Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” is the Sweetest Album

Photo by: June Toward

Art by June Toward

On August 23rd Sabrina Carpenter came out with her sixth hit album, “Short n’ Sweet”. After the popularity of her singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”, Carpenter ended her success with a 12 track album exploring feelings of jealousy and confusion over her ex returning to his former girlfriend.

The pop idol starts off her album strong with a third single and my personal favorite song named “Taste”, which explores jealousy of her ex and his new girlfriend, who is actually his former girlfriend. In the music video, Carpenter is seen talking directly to the girlfriend, who is played by another former Disney star, Jenna Ortega. The video is campy, gory, and satirical, inspired by the nineties classic, “Death Becomes Her”.  

One song that stuck out to me was “Coincidence”, the sixth track. “Coincidence” explores Carpenter’s feelings about her ex going back and forth between herself and his ex-girlfriend. Following the events of “Taste”, Carpenter implies that her ex’s re-connection with his ex-girlfriend is not just a “coincidence”. She implies that they have been reconnected, even throughout the relationship, his ex-girlfriend was just a text away. Overall, the song is amazing, with backup vocals that immediately caught my attention. 

Giving homage to another movie, Carpenter’s tenth track is named “Juno”, after the memorable movie “Juno”. The song is very upbeat, with fun and flirty lyrics. It’s seemingly about the fresh, honeymoon stage of a relationship. She is falling for this amazing guy, or maybe just falling for the idea of him being amazing. 

The last track, “Don’t Smile”, in my opinion, is the best song on her album. It has a slow, eighties, and retro feel. Carpenter’s voice is so soft and soothing, which means this song is definitely going on my bedtime playlist. In the song, Carpenter talks about her and her ex’s breakup. To sum up the song Carpenter sings, “Don’t smile because it happened baby / Cry because it’s over”.  She wants to be his every thought, she wants him to miss her badly, and most importantly she wants him to be obsessed with her still. 

Truly, the album was perfectly short and amazingly sweet. Carpenter explores anger, frustration, and jealousy in a sugary way. The 36 minute track blew my breath away. I would recommend this album to anyone who needs a happiness boost after school, turn on this album and jam out to the beat.