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Sabrina Carpenter is not new to the music industry, but her popularity over the past year has sprung her to stardom, and just in time for the release of her sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet. Short n’ Sweet was released on August 23, 2024 (which happened to be my birthday) and Locked Groove Records held a listening party at midnight for the release of the album; obviously I had to go to. Getting to listen to the album for the first time in a room full of other fans was a very surreal experience compared to pressing play on my laptop in my own home, and I highly recommend everyone supporting local record stores if they offer any type of live event. Birthday albums are very important to me—Lover by Taylor Swift is my favorite because it came out on my birthday—and this year, Sabrina did not cut me short of a good birthday with an album that I’ll gladly share a day with.
Smash Hit Singles
Taken from NYTimes
Right out of the gate, Sabrina started her album cycle strong, releasing “Espresso” on April 11, 2024, which arguably became one of the catchiest songs of the year. The song trended on social media for its hypnotic delivery of lyrics, like “I'm working late 'cause I'm a singer,” which didn’t leave my head like the earworm it destined to be. It became a very fitting song to ease the public into the beginning of summer. After the official announcement of the album on June 6, 2024, Sabrina released her next single “Please Please Please,” which performed a lot better on the charts, blocking “Espresso” from getting the number one stop on the Billboard charts and becoming her first number one on the charts as an artist. While some argue that the two singles overstayed their welcome on the radio, I’m a big defender of lead singles and find both songs incredibly enjoyable and deserving of their spots. After the official release of the album, “Taste”, the album opener, became the third single of the album, which is very fitting as it gives us a taste (pun intended) of the rest of the album.
A Short Runtime But a Sweet Sound
Short n’ Sweet has a total runtime of 36 minutes and 15 seconds, which—as the title suggests—is a pretty short album that I’m personally not a fan of. Over the past few years, there has been a trend in the music industry to release shorter albums. While it allows the artist to hone their craft on a small set of songs, as a fan it seems like I’m not getting the most from the artist, which can be a little upsetting. Despite such a short runtime, Short n’ Sweet uses every second of it to create an addictive sound that makes me want to keep playing it over and over again. The album has an overall pop sound but each song has a different take on it, with songs like “Slim Pickins” having a slight country pop sound or “Coincidence” having a campfire sing-a-long feel. In such a short album, the constant switch of sound could be overwhelming but in this case, it works really well and most of the songs feel like they were meant to be exactly where they were put on the tracklist.
The Dumb and the Poetic
I love songs that are catchy enough to where I want to listen to it on repeat and there are plenty of songs on Short n’ Sweet that do that for me. One of the biggest songs, besides the singles, to come out from the album is “Juno” and rightfully so. The beat and instrumentals make it so easy to bop along to and get stuck in your head, which often does for me. A song that feels extremely underrated is “Don’t Smile” which is unfortunate because it is one of the best album closers I’ve heard in a while. I am a big fan of albums that have elaborate closing songs when it feels like you just finished a story, and “Don’t Smile” encapsulates that feeling very well. The slower beat and synth sound wrap up the album in a neat little bow along with the irony of the lyrics telling the listeners to cry because the album is ending make for a great closer.
Taken from WWD
Ballads are hit or miss for me most of the time, and in this case, unfortunately, the ballads were a miss for me. “Dumb & Poetic” and “Lie to Girls” are the two prominent ballads in the album and while lyrically they are really beautiful, there wasn’t anything else special about them. On an album full of catchy pop songs, those two stick out the most and are stuck in between songs that have very different vibes, which is why they may have been a miss for me, but not necessarily for others. Both songs have their rightful place on the album and add important context to the theme of the album but depending on mood, they would be skipped by me.
Cry Because It's Over
While Sabrina has released several albums before Short n’ Sweet, this album feels like a complete reinvention of her image and it seems like this is the music she’ll continue to make, which is a very good thing. Sabrina has made the jump from ex-Disney Channel star to full-blown pop star in a way that felt impossible in the past, and if this is the music that results from it, her career will last very long. The entire listening experience feels like a rollercoaster when it comes to the lyrics and vocal ability that Sabrina pulls throughout. The runtime may be a bit of a bummer as a fan of longer albums but, with that being the biggest complaint, the album is definitely a classic pop album that will be on repeat for the next foreseeable future and I don’t think any of us will get, “that’s that me espresso,” out of our heads for awhile either.
Sources: Spotify, Spotify, Discogs, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Billboard, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify
Photos: Billboard, NYTimes, WWD
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or @s.jasionowski on Instagram.
