On June 3, 2024, Sabrina Carpenter announced the August 23rd release date of her sixth studio album; Short n’ Sweet. Before the release date, Carpenter dropped two singles that immediately gained popularity; “Espresso” on April 12, and “Please Please Please” on June 6. Upon further listening, here is a list of songs that stood out to me:

Don’t Smile
“Don’t Smile” is the last track of the album, where Carpenter rearranges the popular saying, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” and twists it to “Don’t smile because it happened, baby cry because it’s over.” The song takes the viewpoint of Carpenter after a breakup, describing her bitterness and longing over the past relationship. She stays envious of her previous partner and the relationship he now has started with someone else. Instead of preaching about moving on, Carpenter describes the jealousy she feels and the form of the stagnant process she’s in regarding the breakup. She begs her previous partner to miss her and for her friends to take her phone so she cannot contact the man.

Please Please Please
With over 650,000,000 streams on Spotify, the second track and single of Short n’ Sweet instantly gained popularity and had fans anticipating Carpenter’s album release. The song takes Carpenter begging her new relationship to not embarrass her, informing listeners that she has been ashamed in the past from previous men. This song lays out the path of taking a risk despite the consistent failure in former relationships.

Coincidence
The fifth track of Short n’ Sweet reverts from Carpenter’s usual upbeat pop sound into a more folk or country pop sound. This track depicts her relationship that subsequently ended with the man cheating. The title is a joke, stating that all of the cheating behavior Carpenter saw was true, even though the man does not want to admit he cheated. Carpenter makes a mockery of him with the title, laying out all the evidence, making sure he understands that she knows he was being deceitful and disrespecting their relationship by being with someone else.

My overall impression of Short n’ Sweet is positive, and I am excited that Sabrina Carpenter decided to play into various genres of music and production elements. It was refreshing to hear the R&B, 80s pop, and country pop influences blended, rather than a repeat of her past releases. Carpenter tends to involve witty writing and clever references in her music, which she experimented with extensively on this record, which I believe helps differentiate her music from other pop artists.