ReutersReviewers for US pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s hotly-anticipated new album have described it as “smart pop underneath the froth” at one end of the scale, to having “no ideas, no integrity and no identity” at the other.
Short n’ Sweet is Carpenter’s sixth album at the age of 25, but this summer has seen her catapulted to superstardom by the success of her single Espresso.
In a four-star review, the Times music critic Victoria Segal wrote: “The album can’t quite match Espresso’s language-mangling head-rush, but it seems Carpenter prefers her songs to be like her coffee: short and a little bitter.
“Most just graze three minutes, enough time to let her bounce between her keynote moods of intense lust, spacey sadness and vengeful fury.”
‘Terrifically glossy’
Beyond her “killer singles” Espresso and Please Please Please, Carpenter is at her best as “a kind of Gen Z Dolly Parton” on the songs Coincidence and Slim Pickins, Segal wrote.
“She’s left it late to claim the summer but, beneath the fun, frothy trappings, Short n’ Sweet suggests Carpenter is here for the long haul.”
The Independent’s Helen Brown said the success of the two lead singles mean the album has a lot riding on it.
“I’m happy to report that those punchy little song-shots aren’t the only cool moments on an album that confidently hair-flips its way between TikTok pop, yacht rock, country and R&B without breaking stride or losing identity,” she wrote.
Brown’s four-star review picked out forthcoming single Taste (“a terrifically glossy slice of FM rock”) and Coincidence (“imagine a 21st-century version of Crosby Stills Nash and Young with Joni Mitchell singing along around a beach fire”).
“The whole thing is delightfully caffeinated: Short n’ Sweet is full of hiss and steam, grinding gears and deep kicks beneath the shining chrome surfaces,” she concluded.
‘Lightweight and derivative’
The Standard’s El Hunt gave three stars, calling Short n’ Sweet “bright n’ breezy, but lacking in boldness”.
“If you were expecting Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet to serve up a whole tray of freshly brewed Espressos, then think again: that song ends up feeling like a total outlier on an album that instead pulls from twanging country, Swiftian acoustic ballads, the sort of floaty R&B favored by Ariana Grande, and 80s synth-pop,” she wrote.
“Though these are all perfectly serviceable pop songs, many of them end up feeling lightweight and derivative in comparison to its biggest hit.”
Clash’s Ims Taylor agreed that the album as a whole doesn’t match her lead singles – those “sultry, retro-tinged pop bops that assert Carpenter’s place as pop star, irresistible icon, reigning supreme over charts and admirers with infinite confidence”.
“But no – Short n’ Sweet veers towards the softer, more sincere side.”
Marking it seven out of 10, Taylor added: “Carpenter is writing straight from the heart: no pretentiousness, no lofty aspirations, just precisely the silly, emotional, passionate thoughts that run through the head of a 25-year-old woman in a situationship.”
She concluded: “Short n’ Sweet as a whole is a little less addictive than its lead single, and a little less sensitive than its predecessor, but it’s a solid entry into the Sabrina canon, with plenty of potential to sneak up on you with a gut-punch should you ever find yourself relating to it.”
The i newspaper’s Emily Bootle was less forgiving, awarding two stars to an album she said was mostly “entirely forgettable”.
“What Carpenter possesses in juicy aesthetic she lacks in musical integrity,” she wrote.
“There’s only so far being a sexy baby can get you, and while Short and Sweet gives a good dose of her effortless soprano runs and a heady rush of saccharinity… it seems to have almost no organic essence or interesting musical ideas.”