As the sixth studio album released during Sabrina Carpenter’s career, Short n’ Sweet is a sweeping representation of the 20-something female mind. Carpenter’s new creation debuted on August 23, 2024. Within hours, the album had reached the Billboard Top 200, and all 12 tracks were featured on the Hot 100. Her concert tour began on September 24th, and Carpenter performed for a Boston audience on Thursday, October 3rd, at TD Garden.
Carpenter released her hit single Espresso in April of this year, but she didn’t announce the upcoming album until June 3rd.
With confident, flirtatious, and even solemn tones throughout the 12-song album, Carpenter can convey all the feelings of women of varying ages. Her professionally trained vocalization contributes even more to the quality of this album, adding a layer of beauty to each track. The production is nothing short of phenomenal, flooding the album with impressive combinations of old-fashioned manual instruments and electronic instruments.
Starting the album off with an assertive yet fun track, “Taste,” Carpenter reels her listeners in with a danceable beat and creative lyrics. A fan of Carpenter’s musical artistry, SHS history teacher Kristen Emerson specifically appreciates the beginning of this song. Commenting that she can “leave quite an impression–five feet to be exact,” Emerson eagerly discussed how this song from Short n’ Sweet resonates with her.
Along with the album’s release came a music video for this track, which had Carpenter’s fans in a frantic craze, as the video features celebrity actress Jenna Ortega fictionally participating with Carpenter in a violent fight over a male love interest.
Transitioning to the second song on the album, “Please Please Please,” Carpenter begins the track with a bubbly keyboard riff, which smoothly transitions into the upbeat song with a swingy feel. Just three days after the announcement of her album, Carpenter released this as her second single following Espresso. This single was released with a music video starring Carpenter’s on-and-off boyfriend Irish actor Barry Keoghan. According to SHS senior Alexa Wilhelm, this track, which can get “stuck” in your head, includes a multitude of amazing and angelic harmonies.
Immediately beginning with an explicit lyric, the song laced with confidence, “Good Graces,” takes spot #3 on the tracklist. This Ariana Grande-esque track conveys that a love interest should stay in Carpenter’s “good graces,” or she will “turn love into hatred.” With a fast tempo, fun keyboard riff, and sassy lyrics, this track fits perfectly into Carpenter’s style demonstrated in the album. This song is also a great example of how the album provides confidence to listeners, especially female listeners.
The most beautiful song on the album, “Sharpest Tool,” is the 4th track and easily takes the cake for best production and lyrics. Carpenter’s angelic voice begins the song accompanied by an acoustic guitar. After a few lines, an eerie baseline joins the guitar as she continues with angst-filled prose about confusion in a relationship. The song takes a turn into the addicting chorus, with Carpenter repeating, “We never talk about it,” regarding the issues in her relationship. However, the music behind these lyrics contradicts the meaning with its glittery sounds, hopeful guitar strums, and upbeat drum patterns. Through these features, Carpenter can add to her theme of confusion in the song. There is no doubt, however, that the bridge is the best part of the song. As Carpenter sings about how her partner’s silence leaves him “top of mind” for her, the volume of her vocals seems to get louder and quieter every few words over and over again. The angsty tone continues after this, giving all listeners an extremely relatable culmination of a song.
“Coincidence,” the 5th track, comes pretty close to track #4. Discussing themes of untrustworthy men, Carpenter provides another relatable yet detailed story for all 20-something-year-old females. Callie Craft, a senior at SHS–and a big fan of Carpenter’s new album–said Track #4 is one of her favorites “because of the melody.” Craft’s favorite part is the bridge, which demonstrates more angst in a very fun way with acoustics and “nah nah nah”s accompanying Carpenter’s voice.
Carpenter’s track #5, “Bed Chem,” contains promiscuous themes, yet here, Carpenter creates another jazz-filled track. The song contains a very memorable drum pattern and glittery sounds, which seem to be a theme throughout the album. With very high notes in the chorus, Carpenter’s vocals carry the song from beginning to end. The constant guitar riff throughout the song adds even more rhythm to the track, giving it a dancey feel as well.
Carpenter’s biggest hit of her career, “Espresso,” takes spot #6 on the tracklist. With tones of disco and funk, the most upbeat song on the album also has the most significant themes of confidence. Videos of Carpenter performing this song on her tour exemplify the fun she has while performing any single one of her songs. Within the first week of the release, “Espresso” climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. With playful lyrics and an addicting rhythm, this song continues to be the most popular song on the album for most fans.
Surprisingly, a more solemn song takes place as track #7: “Dumb & Poetic” is an anger-filled piece about the difficulty in a relationship and picking someone apart during that time. Relatable for a lot of teenage girls and 20-something women, this song permits scream-singing on car rides–especially during the chorus. Repeating the lyric, “Just cause you (talk/act/leave) like one, doesn’t make you a man,” Carpenter pierces the hearts of her listeners by singing exactly what they are thinking. One notable lyric, “You crashed the car, and abandoned the wreckage,” fills Carpenter’s listeners with connection and understanding. Masterfully building a bridge of emotion between Carpenter and her fans, “Dumb and Poetic” is angsty, robust, dark, and beautiful.
Track #8, “Slim Pickins,” the most playful and enjoyable song on the album, explores the difficulty of finding a male love interest in this day and age. The combination of the smooth, finger-picked guitar pattern and Carpenter’s angelic voice leads listeners to anticipate a sweet, heartfelt song. The second lyric, however, throws listeners off: Singing, “All the d****bags in my phone,” Carpenter introduces the ironic lyrics, reaching extremely high notes while maintaining a calm and beautiful tone. Although Track 8 is extremely different from the rest of the album–and from what Carpenter has ever done before–Emerson commented that it is “identifiably her.”
As she closes the album off, Carpenter places the beat-filled “Juno” on track #9. With sing-songy vibes, amusing lyrics, and a beautiful guitar repetition, Carpenter’s best track on the album is also one of the most popular–and for a good reason. Every fan of the album prefers this one due to the fun verses, dance-inducing chorus, and addicting bridge that reels listeners back in, time and time again, throughout the 3-minute and 43-second masterpiece. Emerson said this was her favorite song on the album, adding, “It’s just fun.”
The heartbreakingly true piece, “Lie To Girls,” is placed on track #11, emphasizing the tendency of young women to romanticize horrible things right in front of them, especially within relationships. Beginning with basically isolated vocals and a soft guitar progression, Carpenter progresses into a chorus accompanied by a baseline and quiet piano. The second verse starts strong with a great rhythmic beat, which adds to the melodic beat as well. Throughout the album, Carpenter can reach very impressive vocal heights, which is demonstrated on this track. She ends the song with a beautiful crescendo, repeating, “Girls will lie/cry/lose their goddamn minds,” cohesively adding anger and melancholy into the song.
Carpenter created a very impressive album, and ending it with “Don’t Smile” was a strategic decision. She sings, “Don’t smile cuz it happened, baby–cry because it’s over.” Repeating these lyrics, Carpenter cleverly synthesizes the feeling of ending a relationship and listening to the last song on the album. With an R&B feel, the final song brings in an addictive beat, relatable lyrics, and, once again, incredible vocals.
According to Wilhelm, the album is “so natural and beautiful.” Noting that she watched Carpenter on “The Tonight Show” a few weeks ago, Wilhelm said, “She sounds the same as she does on Spotify.”