If you’re like me, you’re likely counting down the days until Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet album drops on Aug. 23. Carpenter has already released the songs of the summer (Sabrina Summer, if you will) with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” that fans can’t stop singing and it seems like her upcoming album will have even more bops for us to obsess over.
In an Aug. 6 interview with Variety, Carpenter shared what fans can expect from Short n’ Sweet, which she compared to her beloved 2022 album emails i can’t send.
Carpenter described “the vibe of [her] album,” as “The faces of the ‘60s and ‘90s – old Hollywood, flirty and fun.” This vibe can be seen in the music video for her pop single “Espresso,” where Carpenter played with the aesthetic of old Holywood with retro cars, a pastel color pallet, and vintage fashion. She also had this vibe front and center in the MV for Please Please Please in which she had a Marilyn Monroe-inspired look while urging her problematic boyfriend, played by her real-life BF Barry Keoghan, not to embarrass her.
Though Carpenter thinks of Short n’ Sweet as “the hot older sister” of “emails i can’t send” given their similar vibes, it encapsulates feelings and experiences she wouldn’t have been able to write about a few years ago. “I really do think sometimes you can’t help but write from a different perspective after experiencing certain life events,” she told Variety. “I’m trying to avoid calling this ‘my dream album,’ because I don’t think I would have been able to dream up this set of songs a couple years ago.”
Given what she’s experienced in the last few years, Carpenter described the “sense of separation” she now feels from her earlier albums like 2015’s Eyes Wide Open, 2016’s EVOLution, 2018’s Singular Act I, and 2019’s Singular Act II. “For the people who love those early records and listen to them, I love you for that,” she said. “But I personally feel a sense of separation from them, largely due to the shift in who I am as a person and as an artist, pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.”
As for emails i can’t send, Carpenter tapped deeper into her feelings as she touched on the heartbreak that came with her father’s infidelity. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started learning about men and relationships. I’m not perfect by any means, but it definitely makes you look at your parents differently,” she said. The singer shared that the album was difficult to release but “marked the beginning of a really freeing and artistic time for me.”
In spite of Carpenter releasing four albums before emails i can’t send, she considers Short n’ Sweet her “sophomore” album. “It’s my second ‘big girl’ album,” she said. ”It’s a companion but it’s not the same. When it comes to having full creative control and being a full-fledged adult, I would consider this a sophomore album,” Carpenter said.
I can’t relate to desperation… except for when it comes to waiting for Short n’ Sweet’s release.