According to Carpenter, “Short n’ Sweet” isn’t self-referential – though the 12 song album does come in at an all-too-quick 36 minutes – it’s a reflection on how the shortest relationships can mean the most. Full of sharp wit, the album boasts a summer-y vibe that’s sure to spruce up any playlist, pairing well with artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift (who shares producer Jack Antonoff with Sabrina), and Katy Perry.
I listened to the whole album in one sitting, and I couldn’t get enough. Though some reviewers found the album less bold than Sabrina’s previous venture, Emails I Can’t Send, I found great comfort in the sunny, lighthearted atmosphere that surrounds the new album. Sabrina’s tongue-in-cheek style is on full display in her critiques on modern dating, and I think anyone will find peace knowing even celebrities can’t escape men who listen to Clairo and have a letterboxd (https://boxd.it/6qIwH). Fun lyrics like “This boy doesn’t even know the difference between ‘there’, ‘their’, and ‘they are’, yet he’s naked in my room” are present in almost every song and add a nice touch of humor to the subject matter.
Even through its light tone and sarcastic lyricism, there’s still plenty of real emotion behind the songs, with highlights including“Lie To Girls” and “Don’t Smile” fleshing out the heartbreaks that inspired the album. The former is a lyrical favorite of mine, with Sabrina exploring the idea of ‘lying to yourself’ in a toxic relationship. The chorus of the song presents this theme in its simplest form: “You don’t have to lie to girls, if they like you, they’ll just lie to themselves.” Sabrina puts the heat on both parties in this one, scorching men for what they put girls through while admitting to ignoring obvious red flags for the sake of romance.
I found many of the album’s hits to be a spiritual successor to Sabrina’s past songs. “Please Please Please” topped the charts this summer as a confident and quirky bop that continues the energy from one of Carpenter’s last hits,‘Feather’, complete with an equally iconic music video starring Barry Keoghan, while “Bed Chem” mirrors the crass lyricism of “Nonsense” as Sabrina sings bluntly about her physicality with a new love. Fans of her older songs can also find similar tones in “Good Graces” which approaches a more R&B sound than the rest of the album.
A couple other favorites I found in the album were ‘Taste’, which starts off the album with a groovy revenge story about Carpenter leaving her mark on a man she knows isn’t loyal. It’s almost on the flip side of songs like ‘Deja Vu’ by Olivia Rodrigo, with a strong guitar riff boosting the power of Sabrina’s lofty vocals and emphasizing the “You can have him” attitude the singer embodies in this song. Combine that with some peppy backing vocals, and just a bit of shade (“He’s funny now, all his jokes hit different, guess who he learned that from?”) and you have a recipe for a uniquely Carpenter anthem.
Overall, my most played so far is “Sharpest Tool”. It presents a narrative of Sabrina playing dumb as she ignores obvious red flags from an ex. Awareness is a clear theme in much of the album, and Sabrina makes it clear that no slight went unsighted in this one – referencing how a past lover thought he was getting away with adultery through secrecy and silence, while Sabrina noticed it all. The song’s follow up, “Coincidence”, cites the events more specifically with an acoustic tune that would fit perfectly in a Disney special if it weren’t for lines like “Your car drove itself from L.A. to her thighs”.
My final rating for this album is a 9/10. It’s a perfect album for a short drive, and it’s got some infectious tunes that are great to sing and dance along to. It’s also great for screaming about exes, a cool plus for all those hopeless romantics out there.
Photo credits from Island Records
