As the end of summer rapidly approaches, we now have the insight to describe those three golden months through a list of music, and it is an undeniable fact that former Disney Channel star Sabrina Carpenter will end up somewhere on that list.
Born in 1999 and raised in Pennsylvania, Carpenter took on acting roles in her pre-teen years, gaining appearances in the NBC drama series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the Fox sitcom “The Goodwin Games” and “Sofia the First.” Carpenter later gained mainstream attention by starring in “Girl Meets World,” a Disney spin-off of the 90s sitcom “Boy Meets World,” which ran from 2013 to 2017. While Carpenter was most recognizable for her work in television, she continued to pursue a career in music independently. In March 2014, Carpenter released her debut single “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” and continued to contribute vocally to several Disney Channel projects.
While Carpenter has always had mid-caliber success in her music, her recent releases have rocketed her up the music ladder. Open up Spotify and her teased blond hair and bubblegum pink cheeks can be found plastered on various playlists with titles that go something along the lines of “THE pop playlist of the summer” or “Today’s Top Hits!” It would be no stretch to suggest that her most recent music has provided her with the momentum to surge past mid-caliber success and into the upper echelon of pop stardom.
Her single “Espresso,” released on April 11 through Island Records, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was Carpenter’s highest hit on the chart at the time, finding popular success globally and reaching 1 billion streams on Spotify by Aug. 6. The song’s unshakable, hook-filled audio clips on TikTok earned the track even more attention. “Espresso” has become one of Carpenter’s signature songs and a defining tune of 2024’s summer pop landscape.
The neo-disco-funk-fusion track is fun, playful and undeniably pop. “Now he’s thinkin’ ‘bout me every night, oh/ Is it that sweet? I guess so/ Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know/ That’s that me espresso,” Carpenter sings with the flare of a sly wave and hair-toss over the shoulder. An unceasing earworm, even the most grave indie-folk-emo purists can’t help but tap their feet to the exactly 5-foot singer’s vocals as she coos along to a funky bass.
Carpenter followed up her caffeine-buzzed hit with “Please Please Please,” a soft rock, disco pop Billboard 100 topper, reaching No. 1 on the chart after its release. Slightly more muted than its predecessor, “Please Please Please” is still a lilting and catchy tune: “Heartbreak is one thing/ My ego’s another/ I beg you don't embarrass me/ Mother f-----,” Carpenter sings, her tone painting the image of the singer clutching her heart and delivering her warning with a smile and a wink.
But it’s not just grooving bass riffs, Dolly-Parton-esque twang and retro-synth details alone that can explain the success of “Short n’ Sweet.” Carpenter’s sun-bathing, eyelash-batting album has two secret weapons that give it a twist: songwriter Amy Allen and a healthy serving of playful vulgarity — the former largely responsible for the latter.
Allen has stood behind pop hits from the past we know well, contributing her talents to Halsey’s “Without Me,” Selena Gomez’s “Back to You” and Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House.” Her giggling, foul-mouthed lyricism is on full display in “Short n’ Sweet”: “And I bet we'd both arrive at the same time,” sings Carpenter on the album’s sixth track “Bed Chem.” “And I bet the thermostat's set at six-nine/ And I bet it's even better than in my head.” In “Juno,” Allen and Carpenter toss aside the sly metaphors and innuendos: “Adore me/ hold me and explore me/ I’m so f-----’ horny!” Ah yes, Sabrina, now we understand what you’ve been singing about this whole time!
Despite the bountiful bedroom talk that fills Carpenter’s lyrics, she also lets us know she’s not quite a pro at the romance thing, lamenting about her many stumbles at the front lines of modern dating: “Well, you crashed the car and abandoned the wreckage,” she sings on “Dumb & Poetic”: “F--- with my head like it’s some kind of fetish.” In her country-pop-Dolly Parton-esque track “Slim Pickins,” Carpenter sings: “If I can’t have the one I love/ I guess it’s you that I’ll be kissin’/ Just to get my fixings/ Since the good ones are deceased or taken/ I’ll just keep on moanin’ and bitchin.’” With the country guitarist picking the strings, Carpenter continues: “A boy who’s nice that breathes/ I swear he’s nowhere to be seen.”
The album is not devoid of personal reflection from the singer, but “Short n’ Sweet” doesn’t try to be what it’s not. It has none of the meandering gloom and vaporous soul-searching that has become expected of contemporary musicians. It’s a sparkling, neo-disco album — a mixture of country-sass and retro synth pop. It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s fun — and it knows it.
