Long and Bittersweet

Review Score:

B-

August 23 / 2024 –

B-

The singles from Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet were pretty promising. “Espresso” was cute enough – certainly to the point of garnering over 1 billion views, streams, clicks, etc. “Please Please Please” was really the single that stuck out to me. The vintage synths caught my attention. And the chorus had some subversive melodies that diverted from the pop formula. So, going into this project, that’s what I hoped to hear more of.

I was mislead. Despite what the album title and the actual runtime would suggest, this doesn’t feel short n’ sweet. While it starts strong, the album loses steam fast. It was around the time I reached “Bed Chem” that I got this lingering feeling I couldn’t shake. At this stage in the album, I started to feel like I kind of got the point. I was beginning to wonder if every song was going to play out the same way. Sadly, they mostly do. And I hadn’t even reached “Espresso” yet.

But that isn’t to totally discount the project. There’s enough going on here to make for a fun late-summer collection of bops. Sabrina Carpenter has a knack for those. The opening track, “Taste”, is fun. The backing vocals are sugary and the song acts as a solid introduction of what’s to come. It sounds exactly how you might expect it to, for better or worse. Carpenter plays a role on this project. It’s something akin to the “Espresso” music video “character” – if you want to call it that. It’s a ditzy, absent minded, fluffy kind of persona. And it works when you can feel that she’s having fun. But when she lets the veil slip, the project suffers as a result.

For one reason or another, I didn’t feel like I was able to buy into some of these songs wholesale. Even some the ones I enjoyed – which was most – had elements that somehow rubbed me the wrong way. Take “Bed Chem” for example. It has a promising start. It’s a “Call Me Maybe” style meet-cute for…celebrities…at a premiere. Ok. Well, shake it off. Keep listening. It’s catchy. It’s horny. That’s all cool. That’s all fine. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to absorb so much information about Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan but alright. Then the chorus hits. And I have a visceral reaction. It’s the opposite of that meme where SpongeBob floats into the air with his earbuds in. I’m immediately brought back to earth by the squeaky, grating vocals. It’s like Sabrina is doing an exaggerated impression of Ariana Grande (and nobody is laughing in response).

Forgive me, but I am going to compare this album to Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts. Her sophomore project demonstrated considerable growth despite just a two year gap between it and her debut. Thematically, it was consistent without being repetitive. Short n’ Sweet has a lot more in common with Rodrigo’s debut than her sophomore project. The primary difference between these two artists is in moments where they aim for sincerity. I would say that Rodrigo’s sincere to tongue-in-cheek ratio is something like 60/40. Carpenter’s is closer to 20/80. So in these moments when she decides to take it down a notch and get “real” for a moment, you might expect them to be especially hard-hitting. But they fall completely flat. Rodrigo is able to ride this line effortlessly. She ebbs and flows into different styles, sounds, and lyrical ideas like a bird riding the wind. Carpenter is more akin to that plastic bag Katy Perry was always singing about.

I’m all for this current “women in pop” boom. I just wish it was for the ones who consistently release compelling, exploratory music. Chappell Roan’s popularity explosion felt organic. Sabrina Carpenter’s feels like a well executed marketing campaign.

Review Score:

B-

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.