Sabrina Carpenter in tier list
the first album sounds pretty much exactly like how I’d expect 2015 pop album by a 16 year old Disney child actor to sound. It’s pretty good, too, but I do think I feel that the style is limiting. Second album is called EVOLution, and it also feels like how you’d expect an album called EVOLution made by a 17 year old trying to advance her brand and move beyond being a saccharine ukulele song girl into being a mature artist young woman to sound. It trades guitar and piano for electronic beats and synthesizers and all those styling types of thing. I don’t think it’s as good, but it’s not bad. Third album feels like a reasonable progression from EVOLution. Definitely better, but still not my fav. Still feels… stiff? Over worked? I dunno exactly the feeling. It’s not a terribly strong feeling, less strong than in EVOLution, but still there. Fourth album (part two of third album) is a pretty straight upgrade over the one before. The next one, emails i can’t send, is solid. That one’s really quite good, actually. I think it’ll probably grow on me. It’s super clean, it’s super tight, it’s super enjoyable, with several standout songs.
Short ’N Sweet is good. It’s mostly about sex and desire and things in that vein, but it’s glib enough and occasionally real enough that I’m able to feel it’s more than just fluff. I sometimes read the interviews or whatever from the young pop artists where they talk about all the emotion and thought and deep meaning that goes into their songs, and I can’t help but call bs. Call a spade a spade, y’know? You’re selling the sex appeal, you’re singing about sex, you’re writing to the formula, it’s not that deep. I think Sabrina Carpenter cashes that in well while maintaining enough snark for herself that I don’t mind it, I think it works. And again, yeah, the music is good. It’s fun, it’s solid, it’s clean.
Taken altogether, you have the first album that’s pure teenage girl pop, the next three albums that are… I dunno what word to use, how to describe. They’re kinda that next level of pop production, very digital and slightly electronic. It takes her a second to figure that out, but I think she gets there, kinda. It’s kinda hard to say, it’s not my favorite type of sound anyway. After those are her two albums that I actually like, where she gets into brighter, airier pop. Those last two albums are what make me care about her at all. Everything before that is mid at best, but those last two albums are consistent, catchy, and feel like they have a depth to them, like there are layers of consideration and design.
If it were just those last two albums, I’d give an easy… high A-, as a jumping off point? But taking into account everything, I’m… well, no, I don’t think I would give a B+, I really quite enjoyed the most recent two albums. So I’ll say a mid-low A-
One thing I found amusing, if only to myself, was that the comparison I found myself making the most often was to Maisie Peters. I only really started hearing it on the last two albums, which is even more funny. It’s flattering to Peters because those were the albums I liked; it’s not flattering to Peters because the comparison I made in my mind often took the form of “this is like Maisie Peters but better”. I’ve a friend who loves Maisie Peters, and likes Sabrina Carpenter’s first album but only that one, so it just cracks me up a little, is all. Anyway. A- to Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter complete, now listening to: Who Cares Band
tunafruitsandwitch 