Summer Pop Perfection:Sabrina Carpenter's New Album “Short n' Sweet” has finally arrived
As the summer comes to a close, Sabrina Carpenter closed out the “summer of Sabrina” with a bang. On August 23rd, Sabrina released her latest album, Short n’ Sweet. In this new album, Sabrina fully embraces her title of a “pop princess,” delivering twelve catchy, lighthearted tunes perfect for singing in the shower.
The album opens with a track called Taste. This song is my favorite on the album. The song pokes fun at her ex’s new girl saying, “You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissing you.” Opening the album with this gave us the first look that this is a breakup album, not about Joshua Bassett- but rather about the forgotten situationship Sabrina shared with Shawn Mendes.
Following this bold opener, Sabrina shifts gears with Please Please Please, a track that was released as a single a few weeks ago. The song is a not so subtle way of telling her man that he’d better shape up- or else. Despite saying please, Carpenter isn’t asking nicely for him to not embarrass her in this relationship. Next, we hear Good Graces. This track follows a similar theme as Please Please Please, telling her boyfriend that being with her isn’t that complicated, all he needs to do is stay in her good graces. In typical Sabrina fashion, this song has a line that has a hilarious double meaning, singing “I’ll tell the world you finish your chores prematurely.” This song has a message that every girl needs to hear, you’re a ten and if your man isn’t treating you as such then your cute ass needs to kiss him goodbye.
Track 4 is called Sharpest Tool. This song is a bit more melancholy, but still upbeat. She sings about having to second guess everything in a relationship because her partner isn’t the “sharpest tool in the shed”. She sings, “we were going right then you took a left” and “guess I’ll waste another year wondering, if that was casual then I’m an idiot.” We know that for a brief stint in 2023 Sabrina and Shawn Mendes were linked- could this track be about their relationship?Now we move to Coincidence. This song is a guitar driven track that sings about her new man’s old girlfriend trying to weasel her way back into his life, and all the coincidences that seem to occur between the two. Again, it seems plausible that this song is about Shawn Mendes, as he got back with his on again off again girlfriend Camila Cabello while the dating rumors were just picking up speed. Sabrina sings “Palm Springs looks nice, but who’s by your side?”, which is a direct stab at the video of Shawn and Camila at Coachella in 2023 that killed any dating rumors between Carpenter and Mendes. I don’t think that all these similarities are just coincidences.
The next title reads Bed Chem. This songs seems to be about her current boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, as the opening line is “I was in a sheer dress the day that we met” and since I am chronically online I can tell you that Sabrina wore a sheer black dress to Paris Fashion Week in 2023, where she and Barry met for the first time. She also sings about his “thick accent”, which is a reference to Barry being Irish. She sings about fantasizing about the things she and him would do in bed, saying that the two of them would have great “bed chem”. The next track is Espresso which is the lead single from this album. This song put Sabrina in everyone’s heads, and is still ringing in my ears months after it’s release. The beachy music video, catchy chorus, and cute ad libs all make this song undeniably the song of the summer.
We move on to Dumb and Poetic, our first slow song of the album. This could be about her ex Joshua Bassett, as she makes reference to taking mushrooms, something that Bassett talked about doing in an interview for Zach Sang; she also states that the subject of this song reads a lot of self-help books, something Bassett is known for due to Olivia Rodrigo’s song Enough for You where she states she read “all of your self-help books, so you’d think I was cool.” This track leans more into the mood of her last album and might be the one song I’m inclined to skip.Now we move to Slim Pickins which we heard when Sabrina sang at the Grammy Museum a few weeks ago. This song has a country twang and talks about how there are “slim pickings” when it comes to finding a man. She playfully laments settling for what she can get, given the slim pickings among men these days. The second verse pokes fun at men not knowing basic grammar, being bad in bed, and of course contains a subtle dick joke. We love our girl.
The next song, Juno, is a reference to the 2007 movie of the same name. Sabrina sings about wanting to have a baby saying, “one of me is cute, but two though?”. She says that her man has to adore her and love her right in order for her to think about having his baby, thus maintaining her high standards for men- a lesson we could all learn. The song has a fun guitar solo before the final chorus, making this the song I’m looking forward to hearing live the most. Next, we have Lie to Girls, where Sabrina personally calls me out for every relationship I’ve ever been in. She sings, “you don’t have to lie to girls, if they like you they’ll just lie to themselves.” She says that her man should consider himself lucky that she’s just like her mother and sisters, which references her song Emails I Can’t Send, where she talks about her dad seemingly cheating on her mom; she sings “I won’t find forgiveness as fast as mom did, God, I love you but you’re such a dipshit”. This album truly highlights Sabrina’s lyrical evolution by skillfully weaving in callbacks to previous songs and albums.
The closing track is titled Don’t Smile, and is a slow paced, groovy song that sings about wanting her ex to miss her. This song could be about Shawn Mendes again, as she sings “you’re supposed to think about me every time you hold her”, and we all know Shawn and Camilla got back together as soon as Sabrina and Shawn fizzled out. Closing the album with this track shows us that Sabrina is just a girl, and she can have her high standards and tell her man that she expects him to meet them, but also still wish he’d miss her and come back. It also reminds us that this album is mainly about her short-lived romance with Shawn Mendes and puts Please Please Please in a different context; Sabrina is begging her new man to not embarrass her like Shawn did, by going out and getting back with his ex the second they break up.
This is by far my favorite Sabrina Album, and if you disagree- you’re wrong. In Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter delivers a sharp and playful take on love, heartbreak, and self-worth, all while showcasing her growth as both a songwriter and a pop icon. Whether she's playfully dissing an ex or confidently setting high standards for her relationships, Sabrina proves that she’s not just a pop princess but a force to be reckoned with. Short n' Sweet may mark the end of the “summer of Sabrina,” but it's clear her pop princess reign is just beginning.