Short n’ Sweet is the sixth album from Pennsylvania-born pop singer and actress, Sabrina Carpenter. Sabrina started in acting in 2011, appearing in shows such as Girl Meets World, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She mostly was on Disney Channel shows, such as the former show I mentioned, but ever since she was a kid, she had a passion for music. She’s been in the music scene for a while now, as her first single was released in 2014, and her debut album was released in 2015. This year has been a strong year for pop music, especially for female pop artists including Carpenter. She’s had some mainstream success in the past, but this year, her rise has been on a completely different level, as two of the three singles on this record have topped the Billboard Global 200 chart. I generally don’t listen to too much radio-friendly pop music, but I’ve been anticipating the release of this record. Here are my thoughts.
I’ll begin with the positives of this album. Sabrina has a beautiful voice, and a fun, dry sense of humor to her lyrics. I really like the glossy pop production of tracks such as, “Taste,” and “Please Please Please.” On the latter track, I grinned at the lines, “Please, please, please, don’t bring me to tears when I just did my makeup so nice. Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another.” The self-deprecation and self-awareness that Sabrina shows feel very genuine, and it adds a layer of relatability to her lyrics. “Please Please Please,” was the only song that I had listened to by Sabrina before having listened to this album, and I still like it having listened to it again. The mix of acoustic and electric guitars, with that wobbly synth, complement her vocals incredibly well. “Espresso,” is another strong single, and I like the sex and caffeine analogy, as Sabrina sounds confident. “Slim Pickins,” is a great country track, and Sabrina really displays her versatility and strong vocal range. This album is very well-produced, as Jack Antonoff and the others did a excellent job. I really like the heavy incorporation of guitars on this record, and the synthesizer production give the tracks a nostalgic, romantic quality to them. However, while the album has some very strong positives, there are some gripes I have with this record. The songwriting is relatable, and a decent amount of the songs are well-written, sarcastic, and funny, I do feel tracks such as, “Bed Chem,” could’ve been executed better. I also think that the transition from “Espresso,” to “Dumb and Poetic,” is kind of jarring as while both are solid tracks, they sound completely different from each other. “Espresso,” is a radio-friendly pop bop, while “Dumb and Poetic,” is an incredibly raw and emotional acoustic track, where she calls out a shitty ex for being manipulative and narcissistic saying, “just cause you act like one doesn’t make you a man.” Track transitions aren’t always easy to do, as when curating a record, you don’t want all the tracks to sound the same, but also don’t want them to sound completely out of place. And while the lyrics have this jaded and humorously dry view of romance, which I will say, I like, some of the tracks just kind of blur together thematically. I’ve made this point with the Ariana Grande review I did earlier this year, but I just personally feel that more mainstream pop artists could change up their lyrical topics once in a while. Short n’ Sweet is a much stronger album than eternal sunshine, I love the instrumentation of this record far more than that on Ariana’s newest record, and I think Sabrina is a lot more creative than Ariana musically. Still while there’s plenty of highlights, I just expected more from this album, given the great releases we’ve had such as Brat, Hit Me Hard and Soft, and Deeper Well. So overall, not a bad record, just not amazing.
Overall Score: 7/10
Favorite Tracks: “Taste,” “Please Please Please,” “Good Graces,” “Espresso,” “Slim Pickens,” “Don’t Smile,”
Least Favorite Tracks: “Bed Chem,”
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju9X2HMMid4
Genres: Pop/Bedroom Pop/Country Pop