Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth studio album, “Short n’ Sweet,” has delivered the musical embodiment of a brazen wink. Throughout the record’s tracklist, which includes smash-hit singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” Carpenter infuses her lyrics with unapologetic obscenities, while also not being afraid to disclose the details of her recent romantic endeavors, being both vulnerable and flirty at the same.
The album takes off with its first track, “Taste.” Carpenter offers up a string of witty lines in response to the drama that arose when one of her previous boyfriends left her for his ex. She harps on the fact she had an intense, long-lasting effect on the boy, emphasizing how she was so close to him that the new girlfriend may as well be able to taste Carpenter on his lips, revealing the meaning of the song title.
In the viral music video for “Taste,” the third released to promote the “Short n’ Sweet” album, Carpenter and actress Jenna Ortega, ironically both former Disney stars, star in a violent subversion of musical cinema that incorporates heavy themes from the 1992 movie “Death Becomes Her.”
The album continues with its audacious remarks in the song “Slim Pickins,” in which Carpenter metaphorizes the scarcity of men who have enticing, or even minimal, qualities that she is looking for into serving feeble helpings of food due to her lack of ingredients. Carpenter insults the various boys she has encountered, criticizing them for not “living large” and emphasizing that she only associates with them because she has yet to find any “nice” men.
The most hard-hitting line of the song occurs when Carpenter wounds the egos of the men she gets with by stating that they “don’t even know the difference between ‘there,’ ‘their’ and ‘they are.’” With this potent lyricism, Carpenter is able to jab at the men she has recently gotten with while maintaining a cutesy country twang that brilliantly preserves the picture of innocence.
On the following track, “Juno,” Carpenter connects the ancient tales of the mythical Roman goddess Juno, a symbol of healthy marriage and childbirth, to her modern situation of possibly falling into a deep love. Carpenter also alludes to the 2007 movie “Juno,” in which the titular character gets pregnant.
In contrast to “Slim Pickins,” “Juno” prioritizes complimenting the remarkable relationship she finds herself in, alluding to a prospective and welcome childbirth in the future. “Slim Pickins,” on the other hand, focuses on rebuking the unintelligent men she has interacted with.
The established contrast between “Slim Pickins” and “Juno” encapsulates the entire “Short n’ Sweet” album. Throughout the record, Carpenter is able to differentiate between the types of relationships she has experienced, including ex-boyfriends, ex-situations and even the past girlfriends of her ex-boyfriends.
Carpenter synthesizes various musical elements to communicate the exact emotions she was feeling in whichever situation she is harmonizing about. The pop star’s lyrics can be vengeful and immodest with a soft tone, or loving and gratifying with a harsh melody, the contrast allowing her to lead the audience into the depths of her true sentiments despite the brazen front she puts up. Her clever and quick-witted songs allow for the absurdly genuine track list to come together perfectly and make “Short n’ Sweet” a dazzling, authentic album.
