Album Chats- Man's Best Friend Sabrina Carpenter

Welcome back to album chats! This time around I had the opportunity to sit down on New Music Friday to listen and review a brand-new album on the day of its release. Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter.

Sabrina Carpenter is seemingly enjoying her '15 minutes' in the spotlight right now. I say this with my tongue firmly in my cheek as she is a woman who has been working in the industry since childhood and has put out numerous albums to date. Carpenter started to gain mainstream momentum with her album ‘Emails I can't send’ the lead single ‘Nonsense’ gained viral popularity thanks in part to her cheeky adlibbed outros that changed every night of her tour. Her follow up to ‘Emails I can't send’, ‘Short 'n Sweet’ gained widespread popularity, helped in no small way by her appearance as a supporting artist on Taylor Swift's Eras tour.

Emails I can't send

Short 'n Sweet

You would be forgiven for thinking after a successful album and tour with 'Short and Sweet' Sabrina might give herself a break. Absolutely not, she has opted to strike while the iron is hot and keep the hits coming. When she released the single ‘Manchild’ so soon after ‘Short and Sweet’ I was somewhat skeptical of how much more she had to give as well as exhausted on her behalf by the work rate. Such is the life of a popstar in this day and age their stars burn bright but fade fast and the relentless quest for relevance in the capricious attention spans of the average consumer waits for no woman.

Sabrina Carpenter is no stranger to controversy in her career, her aforementioned ‘Nonsense’ outros were laced with innuendo, one of which was famously removed from the end of a recording of her performance at Radio 1's big weekend for being a bit too salacious. She has also managed to anger the catholic church when she produced merchandise that read 'Jesus was a carpenter.' Carpenter seemingly takes this all in her stride adopting the age old, ‘no such thing as bad publicity’ approach to things.

When Carpenter teased her upcoming album by releasing the cover, the trusty internet was flooded with 'discourse' in no time. People had taken offense to the submissive nature of what looks like a man holding Sabrina by her hair accompanied by the title 'Man's Best Friend'.

Those offended by the imagery were of the view that Sabrina was setting women back with her hypersexual persona and lyrics and this album cover was a step too far. Some thought it to be in poor taste as it served to glorify abusive power dynamics in relationships. I had seen the reaction to the album cover before I had seen the cover itself, as a result, I had expected the image to be in extremely poor taste to have garnered such a powerful reaction, especially from those who professed to be fans of Carpenter's work up until this point.

Once I had seen the image, I could see what some commentators were seeing but I cannot say I could match their level of scandalized. Hypersexual imagery in pop music isn't exactly a recent phenomenon. The likes Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera have faced very similar criticism throughout their respective careers.

All art is subjective, so it is not surprising that people weren't a fan and given the sexual nature of the imagery there is usually an increased sensitivity towards it. However, I question whether those perpetuating the narrative that a pop star is 'setting feminism back' are approaching the work produced by male musicians with the same level of scrutiny. To me it felt like the fury behind it all felt incredibly forced and almost laughable.

Sabrina Carpenter strikes me as someone who is incredibly self-aware and her decisions are very intentional. When I did some digging into the different opinions on the album cover, I saw someone suggest that the cover was in fact a reference to Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove. Which for the uninitiated is the cover for the fictional band that the record label refuses to use on account of the imagery being extremely misogynistic in tone, leaving the band to have a blank album cover to promote.

I enjoyed this interpretation as it felt like it fit with the types of references that Sabrina has made in her other work. For example, her ‘Taste’ Music Video is a pastiche of Death Becomes Her.

The controversy surrounding the album cover also neatly opened the door for the production of multiple alternate covers, allowing her to continually promote the album whilst also avoiding the possibility of the imagery going stale. Very much cashing in on a technique used by Taylor Swift and K-Pop stars, encouraging fans to adopt a 'catch 'em all' approach and buying multiple albums for their alternate covers. Depending on your perspective it is either an example of genius marketing strategy or cynical capitalism.

I think it is about time I told you what I thought of the music!

Manchild was released in anticipation of this album. It is an extremely catchy tune, following on seamlessly from ‘Short and Sweet’ maintaining the country twang we have become accustomed to. It is alleged that this track is aimed at Sabrina's famous ex-boyfriend Irish Actor Barry Keoghan. Carpenter and her writing/ production team of Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff proving once again they know how to write a devilishly catchy and relatable pop song for the girls.

Tears has a different vibe, immediately the piano style drops you straight into the disco era. I really enjoy this choice of style. It is a song designed to get you up and dancing, even featuring a 'dance break'. The lyrics list the bare minimum a man can do that will make a woman happy. 'Maybe just do the dishes,' 'A little respect for women.' ' remembering how to use your phone’. Expressing in no uncertain terms how low the perceived bar is for Sabrina to be impressed by the conduct of a man who wants to be in a relationship with her. Sabrina recently debuted this track live at the MTV VMAs, the performance featured prominent Drag Queens like Willam, Denali Foxx and Laganja Estranja dancing with Sabrina and carrying signs reading 'Protect the Dolls'. The performance was fun, energetic, camp, exciting and paid clear homage to Britney Spears in its styling and choreography.

My Man on Willpower leans back into the country vibe. It tells the story of a woman watching on as her man falls out of love with her whilst trying to find his purpose. 'He fell in love with self-restraint and now it’s getting out of hand'. Sabrina has a knack for writing songs that women can relate to, using her unique sense of humour to convey her message.

A criticism that could be levelled at Carpenter is that all she writes about is sex and boys and is potentially one dimensional. However, if you listen to the first three tracks back-to-back it acts as a study of the potential causes of the male loneliness epidemic from the female perspective. She lays out the painful bare minimum she has faced when in relationships with men. It speaks to the audacity of some men that they can be lucky enough to go out with someone as beautiful, talented and charismatic as Sabrina Carpenter and think it is okay to do less than the bare minimum.

Sugar Talking is a slower track, to me it sounds very reminiscent of a Bruno Mars track. It is slightly more simplistic in its production in comparison with the previous tracks and it leaves room for Sabrina to show off her vocals more.

We almost Broke up again, is even slower still, it is a ballad with that almost trademark at this point hint of country. To me it sounds like a musical number that wouldn't sound out of place in Grease. I think it might be my least favourite track on the album; I found it a bit boring.

Nobody's Son feels very 80's with cheesy synthesizers. It is another scathing review of a waste-of-space man. This time it is from a slightly different perspective.  ‘Here we go again, crying in bed, what a familiar feeling’ lands more on the side of self-pity. Couple that with the strings and the nostalgic production you have a song built for a dramatic post break up scene in your next rom com. The end of the song turns into a rallying cry to the mothers off the men that have broken Sabrina’s heart in a bid to show them how poorly their sons treat women.

Never getting laid is a slow track with a groove to it. There is a juxtaposition between the maturity of the sound and the pettiness of the lyrics.  The lyrics in this track demonstrate perfectly the conflict a person can feel after a break-up. Swinging violently from good riddance, I am over it, to I hate you and I want bad things to happen to you.

When did you get hot? is a lot of fun. It is reminiscent of the late 90s early 2000’s era of pop and RnB. I wish I could put my finger on which girl band it reminds me of, but I cannot.  It also sounds like it could have been written for Ariana Grande.

Go-Go Juice is a personal favourite, because it is fun and silly and incredibly relatable.  An anthem for anyone who has fallen prey to texting their ex after a few too many. It is infused with the same je ne sais quoi as Manchild that just makes you want to dance.

I have seen speculation online that the names she drops in the lyrics John Larry and Rhymes with Villain are said to correspond with her real-life ex-boyfriends Shaun (Mendes) Barry (Keoghan) and Dylan (Obrien). The tune itself is a singalong earworm with the unexpected twist of a fiddle solo.

Shaun Mendes

Barry Keoghan

Dylan O'Brien

Don't worry I will make you worry, is an atmospheric ballad that very much feels like an album track. You will notice, the two slowest tracks on this album haven’t been my favourites.

House Tour immediately made me think of Janet Jackson in its production style. It felt like the producers of the Barbie Movie had forgotten to include it in the soundtrack. It is a 3-minute-long demonstration of Sabrina’s love of an overtly sexual metaphor, despite promising within the lyrics that ‘none of this is a metaphor’.

Goodbye is a blatant homage to ABBA, with its cascading piano and perfectly placed ah ha's.

This album is all over the place in terms of reference points but still manages to remain cohesive. It seems that Carpenter has an endless well of catchy pop tunes laced with cheeky wit and she is throwing them all at us. I really enjoyed a fair few of the tracks on this album. It is accomplished and well produced but I feel lacks the heart and soul of its predecessors.

⭐⭐⭐