by Tori Brown
I’ll try and keep this Short n’ Sweet, but it’ll be very hard… Sabrina Carpenter’s new album is truly something. While I feel its effect is dampened by its two best songs being overplayed into oblivion (by me), I think that her new album has much to offer. There’s a good mix between her synthesised pop horny anthems and some quieter tracks for your daily sad girl hour. This album is the straight girl antithesis to the Chappell Roan phenomena gripping the world and I’m here for it; Sabrina said ‘ally.’
From top to bottom, all 5 feet of her, this album is sure to thrill. Taste is truly delicious and on par with the chart-topping Espresso and Please Please Please. Bed Chem wins the award for smuttiest, and Juno is both so horny and yet so wholesome. Sharpest Tool, Dumb & Poetic, and Don’t Smile are my picks for good cries. Slim Pickins is for all the struggling straight girls out there (my condolences). Good Graces and Coincidence are some good ex-hating anthems – hello Feather. Lie to Girls does feel a little bit like “how many words rhyme with lie??” But nevertheless, very demure, very cutesy, and very heavy hitting. A good pop album overall.
It feels strange to chart Sabrina’s musical journey; a cool kid who can talk to cats, ends up on Disney Channel in Girl Meets World, and ventures down the well-trod path of a music career. Her first album Eyes Wide Open, sounds like someone tried to bring a ukulele to bible camp, and her next three albums show clear attempts at the sultry pop she now does so well. Her first album to really gain any traction was emails i can’t send, with hits such as Feather and Vicious. Carpenter then ended up opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour for shows in Australia, Latin America, and Singapore.
I find Sabrina Carpenter very interesting because we’ve seen this pipeline so many times. The whole child star to international sensation, and it usually doesn’t end well. Dare I utter the name Brittney Spears and immediately images of sexy schoolchildren come to mind. This sexualisation of these unwitting child stars normally feels incredibly, for lack of a better word, icky. But Carpenter’s control over her own narrative and sexuality is central in her song writing.
“Where art thou, why not uponeth me?”
This aspect of her is at times hilarious and at times hopelessly sexy. From her smutty lyricism and innuendos in her Nonsense outros and the submissive and breedable energy that Juno exudes; her whole pop persona is based around this. She even goes so far to put men in positions of infatuation and flips heterosexual power dynamics in relationships.
“I showed my friends, then we high-fived
Sorry if you feel objеctified
Can’t help myself, hormonеs are high”
These lyrics in Juno cheekily show this flipped dynamic, with Carpenter engaging in objectifying her sexual partner. The music video for Espresso has a gaggle of men competing and following her for her favour. Her new celeb boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, stars in her Please Please Please music video and outright calls out his bad behaviour and tells him that he better not embarrass her. In Taste, she’s not concerned about getting her ex back, but that his new girlfriend is gonna have to taste her too.
Sabrina is not an object of desire, she’s simply desirable. She’s Short n’ Sweet.
Tori Brown (she/her) is a queer Meanjin based writer, filmmaker, and musician. Currently working as QUT Literary Salon’s Media Manager whilst studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative Writing) at QUT. None of her works would be possible without the immense emotional support of her cat and the power of caffeine. Find her on insta @__niwatori__
