ReutersCritics have described US pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s eagerly awaited new album as “smart pop with foam at the mouth” and, at the other end of the scale, as “without ideas, without integrity and without identity”.
Short n’ Sweet is Carpenter’s sixth album at age 25, but this summer the success of her single “Espresso” catapulted her to superstar status.
In a four-star review, The Times music critic Victoria Segal wrote: “The album doesn’t quite match the language-bending rush of Espresso, but it seems as though Carpenter prefers her songs like her coffee: short and a little bitter.
“Most of them last only three minutes, enough time to let her jump between her basic moods of intense lust, absent sadness and vengeful rage.”
“Incredibly shiny”
Beyond her “killer singles” “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” Carpenter is best seen as “a sort of Dolly Parton of Generation Z” in the songs “Coincidence” and “Slim Pickins,” Segal wrote.
“She’s a late summer addition, but beneath the fun, frothy trappings, Short n’ Sweet suggests Carpenter is here for the long haul.”
Helen Brown of the Independent said The success of the first two singles means that a lot depends on the success of the album.
“I’m happy to report that these punchy little song shots aren’t the only cool moments on an album that confidently switches between TikTok pop, yacht rock, country and R&B without losing its rhythm or identity,” she wrote.
Brown gave four stars to the forthcoming single “Taste” (“an incredibly polished slice of FM rock”) and “Coincidence” (“imagine a 21st century version of Crosby Stills Nash and Young with Joni Mitchell singing along around a beach campfire”).
“The whole thing is wonderfully caffeinated: Short n’ Sweet is full of fizz and steam, grinding gears and deep kicks under the shiny chrome surfaces,” she concluded.
“Lightweight and derived”
El Hunt from the Standard awarded three starsand called Short n’ Sweet “cheerful and easygoing, but lacks boldness.”
“If you were expecting Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet to serve you a whole tray of freshly brewed espresso, think again: This song ends up feeling like a total outlier on an album that’s instead made up of country twang, Swift-style acoustic ballads, the kind of soaring R&B Ariana Grande favors, and ’80s synth pop,” she wrote.
“Although these are perfectly decent pop songs, many of them seem trivial and trite compared to their biggest hit.”
Clash’s Ims Taylor agreed that the album as a whole cannot measure up to her first few singles – those “sultry, retro-tinged pop bops that assert Carpenter’s place as a pop star and irresistible icon, ruling the charts and admirers with infinite confidence.”
“But no – Short n’ Sweet tends towards the softer, more sincere side.”
Taylor gave it seven out of ten, adding, “Carpenter writes straight from the heart: no pretensions, no grandstanding, just exactly the silly, emotional, passionate thoughts that go through the mind of a 25-year-old woman in a situationship.”
She concluded, “Short n’ Sweet is a little less addictive overall than the first single, and a little less sensitive than its predecessor, but it’s a solid entry into the Sabrina canon, with plenty of potential to surprise you with a punch to the gut, if you can ever relate to it.”
Emily Bootle of the newspaper “i” was less forgivingShe gave two stars to an album that she felt was largely “completely forgettable.”
“Carpenter has a juicy aesthetic but lacks musical integrity,” she wrote.
“Being a sexy babe has its limitations, and while Short and Sweet offers a good dose of her effortless soprano runs and an intoxicating rush of sugary sweetness, it seems to have almost no organic essence or interesting musical ideas.”
