” Without a doubt, this is an automatic MUST-add to your hype playlist.
“Please Please Please,” Carpenter’s second single, is arguably just as good or even better than her first single. The song may seem surface-level at times, but the lyrics (especially the bridge) show the depth. Sabrina sings, “If you wanna go and be stupid, don’t do it in front of me. If you don’t wanna cry to my music, don’t make me hate you prolifically.” With this, she calls out her exes, future possible partners, and even her current boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan.
The song that ultimately takes the win with the best lyrics, tune, and flow is 100 percent “Coincidence.” This song is rumored to be about Carpenter’s ex-boyfriend and musician, Shawn Mendes. Mendes and Carpenter were rumored to have dated in early 2023 right after Mendes had broken up with his other ex-girlfriend, musician Camila Cabello. A few months after Mendes and Carpenter had been first publicly spotted together, he was spotted again with Cabello. It’s believed that Cabello had been talking to Mendes near the end of Carpenter and Mendes’ relationship. In “Coincidence,” Carpenter sings, “Now her name comes up once then it comes up twice. And without her even being here she’s back in your life. Now she’s in the same city on the same night. And you’ve lost all of your common sense. What a coincidence.” This lyric destroys Mendes and Cabello, and that’s just the first verse. This song (and album) only goes uphill from here.
Even though “Short n Sweet” is mostly made up of jazzy and pop beats, one song stands out from the rest. Like “Coincidence,” “Dumb & Poetic” is also believed to be about Mendes, who tries to be, as the song title says, “poetic.” The song calls Mendes out with Carpenter singing, “You’re running so fast from the hearts that you’re breaking. Save all your breath for your floor meditation. You’re so empathetic, you’d make a great wife.” Due to Mendes being a recently self-proclaimed advocate for human well-being, these lyrics poke fun at Mendes about how he comes off like he is super knowledgable and all-knowing, in reality, he is STILL mistreating women.
There is no such thing as an exaggeration when describing these songs. They are truly that lively and catchy. If there were a definition of a summer album, “Short n Sweet” would be the first one listed.
(my) OVERALL RANKING:
- “Coincidence”
- “Dumb & Poetic”
- “Bed Chem”
- “Sharpest Tool”
- “Please Please Please”
- “Juno”
- “Espresso”
- “Slim Pickens”
- “Good Graces
- “Taste”
- “Lie to Girls”
- “Don’t Smile”
