Largely thanks to her juggernaut pop hit Espresso, Sabrina Carpenter has felt inescapable all summer long. Propelled by a bouncy, caffeinated reggae off-beat, and sleazing yowls of Italo Disco-styled electric guitar – along with an expertly-delivered one-liner: “I’m working late, ‘cos I’m a siinnngggeerrr” – it landed as a refreshing, fun new shake-up of pop’s ongoing obsession with championing the smooth, glossy disco revival.
But if you were expecting Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet to serve up a whole tray of freshly brewed Espressos, then think again: that song ends up feeling like a total outlier on an album that instead pulls from twanging country, Swiftian acoustic ballads, the sort of floaty R&B favored by Ariana Grande, and Eighties synth-pop. Though these are all perfectly serviceable pop songs, many of them end up feeling lightweight and derivative in comparison to its biggest hit.
