Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet’: All 12 Songs Ranked

Carpenter fills this jaunty little lament over the standing of recent males with witticisms you’ll want just a few listens to totally catch — within the second verse, as an example, she in a short time writes off a man for not figuring out the distinction between “there,” “their” and “they’re,” heartbreak attributable to a homophone. The album’s closest brush with country-pop, “Slim Pickins” just isn’t positioned as a centerpiece on Brief n’ Candy however charms nonetheless.

Capping off the album with a bitter sluggish jam that flips the idiom “Don’t cry as a result of it’s over, smile as a result of it occurred” on its head, “Don’t Smile” finds Carpenter mumbling “I would like you to overlook me” and asking considered one of her buddies to assist her lose her ex’s quantity. Sounding dumbfounded by a loss as a substitute of prepared to simply accept extra wins, Carpenter exhibits off a distinct aspect of her psyche on “Don’t Smile,” serving to to spherical out the album thematically earlier than it concludes.

Close to the tip of an album that largely focuses on private pains and pleasures, Carpenter zooms out to look at how ladies deal with themselves in trendy relationships — predisposed by society to foist blame upon themselves once they deserve none, or refuse to face actuality when it’s staring them within the face. “Lie To Ladies” is startling in one of the best ways, and the unassuming manufacturing lets Carpenter’s voice echo and her phrases to resonate.

For this thinly veiled menace in opposition to potential heartbreak, Carpenter guarantees that, if her dude does her soiled, she’ll “inform the world you end your chores prematurely,” and in addition transfer on to courting his favourite athlete. “Good Graces” coats that post-breakup coldness within the buttery sounds of ‘90s R&B, with Carpenter channeling the rhythmic pop type that artists like Mariah Carey and TLC dealt with so masterfully and placing her tongue-in-cheek spin on its heat textures.

The guts of “Sharpest Device,” a racing memory of a failed romance, is the juxtaposition between Carpenter’s blurted-out verses scavenging the small print of her heartbreak and the downcast conclusion of the refrain, “We by no means discuss it.” Antonoff’s fingerprints are throughout this one — the picked guitar strings resulting in the syncopated beat recollects among the greatest moments of The 1975’s pop opus Being Humorous in a International Language — however Carpenter amplifies the unhappy corners with unmasked anger and harm, and elevates the association as a complete.

An evisceration of a bro who’s into Leonard Cohen lyrics, mushrooms, meditation and refusing to develop up, “Dumb & Poetic” permits Carpenter to seethe, dressing down a pretender in a bit over two minutes with out hiding her frustration over his pathetic state. “Dumb & Poetic” simmers in a country-coded chorus — “Don’t suppose you perceive / Simply ’trigger you speak like one doesn’t make you a person,” she sings over unadorned guitar — however excels most when the lyrical particulars actually sting, as if her topic’s traits disgust her past comprehension.

Marvel on the diploma of problem with which Carpenter sings the evolving refrain of “Coincidence,” her higher register gripping the phrases “And also you’ve misplaced all of your widespread sense / What a coincidence,” and rolling the syllables round in her mouth to try to perceive her betrayed circumstances. “Coincidence” enters campfire sing-along territory due to its “na-na-na” post-chorus and brash guitar strums, however Carpenter imbues the snappy manufacturing with lasting feeling.

“Please Please Please” was Carpenter’s first No. 1 on the Sizzling 100 chart, the “Espresso” follow-up to proceed her upward trajectory, and a music video assembly together with her romantic associate Barry Keoghan — however finally, its legacy (and performance on Brief n’ Candy) will probably include its cross-genre method, because the sonic boundaries that the music erases hinted at an album that equally hopscotches throughout types. At face worth, after all, “Please Please Please” stays a top-notch sing-along, particularly while you and your mates are in a setting that lets you belt out the “motherf–ker” line as loudly as doable.

Embrace the total Sabrina Carpenter Expertise with “Mattress Chem,” a dreamy flirtation stuffed with pinpoint vocals, private touches, sexual innuendos and melodies robust sufficient to be fundamental hooks that then lead into even higher melodies. As a phrase, “Mattress Chem” is about to enter the cultural lexicon sooner than you’ll be able to say “me espresso”; as a showcase for what Carpenter does greatest, the music is each sensual, earnest and unafraid to make you snort. No matter how “Mattress Chem” performs on the charts, clock this one as a no-doubt fan favourite.

Following the smashes “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” album opener “Style” has seemingly been positioned as Carpenter’s subsequent focus observe, full with a Jenna Ortega-starring music video — and the music, a sexually charged and deliriously likable potpourri of pop types, greater than earns the highlight. Carpenter fuses rock guitar, country-tinged vocals and disco melodies right into a killer heads-up towards the opposite girl in a love triangle (“You’ll simply need to style me when he’s kissin’ you,” she shrugs); “Style” leaps out as an electrifying anthem and Carpenter treats it as such, full with a handclaps-and-drums breakdown designed for the world crowds she’s about to command.

The spark that lit the fuse for Carpenter’s large 12 months, “Espresso” sounds simply as instantaneous and effervescent because it did a number of months and billions of streams in the past — the mark of a pop smash that’s going to persist as a cultural touchstone. Within the context of Brief n’ Candy, “Espresso” provides a jolt to kick off the album’s second half and hold the momentum excessive following “Mattress Chem,” however the single continues to face alone as a exceptional flash level in Carpenter’s total catalog, and the kind of breakthrough hit that’s even higher than the hype suggests it’s.

Carpenter doesn’t sing “You make me wanna fall in love” on the ‘80s-indebted exercise “Juno”; she sings, “You make me wanna make you fall in love,” a mastermind-in-training post-Eras tour who’s contemplating letting her beau “make me Juno,” and fascinating in intercourse so transcendent it leads to a child. The standout strains on “Juno” are primed for TikTok developments and quote-tweets, however as soon as once more, Carpenter enthralls within the particulars of her double entendres, like the way in which she breathlessly rhymes “high-fived” with “objectified,” or how the bridge builds and builds towards that one indelible declaration. “Juno” is the work of a pop professional, and Carpenter makes it sound easy.