With 2024's Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter reintroduces herself on an instant-classic summer album of stylishly fun, smartly executed pop. Having started out as a Disney kid in the 2010s, Carpenter had already transcended her early years by the time she released 2022's Emails I Can't Send, an album that found her fusing a personal singer/songwriter style with warm pop and dance hooks. Short n' Sweet takes her transformation even further, essentially starting fresh with a more potent and sophisticated sound, one that perfectly captures her cherubically resonant vocals and cheeky, eye-winking confidence. It doesn't hurt that she's teamed with two of the most empathetic pop producers in Jack Antonoff and Julian Bunetta. Also on board as co-writers and producers are John Ryan, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Amy Allen. This is a good team for Carpenter, who makes the most of her collaborations, moving between sultry, '70s-inspired disco and soul (via Bunetta) and breezy, '80s-inspired pop/rock (via Antonoff). There's the sparkling pop/rock opener, "Taste," which sounds improbably as if Tom Petty had written a song for Madonna in the '80s. We also get the romantic "Please Please Please," with its Electric Light Orchestra synths and multi-tracked Fleetwood Mac harmonies. Elsewhere, Carpenter deftly responds to the cotton-soft pop and R&B vibes of her contemporaries Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift on cuts like "Good Graces," "Sharpest Tool," and "Bed Chem" -- tracks that are truly low-key bangers that get stuck in your head. What's so great about her work here is how effortless and genuine the album sounds. Carpenter is a co-writer on every track, and there's a sharpness and gentle wit to the lyrics throughout. On "Taste," she revels the lasting impression she has surely made on her ex and by proxy his new paramour, coyly singing, "You're wonderin' why half his clothes went missin'/My body's where they're at/Now I'm gone, but you're still layin'/Next to me, one degree of separation." Even on the break-out summer hit "Espresso," with its flirty Euro-dance-club-meets-new-jack-swing vibe, Carpenter oozes a cool, knowing sensuality, ably owning the deliciously cheeky "me oh, my oh, that's me espresso" rhyme scheme. The song, which at first seems to be aiming for a fun, lightweight take on Earth, Wind & Fire, quickly reveals itself as one of those indispensable summer anthems that, as with all of Short n' Sweet, is sure to bubble back up every year.
- Matt Collar - allmusic.com
