She was like a shot of espresso. I’ve thought a lot about that Andrew Garfield quote about Emma Stone. After listening to ‘Short n’ Sweet’, it makes all the sense in the world.
Sabrina has taken that energetic, ball-of-light analogy, turned up the bitterness, and formed an honest, fun, refreshing depiction of the female take on relationships.
The artist highlighted on The Tonight Show how ‘Short n’ Sweet’ “does sort of feel like a self-titled album, because Short n’ Sweet means ‘Sabrina’ in another language.” The album’s title has a myriad of meanings, as duplicitous yet blunt as the songs themselves.
Sabrina has played with the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype and reminded the world she’s the one topping the charts. So maybe it’s the men who mistook her beauty for idiocy, who are the tongue-tied fools.
This analogy is epitomised in the 1960s babe she portrays in her music video for ‘Espresso’. The perky song has been played all summer, with at least seven consecutive weeks at number 1. Yet, behind the glossy, plastic exterior, is a woman who is witty, self-aware.
Most of the album is spent reminding men that women know how they behave. From ‘Please Please Please’, where she begs her ‘man’ to not prove her right, to ‘Dumb and Poetic’, where she states: “Just because you act like one, doesn’t make you a man,” Carpenter consistently reduces male egotistical mannerisms into boyish habits and grammar slip ups.
At times Sabrina is harsh about how women act in relationships too. The album begins with an upbeat track, ‘Taste’, slickly loitering on jealousy. The music video is comedically graphic, with Jenna Ortega and Sabrina trying to kill each other as they compete for the love of a man. It culminates with Jenna accidentally killing her boyfriend because she thinks she’s kissing Sabrina (homage to the line, “You’ll just have to taste me, when he’s kissing you”).
The pair reuniting from their Disney Channel days acts as a reminder of just how long Sabrina Carpenter has been in the public eye. This is her sixth studio album, and it’s about time she gets the celebration she deserves. Being the first female artist to simultaneously hold 1,2 and 3 in the UK singles chart will do it.
She is full of playful euphemisms and a touch of comedy – “And I’d bet we’d both arrive at the same time/ And I bet the thermostats set at six nine”, is one memorable line from ‘Bed Chem’. Her ability to be unapologetically sexual in her references is bracing, yet has become something of a trend this summer. We’ve seen a lot of highly sexualised and explicit albums from female songwriters, especially Billie and Charlie XCX in their albums, and in their shared single, ‘Guess’.
Sabrina’s domination of the UK charts comes as no surprise after her glittering summer. She toured with Taylor Swift, had the top song of the summer with ‘Espresso’, and became the second artist to truly, brutally butcher Ticketmaster (can you tell I’m fuming I didn’t get tickets) – it’s clear Sabrina has secured her moment in the spotlight. And next summer, the Eras Tour will be a nostalgic blur of glitter, and Sabrina will get her moment on the UK stage.
Whilst, at times, ‘Short n’ Sweet’ feels a little too sickly, Sabrina balances it with slower ballads like ‘Slim Pickins’ and ‘Lie to Girls’. That delicate composition, that pop-centric sound, the blend of production styles, all culminate into a very successful album.
This one spans two years of emotional turmoil, but ultimately bluntly describes love and loss, all wrapped up into some sweet little pop songs. There’s no better way for the summer of pop music to conclude.
Sabrina kicks off her first ever arena tour in Ohio, on 23rd September. We can only expect her to reinvent those humorous Nonsense outros, and bring the same level of comedy entertainment alongside them.
Must listens on ‘Short n’ Sweet’: Taste, Coincidence, Slim Pickins
