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After the release of The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift entered the periodic “flop” era of her cyclical career, a pattern best represented by a steep sinusoidal graph, featuring higher highs and lower lows. Her intermittent downward trajectory left a vacancy in the pop girl realm for the summer of 2024 (but don’t worry, she will inevitably be back when she wins album of the year again), leaving many to speculate who will take her spot. Of course, with Charli XCX’s Brat lighting the world on fire the past few months, it’s easy to point towards her as this season’s pop girl. But Charli has always been a relatively strong player in the world of pop. Instead, this summer has seen the rise of two “new” pop artists launched into this echelon of fame: Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.
Of course, this is an overly simplistic summary of Carpenter’s rise to fame. First, the search for a new pop girl cannot be attributed to Swift’s latest release receiving less critical acclaim than her past works; if anything, it has proved that there is always an audience for her music, making Swift more untouchable than ever. Rather, Carpenter’s newfound popularity is the result of a sort of pop renaissance; or maybe it’s the other way around, in which Carpenter is a progenitor for this revitalization. Second, neither Chappell Roan nor Sabrina Carpenter is a new artist. The former was on the verge of terminating her career before her very recent meritocratic skyrocket to fame. And when the latter released her highly anticipated Short n’ Sweet at the tail end of August, many viewed the album as her sophomore attempt — despite it being her sixth studio release.
But, in a way, this is Carpenter’s sophomore album. The pop star’s first real foray into the music industry was singing the theme song on Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World,” a show in which she portrayed the blonde, snarky counterpart to Rowan Blanchard’s kindhearted lead. She has come a long way since then, and Short n’ Sweet may be Carpenter’s final cut to the ties binding her to the girl from Disney Channel.
Mixing clever euphemisms with bold, bald explicit statements, the album packages Carpenter’s new direction in a fun, poppy tune. It’s very much in line with the new image Carpenter has been cultivating, demonstrated by the unique “Nonsense” outros she’s bestowed upon audiences (a bit she is unfortunately retiring). Although the idea of a female pop artist including innuendos in her work is nothing new, Carpenter has a shockingly refreshing approach through her invigoratingly clever wordplay, an element of her music that extends far beyond sexual implications.
That is not to say Carpenter is always coy and never introspective on Short n’ Sweet. “Dumb & Poetic,” a track rumored to be about Shawn Mendes, sees Carpenter reminisce over an ex-lover who ultimately proves to be detrimental to her. It trades the synth-pop of her two singles for a more stripped-down singer-songwriter approach, a warm guitar and Carpenter’s phenomenal voice eviscerating her target to an acoustic ballad. “Lie to Girls” is a lyrically scathing track, exploring the limits of what a girl will do for a man; when she sings “We love to read the cold, hard facts and swear they’re incorrect / We love to mistake butterflies for cardiac arrest,” it’s equal parts tragic and relatable, especially when coupled with Carpenter’s lush voice. Conversely, the song’s backdrop is quite sweet-sounding, Carpenter floating dreamily over twee guitar chords. It’s an interesting juxtaposition that highlights the blistering criticism directed at an ex-lover.
The dichotomy between light-hearted pop and reflective introspection is not the only diversity Carpenter displays through Short n’ Sweet. Songs like “Please Please Please” are bright, effervescent and distinctly Jack Antonoff-esque, while other tracks such as “Slim Pickins” see Carpenter venture off into the realm of country (interestingly, also produced by Jack Antonoff). While Carpenter is not the only pop artist to flirt with country music (see Cowboy Carter and the rumored Lasso), her country-isms don’t take over the album: Instead, they’re an example of the genre diversity featured all over Short n’ Sweet. Even the two singles that launched Carpenter into this new level of fame display this sonic diversity — “Please Please Please” is a (relatively) slower track regarding the embarrassment she feels over her lover, while “Espresso” is a cheeky self-love anthem. These differences highlight Carpenter’s range without sacrificing any of the cohesiveness presented by Short n’ Sweet. It’s a fine line she walks, but it ultimately provides her the most compelling case for why she deserves to occupy that previously vacant pop girl seat.
Daily Arts Writer Amaya Chowdhury can be reached at amayach@umich.edu.
The post Sabrina Carpenter keeps it short n’ sweet on new album afer her rise to fame appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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