On Aug. 29, Sabrina Carpenter dropped her seventh studio album, “Man’s Best Friend.” Before the album was released, Carpenter showed off the album cover on June 11 and announced its release date. This sparked a controversy surrounding its suggestive album cover. The cover portrays Carpenter on all fours while a man holds her hair like a dog on a leash. This startled many fans as they felt it was too much for an album cover and instead should be a poster included when you buy the vinyl.
Many were worried that the album would feel rushed and incomplete after her previous Grammy-winning album “Short n’ Sweet” was only released a year earlier. The success of “Short n’ Sweet” was something that would be difficult to follow up on.
The new album starts with the only single released, “Manchild,” in which Carpenter exclaims her frustration with today’s men and their incompetence in relationships. The single has undertones of country mixed with pop beats. This isn’t the only song in the album with country influences, which Carpenter has done in the past, so it wasn’t surprising to see in this album.
The song “When Did You Get Hot” is the strongest song. It has a funky beat to it with pretty good lyrics. She sounds really good in this song and the lyrics just roll off her tongue. This song has also inspired a TikTok trend where people show off their glow-ups or their partners’ glow-ups. Overall, it’s just a fun song to listen to.
One thing that stood out was the slight jazzy lullaby sound in many of the songs. Songs like “Never Getting Laid” and “Don’t Worry, I’ll Make You Worry” demonstrate this perfectly. These songs also have echoey vocals at times which add a dream effect. In the song “Go Go Juice” has a cool effect towards the end where Carpenter uses gang vocals and a layering technique to make the listener feel like they are experiencing the fuzzy confusing feel of being intoxicated.
This album’s strength was the beats and background sounds. She really experimented with funky sounds in some songs which elevated the listening experience though at times she used sound effects like a sparkle and whip sound effect in “Nobody’s Son” which was unexpected and pulled you out of the song. Even with these strong instrumentals, the lyrics didn’t hold up as well.
With any newer Carpenter album there are a lot of sexual innuendos throughout the whole album which wasn’t surprising but it would have been a little more exciting if she switched it up a little. Other than that her lyrics consist of man-hating critiques and basic metaphors about doing adult things like drinking.
The vocals on the album were good but that’s about it. She does hit some impressive high notes in many of her songs. In many of the verses she holds out the last symbol of the word out a little bit too long, which is fine but when you end almost every verse with this it gets old quickly.
The end of the album ends with a song called “Goodbye,” which just feels lazy. The song is about how if you break up with her you are never going to see her again. In the chorus it repeats the word goodbye in different languages a bunch of times. It feels like a cheap way to end an album though it is fun that she breaks the fourth at the very end of the song telling the listener to “Get home safe.”
Overall the album was good, but most likely won’t live up to “Short n’ Sweet” legacy. There is a high chance that “Manchild” will win an award in the future, but the hope is that Carpenter will take a little more time with her next album to make it even better.
