Short n' Sweet

Short n' Sweet is the sixth studio album by American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was released on August 23, 2024, through Island Records. Primarily a pop record with country, folk, disco, bubblegum, rock and R&B influences, Short n' Sweet was produced by Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Jack Antonoff. The album explores Carpenter's love life and her perspectives on 2020s dating. Its title is a reference to the emotional impact of her shortest romantic relationships, as well as her short stature and the album's brief runtime. She stated that Short n' Sweet is her second "big girl" album, feeling complete creative control of her music starting from Emails I Can't Send (2022), her first album with Island Records.
Two singles, "Espresso" and "Please Please Please", preceded the album's release; both topped the Billboard Global 200 chart and exposed Carpenter to wider commercial success. The songs marked her first number-ones on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively. The third single, "Taste", peaked at number one in the UK and number two in the US. Short n' Sweet topped the record charts in 18 countries and received certifications in 10 nations. "Bed Chem" was released as the fourth single. To support the album, Carpenter embarked on the Short n' Sweet Tour, the first arena tour of her career, in September 2024.
Upon release, Short n' Sweet received positive reviews from music critics, who praised the confidence of the lyrics and the music's enjoyability, although some criticized the songwriting as serviceable and low-risk. Short n' Sweet and its tracks received eight nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and won for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Espresso". Carpenter became one of the only fifteen artists in history to receive nominations in all four main General Field categories in a single night. She also released a deluxe edition of the album including a duet version of "Please Please Please" with Dolly Parton and "Busy Woman".
In 2022, Sabrina Carpenter released her fifth studio album, Emails I Can't Send, after signing with Island Records. The album found moderate commercial success with its deluxe edition single, "Feather", topping the US Pop Airplay chart and became her highest-charting track at the time on the Billboard Hot 100. To promote the album, she embarked on the Emails I Can't Send Tour, which began on September 29, 2022. From August 24, 2023, to March 9, 2024, Carpenter also served as an opening act for Taylor Swift on selected South American, Australian, and Asian dates of the Eras Tour. In January 2024, she was announced to be a performer at that year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
In February 2024, speaking with Maya Hawke for Interview, Carpenter expressed her excitement about her new music and said that she would be exploring more genres as she did with her last album. The next month, she confirmed in an interview with Cosmopolitan that she was working on her next album and noted "I'm starting to feel like I've outgrown the songs I'm singing [on The Eras Tour], which is always an exciting feeling because I think that means the next chapter is right around the corner". While being interviewed by Variety that August, Carpenter described the album as "the hot older sister" of Emails I Can't Send, and said that she "would consider" it as her second "big girl" album, in which she had "full creative control".
Prior to any official announcement, billboards with tweets about Carpenter's height were placed throughout New York City. On social media, she posted a video where she can be seen walking to the camera and planting a kiss on the screen, teasing a future announcement. On June 3, 2024, Carpenter confirmed the release of Short n' Sweet and revealed its cover artwork. The tracklist was revealed on July 9, 2024. The album was released on August 23, 2024. Some limited vinyl and digital download editions of Short n' Sweet contained an exclusive bonus track, "Needless to Say". Another limited digital download edition of the album, titled Short n' Sweet(er) and released on August 29, 2024, contained a different exclusive bonus track, "Busy Woman", which Carpenter had written shortly after the album was finished, and decided to release as a "thank you" to her fans.
On February 4, 2025, Carpenter announced a deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet and shared its track listing. She dubbed it a "thank you" for the first two Grammy Awards of her career, which she had won at the 67th ceremony two days prior. It features five new tracks, including "Busy Woman" and a remix of "Please Please Please" featuring Dolly Parton. The deluxe edition was released on February 14.
In early April, Carpenter began to tease a single via billboards, and revealed that she would be releasing "a little song" before her performance at Coachella. On April 11, 2024, Carpenter released the single "Espresso", which became the lead single for the album. The song found commercial success, peaking at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one in various countries. Carpenter has performed the song at several events including Coachella and Saturday Night Live. A music video directed by Dave Meyers was also released.
"Please Please Please" was released as the second single from the album on June 6, 2024, along with a music video that the singer teased via social media. Directed by Bardia Zeinali, the video served as a sequel to "Espresso" and featured Barry Keoghan. The song peaked at the top of the Hot 100, earning Carpenter her first number-one single on the chart.
A third single, "Taste", was released alongside the album on August 23, 2024. Directed by Dave Meyers, the music video features American actress Jenna Ortega. The song debuted at number two on the Hot 100, joined by "Please Please Please" at number three and "Espresso" at number four, which in turn made Carpenter the first act since The Beatles to chart their first three top five hits in the region during the same week. On October 8, 2024, "Bed Chem" was sent to contemporary hit radio as the album's fourth single.
On February 14, 2025, to coincide with the release of the deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet, a music video for the duet version of "Please Please Please" with Dolly Parton was released, co-directed by Carpenter alongside Sean Price Williams. "Busy Woman" was released to Italian radio on March 7, 2025.
On June 20, 2024, Carpenter announced the Short n' Sweet Tour and its 33 concert dates throughout North America. The North American leg began on September 23, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio, and ended on November 18 in Inglewood, California. The tour will visit Western European countries in early 2025, with 20 concerts planned. It will then return to North America in late 2025 for an additional 17 concerts.
Nearly all songs of Short n' Sweet are about romance, albeit exploring different facets and emotions of Carpenter's love life. Romantic nihilism and deadpan lyrics are recurring motifs, exploring 2020s dating. The album title is a reference to how Carpenter's shortest romantic relationships had impacted her the most emotionally. Critics also interpreted it as a reference to Carpenter's stature and the short length of the album.
Musically, the album is a pop record, with elements of R&B, rock, country, bubblegum, and folk music dominating the soundscape. Much of the album features compositions of acoustic guitars. Subtle elements of funk and disco are also present in the album. Critics have observed creative influences of Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Kacey Musgraves, and Ariana Grande on the album's composition.
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Short n' Sweet received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 from 17 critic scores. The review aggregator site AnyDecentMusic? compiled 15 reviews and gave Short n' Sweet an average of 7.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Upon the album's release, the BBC News reported a mixed reception from critics based on the first few reviews.
Several critics described Short n' Sweet as a strong and assertive release from a rising pop star. The Independent's Helen Brown, Variety's Jem Aswad, Slate's Carl Wilson, and Billboard's Jason Lipshutz considered the album an artistic evolution for Carpenter after her breakthrough with Emails I Can't Send, and praised its versatile yet cohesive sound, confident lyricism, and mainstream appeal. The Times' Victoria Segal and The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick regarded Short n' Sweet as a "smart" pop record that masquerades itself as a frothy mainstream release; McCormick elaborated, "Carpenter can come across as a slightly glib pop comedian for disillusioned Tinder addicts" in the album, even though "there are emotional counterweights in the clever songcraft".
A few critics felt the album was an artistically safe work engineered for listeners' tastes, while others lauded it as an authentic portrayal of Carpenter's wit. Lauren Murphy of The Irish Times and El Hunt of Evening Standard opined, in contrast to the risky and "challenging" music from Carpenter's peers in 2024, Short n' Sweet is a breezy, enjoyable and "serviceable" collection of songs. Tanatat Khuttapan of The Line of Best Fit felt the album is "on trend", catering to the audiences' affinity for subject relatability, "memeable catchphrases" and punchlines. On the other hand, McCormick, Slant Magazine's Charles Lyon-Burt, and Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield named Carpenter's humor the album's most remarkable trait. Pitchfork's critic Quinn Moreland labelled Short n' Sweet as refreshing escapism "in a pop landscape recently plagued by self-seriousness and a tiresome obsession with authenticity", admiring the album's "diamond-sharp" humor.
The album's sexual lyrics divided critics. On the positive side, Wilson opined that Carpenter reinvents herself as a "poet laureate of sex" in the album. Kiana Doyle of Associated Press described it as "flirty, fun and wholly unserious". Besides Doyle, Aswad also described Short n' Sweet as a perfected "NSFW" album. Chris Kelly of The Washington Post declared Short n' Sweet the "raunchiest, wittiest pop album of the year". In unfavorable reviews, Emily Bootle of i dubbed Short n' Sweet a "horny" album lacking in emotion, integrity, and "organic essence". Sputnikmusic criticized the album as a disappointing, "incredibly mediocre" release from Carpenter, finding the racy lyrics "weird and uncomfortable".
Some reviews, such as those from Segal and Hunt, considered "Espresso" the highlight of the album, finding other songs musically dull in comparison. Brown disagreed, claiming the album is anchored by its "TikTok pop" sound exemplified by many "cool" tracks other than "Espresso". On the other hand, Clash's Ims Taylor described Short n' Sweet as a soft and "sincere" album instead of the "sultry" archetypal popstar project its singles had hinted at, but agreed that the album is holistically "less addictive" than "Espresso". Stereogum's Tom Breihan agreed that much of the album, though polished, is not as breezy as "Espresso". Sputnikmusic declared that the album did not live up to the expectations set by "Espresso" and "Please Please Please".
Short n' Sweet debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, marking Carpenter's first number one and top-10 album and best opening week to date. It opened with 362,000 album equivalent units. The album spent a second week at the top spot with 159,000 album equivalent units. In its third week, the album remained at number one with 117,000 album equivalent units. This made it the second-longest running number one album of the year on the Billboard 200, only behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. As of September 2024, Short n' Sweet has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), marking this achievement as a first for any of her albums.
Musicians
Technical
Credits adapted from album liner notes.