Sabrina Carpenter has been on the cusp of fame for many years and album cycles. Her sixth album effort, “emails i can’t send fwd:,” spawned two of her biggest hits to date with the RIAA-certified platinum hit “Nonsense” and the Billboard Hot 100 Top 25 hit “Feather.”
But now — thanks to Carpenter’s seventh studio record, “Short n’ Sweet” — the songstress has soared to the top of the charts. The album debuted at No. 1 this last week on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and has curated three Top 3 hits on the Hot 100.
The replay value offered by her smash hits “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” seemed to suggest a record full of songs ready to soar to the top of listeners’ Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year. The unfortunate truth, however, is that “Short n’ Sweet” is actually, for the most part, tired and forgettable.
There are about four too many filler songs on a record that prides itself on not forcing dozens of songs into the track list, unlike many of the other big artists in the streaming era of music. This does not mean that these songs are bad, but I would certainly subscribe to them being unmemorable, which many (me included) would argue is worse.
If I tried, I could not recite even the hook of songs like “Lie To Girls,” “Don’t Smile,” “Dumb & Poetic” or “Sharpest Tool.” This is disappointing for an album that runs on “Espresso.”
Some of the remaining tracks feel like they were aimed to score a hit TikTok audio. I am looking at you, “Bed Chem.”
There are, however, a few shining spots on this record. The first is that Carpenter is seemingly dipping into the world of country music — just her toes, though.
“Slim Pickins” is one of my favorites on this record. It combines Carpenter’s suggestive lyricism with an instrumentation that I, as a country music fan, found familiar upon first listen. It is not a catchy anthem, but it is an excellent track to include as a deepcut. “Coincidence” also teases country, and it serves as a better combination of country song and TikTok bait.
The record’s standout, though, is easily “Juno.” Carpenter keeps up the trend of using authentic instrumentation throughout the track, but make no mistake, it is pure pop. It feels nostalgic and poetic, despite it being centered around the 2007 film of the same name.
All in all, “Short n’ Sweet” is a not-quite-short-enough record that is only sometimes sweet and is certainly full of spice. If an album could be rated R, this one would be, but the album’s vulgarity is not the problem – this record being forgettable, when it is supposed to be her breakout moment, is.
