Say you can鈥檛 sleep? knows. That鈥檚 that her espresso.
The 25-year-old pop sensation鈥檚 鈥� with its grammatical mystery of an earworm line, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 that me espresso鈥� 鈥� gave listeners a taste of her The former Disney Channel actor鈥檚 sixth studio album follows an explosive year marked with successes, from opening for Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour to performing at Coachella.
She's confident, she's radiant, and she'll air out all your dirty laundry in a breakup song if you wrong her.
In the flirty, fun and wholly unserious 鈥淪hort n' Sweet,鈥� Carpenter鈥檚 soprano vocals take humorous jabs at exes and drop innuendos with an air of cheeky innocence. Sugary songs like 鈥淭aste鈥� and 鈥淛uno鈥� incorporate enough NSFW references to have listeners blushing almost as much as the rosy-cheeked singer.
There鈥檚 a country twang to some tracks, like 鈥淪lim Pickins,鈥� an acoustic number bemoaning the difficulties of finding a good man and having to settle for a guy who 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 even know the difference between 鈥榯here,鈥� 鈥榯heir鈥� and 鈥榯hey are.鈥欌��
Carpenter shows a more vulnerable side with ballads like 鈥淒umb & Poetic鈥� and 鈥淟ie to Girls,鈥� in which she drops her carefree front to sing unguarded lyrics airing out grievances against an ex.
鈥淒on鈥檛 think you understand,鈥� she sings in 鈥淒umb & Poetic.鈥� 鈥淛ust 鈥檆ause you act like one doesn鈥檛 make you a man.鈥�
But it's when pop tracks blend into R&B that Carpenter really shines. Her breathy vocals work so well on such tracks as 鈥淕ood Graces鈥� and 鈥淒on't Smile," reminiscent of Ariana Grande or Mariah Carey.
Which direction will she take next? Only Carpenter knows. Isn't that sweet? Carpenter guesses so. That is, after all, that her espresso.
Kiana Doyle, The Associated Press
