Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet album has the internet going through a collective meltdown: Here’s why

Now, we have the whole Short n’ Sweet album to lose our minds to. And if you’re yet to hit play, just know that the internet has of course beaten you to it. Their verdict? Everybody’s having a meltdown and for all the right reasons.

Short n’ Sweet is situationship central

Short n’ Sweet, clocking in at 36 minutes of pop and country with a strong hand of RnB is like a journey for girlies the world over, trying to make sense of their rabid love lives.

Across 11 tracks, Sabrina melodiously addresses almost every theme possible. Be it commitment without accountability, lust without love, exes circling back or the nightly session where you gaslight yourself — you will most definitely find a beat to obsess over. As a matter of fact, within a few hours of its release, Short n’ Sweet has been dubbed a ‘no skip album’, a top internet honour if there ever was one.

Barry Keoghan marks his presence in spirit

“Who’s the cute boy with the white jacket and thick accent?” Sabrina swoons, in standout track Bed Chem and you don’t need to be a pop scholar to understand that this is of course in reference to now and then beau Barry Keoghan.

The music video for Please Please Please already established that Sabrina is NOT up for being embarrassed by her main squeeze and the internet is holding Barry on thin ice when it comes to their favourite new pop star.

Bonus crash course in pop: The Chappell Roan edition

Sabrina may or may not have given a subtle nod to pop bestie Chappell Roan. The two are paralleling each other with their new found astronomic fame and there’s no need for there to be competition where there can be collaboration. Chappell Roan’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023) carries the track Casual which has it’s own fan base.

In her Short n’ Sweet track Sharpest Tool, Sabrina uses the lines “Guess I’ll waste another year on wonderin’ if / If that was casual, then I’m an idiot” which many are seeing as a reference to Chappell’s Casual, also specifically dealing with the same theme.

Something for everyone

Please Please Please and Espresso have endlessly ruled the roost. Now it’s time for the other 9 tracks to shine. Sharpest Tool deserves a special mention, for soul-scouring lines like “We were goin’ right, then you took a left / Left me with a lot of shit to second-guess / Guess I’ll waste another year on wonderin’ if / If that was casual, then I’m an idiot / I’m lookin’ for an answer in-between the lines” as well as for calling out patterns like always having their phone face-down and silence being a strategy in situationships.

Coincidence too, is picante and vengeful with lines that will have your jaw on the floor. Case in point being, “What a surprise, your phone just died / Your car drove itself from L.A. to her thighs / Palm Springs looks nice, but who’s by your side?”.

For anybody who has ever felt absolutely done with finding love, Dumb & Poetic will hit home. Sabrina is right there with you as she sings, “Just ’cause you act like one doesn’t make you a man / Don’t think you understand / Just ’cause you leave like one doesn’t make you a man”.

Slim Pickins on the other hand will accompany you in your despair as you realise for the millionth time how skewed the dating scene is, almost working against you. Sabrina sighs, “Since the good ones are deceased or taken / I’ll just keep on moanin’ and bitchin’ “.

Juno deserves a special shoutout, feeling like a more mature version of Sabrina’s 2022 head bop Nonsense. But Lie to Girls steals the limelight here because it calls out all the die-hard romantic girlies for consistently letting bad behaviour slide. Does “You don’t have to lie to girls / If they like you, they’ll just lie to themselves” sound relatable?

Final track Don’t Smile is not the bubble you want to end your little listening party with and that’s probably for the best. We’ve all been at “My heart is heavy now, it’s like a hundred pounds” and we’ll probably be there again. Might as well have a new track to sing out loud to.

Overall mood: Spicy times twelve with a few ounces of heartbreak.

Target audience: For everybody who deals with romantic rollercoasters with humour, sass and occasional bawling.

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