“Espresso” is one of the hits of the summer – now the American wants to leave her Disney past behind with her new album.
According to Sabrina Carpenter, her “Espresso” was the drink of the summer. For months, the American singer’s self-confident mega-hit has been blaring from the speakers of ice cream parlors, swimming pool visitors and high school graduates on graduation trips. The secret of the 25-year-old blonde’s success? Playful self-confidence.
In the song, Carpenter addresses an imaginary partner and explains her behavior with the sentence: “That’s that me Espresso” – as is so often the case in pop, the really good lines can only be inadequately translated, here with “That’s the espresso kick that I trigger”.
Carpenter is a rising star, but not an overnight success
Now Carpenter is releasing a follow-up album, “Short ‘N Sweet.” There’s no doubt that with 36 million Instagram followers and almost 2.5 billion views of her videos on YouTube, the singer is one of the rising stars of the year. But if you look into the details on the video platform, you might be surprised: her channel has been around since 2009. In fact, Carpenter’s career is no coincidence. She was a child star in the Disney universe years ago and first rose to fame among teen audiences in 2014 as the independent Maya in the series “Life and Riley.”
Triumph thanks to Miley Cyrus copy competition
She first received attention five years ago when she came third in the singing competition “The Next Miley Cyrus Project”. One thing Carpenter and the “Flowers” singer have in common is that they wanted to emancipate themselves from the Disney image. Thanks to her role as Hannah Montana, Cyrus had to fight for a long time to be taken seriously as a singer, and she sometimes tried to draw attention to herself with eccentric behavior.
There are fewer known scandals involving Carpenter so far – but one thing is certain: she is definitely a product of the Disney machine, which has been producing world-famous superstars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez for decades.
This is what the twelve new tracks sound like
But how do the twelve tracks on the 36-minute “Short ‘N Sweet” sound? Unfortunately, they often sound a bit like uninspired copy machines. The opener “Taste” and some other tracks are reminiscent of Taylor Swift in terms of their vocal tone, right down to the less instrumented part with spoken vocal elements.
The follow-up single to “Espresso” “Please Please Please” is a pleasant pop earworm with a great flowing chorus, but doesn’t stay interesting for the full three minutes. However, Irish rising star Barry Keoghan caused a stir in the accompanying music video – he and Carpenter have been seen together frequently in recent months, and rumors of a relationship were not long in coming.
The lyrics are definitely stronger, with Carpenter being credited as co-writer on all songs. In addition to the “Espresso” wordplay, there is a wink in many places. For example, she sings: “I heard you’re an actor, so try playing a stand-up guy” or “I know you’re longing for some fresh air, but the ceiling fan is so nice.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
