Emails I Can’t Send, Sabrina Carpenter’s fifth studio album, came out July 15th, 2022 and I only just now got around to listening to it. I regret waiting so long.
Over a year after Olivia Rodrigo released her album Sour which put her, Sabrina and Joshua Bassett’s drama at the center of the public eye, Sabrina finally shared her side of the story in an amazing pop album. She explores themes of heartbreak, healing, love and reveals some information about the love triangle between the three. It’s not often that I find an album where I can say that there are no songs I would skip, but this may be one of them. Some standout songs include Vicious, Already Over, Tornado Warnings, and Bad for Business.
“Skinny Dipping” is a song that got some attention earlier in the year online for its somewhat jarring first verse, which is entirely spoken. While I will admit it took me some time to get used to the song, I found that I ended up really loving it. The melody of the chorus is addictive and the production is flawless. My favorite lyrics from the song are, “It’d be so nice, right? Right? / If we could take it all off and just exist / And skinny dip in water under the bridge.”
The song “Because I Liked a Boy,” a single off the album and probably one of my favorites; it addresses the reactions and assumptions made by fans over the love triangle drama, which resulted in a lot of hate towards Sabrina. In one part of the song she says,“Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice / All because I liked a boy.” She received a lot of hate for a situation that no one knew anything about, all because she was dating a boy.
This song was really eye opening because a lot of the time, I feel that we forget that celebrities are real people. For most fans, it’s entertaining to gossip and speculate about the lives of their favorite artists, but when that talk becomes too personal or harsh, there is a line that has to be drawn. In the end Josh, Olivia, and Sabrina are all young and deserve the ability to make mistakes and grow from them without others attacking them for it. Emails I Can’t Send is one of my favorite albums of the year because of Sabrina’s ability to be so honest while delivering a unique pop sound.