Even though Sabrina Carpenter has been in the music industry since 2015, with the release of her debut album Eyes Wide Open, the general public only really started to pay attention to her in the most recent years. From opening to Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour”, releasing one of the biggest songs of the decade with “Espresso”, to becoming a 2-time Grammy Award winner with her record breaking album, Short n’ Sweet, it seemed to fans that the year of 2024 could not be topped.
THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA
On June 2, Sabrina would go on to surprise everyone with the announcement of her brand new single “Manchild”, releasing only 3 days later. The track, filled with satirical lyrics about how the singer has a tendency to attract “manchilds” in her love life, debuted on top of the billboard top 100 charts and was named by magazines, such as Rolling Stone UK, as the 2025 song of the summer.
After a year filled with an album release, multiple award ceremonies, interviews and a tour throughout the US and Europe, most people thought that “Manchild” would be a loose single, but 6 days after its release, Sabrina would surprise everyone by announcing her brand new album, Man’s Best Friend, to be released in August 29.
Instantly after the album was announced, its cover already sparked controversy. On social media people accused Sabrina of comparing women to dogs, and influencing them to be submissive to men.
Sabrina has given an interview on Interview Magazine to say that she interpreted the cover completely differently, explaining that she sees submission as “both dominant and submissive (…) It really depends on what your intentions are and what you want, and what you crave, and what you need. The image, the way I see it, is a metaphor”. But, putting the hot takes aside, how is the music itself?
MAN’S BEST FRIEND
The full body of work, produced and written by Sabrina and her long time collaborators Jack Antonoff, Amy Allen and John Ryan, is composed with 12 tracks, including previously released single, “Manchild”, as the track one of the album, setting the 80’s country and disco influences on the production as well as the satirical lyrics poking fun at men.
The second single “Tears” is a disco pop track with flirty lyrics about how her boyfriend doing normal, mundane things, such as assembling furniture from Ikea and having open and honest communication with her about his feelings, makes “tears run down my thighs”. The music video, inspired by the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, features the Oscar nominated actor Colman Domingo in drag, serving as her temporary mentor.
The disco pop influence is very dominant throughout this album. The singer’s strength vocally is shown on multiple songs like “When Did You Get Hot?”, a track about how Sabrina reencounters an old acquaintance and is surprised about how hot he turned out to become, and the fun and cheeky “House Tour”, about how she wants to give a guy a tour around her house – which could be a metaphor for something else.
This album also has its own share of laid back productions, with R&B influence that highlights the more vulnerable lyrics and flawless lower registered vocals on tracks like “Sugar Talking”. The fourth track of the album summarizes how she’s fed up with her lover’s romantic words that don’t match his actions, “Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry”, and “Never Getting Laid”, which show a more vengeful side of Sabrina, leading to her warning a guy about how she will make his life hell (when she wants to), and wishing that her now-ex boyfriend develops agoraphobia and never gets laid again, respectively.
For fans that loved her country influenced tracks on her previous album, like “Coincidence” and “Slim Pickins”, Man’s Best Friend also offers a Dolly Parton-esque song on the fan favorite “Go Go Juice”. On this track Sabrina drinks up to forget her ex-boyfriend and starts drunk-dialing boys on her phone. This song is not only fun, but easily shows Sabrina at her strongest when it comes to cheeky and funny songwriting.
EVERY HIGHS HAS ITS LOWS
A negative aspect that most people have been complaining about online is that the album, in its entirety, is about men. Not only men, but how the ones that Sabrina gets involved with seem to constantly mistreat her, bringing in a feeling of repetitiveness throughout the entire body of work.
Sabrina herself has called this project her own version of a break-up album, exploring the entire arc of a relationship, which explains its themes being the center topic of every track. But, even though it makes sense storytelling wise, a song that strayed away from the relationship topic, which the singer did before in “15 Minutes”, for example, would’ve been a breath of fresh air to the tracklist.
A HIGHLIGHT OF 2025’S POP MUSIC
Despite all the controversies, negative reviews about lack of substance and repetitiveness, Man’s Best Friend debuted with 64 million streams during its first day on Spotify, an all time record for Sabrina and the highest debut of the year for any female artist.
This album might not be the most revolutionary body of work, but in a year where the music scenario has been, at its best, boring, it proves that the singer has solidified her sound as recognizable and widely loved within the general public. Sabrina Carpenter was officially able to do something that many dream of: marking her permanent spot as a powerhouse in the music industry.
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The article above was edited by Malu Alcântara.
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