Sabrina Carpenter surprised her fans this Valentine’s Day with a deluxe version of her acclaimed album “Short n’ Sweet.” Almost two weeks prior to its release, she won two Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Solo Performance for her hit song “Espresso”. On her website, Carpenter teased this deluxe album by saying it has, “…lyrics that make you giggle & blush and songwriting that makes you wish you’d thought of it first.” The album includes five new songs: “15 Minutes,” “Please Please Please (feat. Dolly Parton),” “Couldn’t Make It Any Harder,” Busy Woman” and “Bad Reviews.”
The first new track made me immediately curious of what it could be about. “15 Minutes” encapsulates you instantly with its groovy, strong bass line. Carpenter is known for her raunchy lyrics filled with innuendos and this song is exactly that. We hear how much Carpenter can do in 15 minutes, even saying it’s only “gonna take two to make you finish.” This flirty song is exactly what we’d expect to hear from Carpenter.
As a long time Dolly fan and a relatively new Sabrina Carpenter fan, I was overjoyed to hear about their collaboration. “Please Please Please (feat. Dolly Parton)” has the same pop sound of the original while incorporating the classic and iconic Dolly sound. Parton’s southern drawl and Carpenter’s light and breathy sound fill this song like nothing we’ve ever heard from a feature. The lyrics have even been modified in order to comply with Parton’s clean image and persona, changing “I beg you don’t embarrass me mother f***er” to “I beg you don’t embarrass me like the others.” This song feels like classic Dolly Parton, while still having the lyrics and modern pop vibe of all the other songs on “Short n’ Sweet.”
“Couldn’t Make It Any Harder” was a complete 180 of what I imagined and I’ve never been more excited for this unique change for Carpenter. Instead of being the sexual song I thought it was, it was a beautifully written power ballad. The innuendos in the song have switched to have a deeper meaning to the audience. In the beginning Carpenter tells how she used to be a “glass-half-full” kind of gal, but she has since changed with age and trial and error. She says how this person will eventually leave her for someone who makes loving easy. This is a lyrically powerful song and quite possibly one of the strongest vocals we’ve heard from Carpenter.
Another girl power pop song by Carpenter is “Busy Woman.” With a fun 80’s sound, this song tells the story of a woman with a full calendar who doesn’t want to ‘give her love’ to someone who wants it rather than needs it. She explains how it takes a lot for a woman to ‘give away her love’ by singing, “so much to shave and lipstick to reapply.” Carpenter sings how she’s ready to settle down and love someone for the long run with the lyric “I’ll be your perfect Mrs. ‘til the day that one of us dies.” She teases the audience with all these things one could get from her and even jokes that her calendar openings are “super tight”. Usually Carpenter loves to accommodate her younger audience, but this song feels more mature and relatable.
“Bad Reviews” is very on brand for Carpenter. In this song we hear how she’s been told to not fall for this guy because he’s “bad news,” and she’s losing all her friends because they tell her to stay away. Despite everything, she chooses to be in love with him. Carpenter makes it clear to listeners that she is aware of the situation she is in and it’s all a choice she is making. We know vaguely of her true intentions with the line “‘cause I refuse to be wrong again.” She’s been tricked before and as a woman, sometimes it can be embarrassing or even saddening to admit we put ourselves back into a situation where we know it’s not good for us.
Often deluxe albums are filled with remixes and nonsense features, but these additions are all on brand. They fit well with the rest of the album and avoid the repetition of some modern music. Carpenter tells different stories and points of view that show us it’s okay to not be a perfect woman, not comply to male pressure and to not limit ourselves to what other people say we are.
