Is "Man's Best Friend" my new best friend?: My thoughts on Sabrina Carpenter's new album

To begin with: YES. The new album Man's Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter IS my new best friend at the moment! That is to say, I can't stop listening to it, it is so fun and brings me so much joy, I want to talk about it to everyone, and I think about it quite a lot.

My favorite thing about the album in general is just how much it subverted expectations and really got people talking about Carpenter's intention and implication with her chosen album cover art. In the cover she is bent down on her knees facing a man's legs whose full body is not shown. He is grabbing a large clump of her hair and her hand is slightly touching his knee. The insinuation that can be made from analyzing the album art initially is that she is being degraded and overtly sexualized in the image. However, Carpenter herself said that she was trying to make a statement and that she thinks that submission or letting yourself be dominated can be powerful in it's own sense. I think it's a really interesting take on this complex dynamic, and the lead single off of the album, Manchild, is a great example of this. She takes back the power of being degraded by ridiculing the behavior of childish, irresponsible, or desperate men. There are common themes of this resentment towards men throughout the album that demonstrate just how deep the message of Carpenter's album cover itself goes.

The song that I liked the most in terms of it's danceability is "When Did You Get Hot?" because it has a very groovy beat and is really fun to dance to! The subject matter is also very funny because she's clearly talking about someone who she wasn't attracted to, but after seeing them after a while she is because they've grown into a "sexy man" (as she says in the song). I think that Sabrina Carpenter's humor also really shines through with the rest of this album especially in her song "House Tour" because she is doing a play on the idea of bringing someone into your house after the end of a date meaning that you're really bringing them up to "hook up" with them. She even begins the song by saying "take your shoes off" which can be said when you are about to be intimate with someone OR when you're entering a house.

There are a lot of other things I could say about all of the songs on this album, but I will just conclude by saying that I have been a fan of Carpenter's music since her 2022 album "emails I can't send" and with each release, even after thinking I already like her discography as much as possible, she outdoes herself! I highly recommend checking it out if you are looking for an album to dance and sing and hate loving men to.