3/10
Just days after celebrating the one-year anniversary of her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, pop artist Sabrina Carpenter released her seventh album, Man’s Best Friend. The project encapsulates her broad range of emotions through failed relationships and comes shortly after her breakup with actor Barry Keoghan. While the songs are mostly catchy and danceable, Carpenter fails to show significant artistic growth from her last album, drawing on the same sensual themes to an even higher degree—sparking controversy over whether her self-sexualization undermines feminist progress.
Carpenter opens the album with “Manchild,” an upbeat anthem that combines a country twang with a pop of synth. “Manchild” sets the tone for the album—Carpenter is not a man’s best friend. The song captures both Carpenter’s frustration with and affinity for incompetent and immature men. “Man child / Why you always come a-running to me? / F*ck my life / Won’t you let an innocent woman be?” she sings. While the song is fun and quite danceable, its bouncy rhythm and cadence of singing feel too similar to songs from Short ‘n Sweet, specifically “15 Minutes.”
“My Man on Willpower” stands out as one of the few tracks where Carpenter’s vocals truly shine—especially in the chorus, where her natural tone breaks through layers of production. Still, the song feels slightly overdone and makes the emotion feel less sincere. Lyrically, it centers on the disappointment of a man who once seemed in love with her but now barely shows interest. “He used to be literally obsessed with me / I’m suddenly the least sought after girl in the world,” Carpenter sings.
“Nobody’s Son” continues to showcase Carpenter’s lack of belief in the current dating world because of her past relationships. “Probably should have guessed he’s like the rest, so fine and so deceiving,” Carpenter sings. The song opens slowly with a synth baseline and gradually builds momentum after each verse, layering in a punchy drumline that contrasts with Carpender’s breathy vocals. Still, the song ultimately falls flat and feels forgettable. No one can deny that Carpenter has an incredible singing voice—she’s a true vocalist at heart. However, this album somehow downplayed her range. Overproduction and heavy backing tracks crowd out her voice, which deserves to be the star.
In “When Did You Get Hot?” like many of her other songs, Carpenter leans heavily on sexual innuendo. “Congratulations on your new improvements / I bet your light rod’s, like, bigger than Zeus’s,” Carpenter sings. These lines are cute and quirky once or twice, but when nearly every song includes a similar joke, the gimmick quickly wears thin. Writing scandalous and expletive lines just feels like lazy songwriting after a certain point. It’s especially disappointing given Carpenter’s potential to craft more thoughtful lyrics and evolve beyond the themes of Short n’ Sweet. The same goes for “Tears,” the album’s second single. “Baby, just do the dishes, I’ll give you what you (What you), what you want,” she sings. While the disco-pop production and Carpenter’s vocalizations throughout the song make for interesting music, the lyrics once again fall short. The accompanying music video, loosely inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show, features Carpenter dancing in lingerie and eventually killing her boyfriend—a familiar theme in her visuals.
The album also faced controversy leading up to its release due to its cover, which featured Carpenter on her knees with a man holding her hair. While it was clear after the album’s release that the cover was satirical, some found the image to be regressive and demeaning of women.
Additionally, ending an album with a breakup track entitled “Goodbye” might be one of the most unoriginal choices that Carpenter could have made. The song is one of the most catchy, starting slowly with piano and violin—complementing Carpenter’s sorrowful voice—then transitioning to an almost show-tunes-inspired chorus. Though enjoyable, the song’s lyricism again feels predictable: “But I’ll say, ‘Arrivederci, au revoir’ / Forgive my French, but f*ck you, ta-ta,” she sings. With stronger lyrical development, the song could have delivered a more impactful finale.
Man’s Best Friend fails to progress Carpenter’s singing career and falls flat after the grand success of her last album, Short ‘n Sweet. The album’s production isn’t enough to make up for the subpar and lewd lyrics and vague sense of deja vu that listeners get when hearing the tracks. For an artist who wants to be distant from her Disney Channel career, she sure took one from their book and released a bad sequel that nobody wanted.
