Due to lead singles like “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”, the hype for the release of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” on August 23 was high.
However, the expected summery pop album was not explicitly delivered. In fact, Carpenter’s release is better qualified as an emotional masterpiece. The album focuses on shorter relationships in Carpenter’s life and how they impacted her, swapping between the highs of new romance and the lows of breakups and mistreatment.
A major theme of the album is its upbeat feel and exploration of diverse genres. In “Good Graces” for example, Carpenter warns a partner that if he fails to keep her in good graces, he will lose her. The song is a demonstration of self-respect and assertiveness, with a quick beat and lyrics so fast you might miss them. Sandwiched between “Please Please Please”, which begs a partner to be good to her, and “Sharpest Tool”, which conveys a sense of neediness, “Good Graces” establishes itself via juxtaposition to the songs surrounding it. The piece grows in confidence from “Please Please Please” before being swiftly crushed during “Sharpest Tool”.
With “Bed Chem” and “Espresso,” the story is about a more physical relationship, where emotions are seemingly out of the picture. Here, we see Carpenter blindly infatuated, chasing a lover’s intimacy without question. Again, however, the tone of these upbeat songs is harshly broken by the first true ballad of the album, “Dumb and Poetic”, where Carpenter describes how clueless she was to fall in love with a man who played up the appealing pieces of himself.
At this point in the album, the secondary theme becomes more prominent. Swapping between upbeat and slower songs has shown the listener that no matter how joyful a relationship is, toxic masculinity and gender stereotypes have kept Carpenter’s relationships from succeeding. “Slim Pickins” outlines the great qualities of many guys before supplying a flaw that ruins their relationship. Carpenter emphasizes that the men are the problem when she says “since the Lord forgot my gay awakening”, showing that she would feel much happier trying to date women.
Again, there is a massive tone switch in “Juno”, which references the Roman goddess of marriage and a 2007 movie of the same name. In the movie, the protagonist is pregnant, and Carpenter describes a man as the “whole package”, someone with whom she hopes to build a family.
The final mood change of the album follows “Juno” where Carpenter has experienced the highest high yet. “Lie to Girls” is a dejected piece on how men don’t need to lie because women will lie to themselves. The gutting song is a reminder not to fall prey to excusing male flaws. Such a raw concept pulls this entire album together with a message of hope and hurt. A message that while no man is perfect, certain flaws can’t be excused. Even short and sweet relationships can hurt the most.
While not the summer bop playlist we expected, “Short n’ Sweet” is a packed series of emotional and thought-proving pieces, and it definitely deserves a listen.
