Let's be clear, the title to
Sabrina Carpenter's seventh album, 2025's
Man's Best Friend, is an ironic joke. It's a play on her image as a sexy pop star, but one who is all too aware of the male gaze and who's dated more than one self-involved baby man. That it is also accompanied by a much discussed, probably satirical
Helmut Newton-inspired S&M album cover, is a fact that may, in all fairness, rub some fans the wrong way and keep them from digging deeper into the album. Online discourse aside,
Man's Best Friend is largely a fun, stylishly delivered follow-up to her 2024 breakthrough
Short n' Sweet. While that previous effort was technically her sixth, it felt closer to a debut, or at the very least a new start for the former Disney Channel star who came into her own with hits like "Espresso" and "Please Please Please;" songs that believably infused her own cherubic pop charms with the confident swagger of
Dolly Parton. Smartly building upon that sound,
Carpenter has made a follow-up that finds her settled comfortably into a late-'70s/early-'80s dance and country-pop sweet spot. It's a vibe that
ELO's
Jeff Lynne or
Buggles'
Trevor Horn might have had their hand in producing in the past. Here, that vintage-inspired vibe comes courtesy of the main
Short n' Sweet-production/songwriting team of
Jack Antonoff and
John Ryan, who help
Carpenter evoke artists like
Parton and
Olivia Newton-John; the latter of whom particularly comes to mind while listening to the album. Primary to this contemporary-meets-throwback vibe is the opening "Manchild," a giddy, smart anthem about the ubiquity of immature men that matches the catchy, endearing heights of
Short n' Sweet. Full of frothy synth and twangy guitar accents, the song soars on
Carpenter's blue-sky vocals and perfectly sets up the overall tone of the album. From there we get the
Giorgio Moroder-esque disco-R&B grooves of "Tears," "Sugar Talking," and "Never Getting Laid," songs that smartly evoke '70s pop-soul, but which wouldn't sound out of place on a modern K-pop production. All of this is savvily put together, presenting
Carpenter as a thinking-person's pop star, both polished and glam but more than willing to show you that she's just as flawed and clumsy as the average girl, especially when it comes to dating and sex. She's also not afraid to spice things up, expressing playful exasperation that her "slutty pajamas" aren't getting her partner in the mood in "My Man on Will Power," or admitting that arguing and making up can sometimes be the erotic, if admittedly toxic fuel to a relationship in "We Almost Broke Up Last Night." Ultimately,
Carpenter feels like she's writing from her own relatable experience on
Man's Best Friend and while her tongue remains firmly planted in her cheek, the album has plenty of pop bite. ~ Matt Collar
