Music
The 11 best Sabrina Carpenter songs
Sabrina's summer weekend at BST Hyde Park is coming up, so we're picking her top tracks
Despite her Best New Artist nod at this year’s Grammys, Sabrina Carpenter has been in the game for a while. Releasing her debut single over a decade ago, the pop star’s career can be looked at in two halves: before Emails I Can’t Send and after. Her fifth studio album was a breakout project, pushing her from teen pop star with a dedicated fandom towards mainstream artist. 2024’s Short n’ Sweet sealed the deal, topping the Billboard charts and dominating radio for months.
There’s plenty to love about Carpenter’s early discography – the Meghan Trainor-penned ‘Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying’ is as endearing a debut as one could hope for from any Disney kid, and Carpenter’s first four records show an interesting evolution from beginner songwriter into pop powerhouse. There are standouts from these years – addicting bubblegum breakup anthem ‘Sue Me’ and meditative love song ‘Honeymoon Fades’, to name a couple. That said, no tracks from pre-Emails made it onto this list. Her recent work is just that good.
11. ‘Tornado Warnings’
Sabrina Carpenter - Tornado Warnings (Official Audio)
(Emails I Can’t Send, 2022)
If Sabrina Carpenter is to be believed, she hasn’t seen her ex since they broke up. Of course, this is revealed to be untrue – ‘Tornado Warnings’ depicts a conflicted Carpenter sitting in therapy, freely lying to her therapist about the healing she’s doing. It’s an interesting conceit for a pop song, Carpenter insisting she deserves not to talk about her ex for a minute as she continues to do exactly that. The songwriting is smart and the cautiously foot-tapping instrumental is the perfect fit, landing the track somewhere between introspective and highly catchy.
10. ‘Bad For Business’
Sabrina Carpenter - Bad for Business (Official Audio)
(Emails I Can’t Send, 2022)
Sabrina Carpenter does some of her best work on a country pop track, and ‘Bad For Business’ is one of the standouts on Emails I Can’t Send, her airy vocals given an infectious melody to sail through. A brilliantly simple concept, ‘Bad For Business’ sees Carpenter lamenting the fact that whilst her current relationship might be perfect in every way, it isn’t providing her with much songwriting material. There’s some gorgeous vocal layering going on here and a fun yeehaw guitar vibe running through it.
9. ‘Bed Chem’
Sabrina Carpenter - Bed Chem (Official Lyric Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
One of the more risqué tracks on a pretty risqué album, ‘Bed Chem’ sees Carpenter showing off her ability to combine sex and comedy. Picking up where ‘Nonsense’ left off, the track is packed with innuendo and crude wordplay, but there’s something a little magical and nostalgic in the synth-loaded instrumental, and Carpenter’s vocal performance is no joke. Bonus points for that ‘comradery’ line…
8. ‘Fast Times’
Sabrina Carpenter - “Fast Times” (Official Video)
(Emails I Can’t Send, 2022)
The second single from Emails I Can’t Send, ‘Fast Times’ was early proof that Sabrina Carpenter had mastered the sultry pop song. A slick, sexy piece of Carpenter-style bossa nova, ‘Fast Times’ sees the singer rattling through the early stages of a relationship, falling in quicker than she can keep track of. The laid back, too-cool instrumental blends soft rock and finger-tapping pop, with Carpenter’s smooth vocals lusciously folded in.
7. ‘Espresso’
Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso (Official Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
It may have suffered from overplay (a fair amount) but ‘Espresso’ is an excellent pop song. Playful, distinctive in sound and just the right amount of nonsensical, the lead single of Short n’ Sweet combines all of Carpenter’s strengths. We’ve got cutesy innuendo, fluid vocals and a melody that probably won’t leave your head for days now we’ve reminded you of it. You’re welcome.
6. ‘Slim Pickins’
Sabrina Carpenter - Slim Pickins (Official Lyric Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
She may be doing fairly well for herself in pop, but Carpenter’s voice is made for country. Buttery soft and almost as warm and inviting as Dolly Parton herself – if that isn’t sacrilege to say – her performance on ‘Slim Pickins’ takes an already great piece of songwriting and turns it into one of Short n’ Sweet’s strongest offerings. With some of Carpenter’s most charming witticisms – “This boy doesn’t even know the difference between ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they are’ she laments – and a title-appropriate finger-picked guitar, ‘Slim Pickins’ is hard not to love.
5. ‘Taste’
Sabrina Carpenter - Taste (Official Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
Album opener ‘Taste’ lets the listener know upfront that they’re in for a blast of a pop record with Short ‘n Sweet. Carpenter indulges her toxic side as she reminds the girl her ex has gone back to that she can’t erase what happened between them. With a little bit of country swagger and a tinge of pop rock, the singer blends genres to deliver a true banger of a pop song – with a dose of her characteristic unseriousness, of course. The music video, starring Jenna Ortega, is also an absolute delight.
4. ‘Coincidence’
Sabrina Carpenter - Coincidence (Official Lyric Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
The most tub-thumping, spur-clacking country song that Carpenter has ever delivered – and it’s a hoot. Deeply sarcastic, the singer counts up the crazy string of coincidences that links her boyfriend to his ex-girlfriend. Packed with infectious riffs, boot-stomping percussion and vocals dripping with cynicism, Carpenter performs like she’s standing atop a crowded bar at the local watering hole, a choir of listeners chiming in to back her up. We challenge you not to be charmed.
3. ‘Nonsense’
Sabrina Carpenter - Nonsense (Official Video)
(Emails I Can’t Send, 2022)
Arguably the track that gave us Sabrina Carpenter as we know her today, ‘Nonsense’ is a luscious stream of sexy word vomit, a song so tightly packed with sexual innuendo it inspired Carpenter to add a personalised outro for each city she visited on her Emails I Can’t Send tour – always with a little NSFW energy, of course. The pop star has a knack for an earworm and the vocal range to take a catchy melody to new heights – just listen to her joke about jumping the octave and promptly follow through. On paper, it’s ridiculous, and yet the whole thing just works. “Woke up this morning thought I’d write a pop hit/How quickly can you take your clothes off, pop quiz?” is an objectively brilliant couplet.
2. ‘Juno’
Sabrina Carpenter - Juno (Official Lyric Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
Carpenter makes brilliant use of those retro synths on one of Short n’ Sweet’s most outrageous tracks, a love song that quickly devolves into a manifesto about how she’s so turned on she might just start a family (a wild reference to the 2007 film about teen pregnancy starring Elliot Page). Is it an insane subject for a horny pop track? Perhaps, but that 80s-influenced sound and Carpenter’s sugary vocals are irresistible, and some well-placed quips from Carpenter let us know not to take the whole thing seriously. “I showed my friends, then we high-fived/Sorry if you feel objectified,” she sings. Elsewhere: “God bless your dad’s genetics.” From who else are you going to get sexy pop this packed with personality?
1. ‘Please, Please, Please’
Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please (Official Video)
(Short n’ Sweet, 2024)
Elements of country-pop, synth-pop and disco melt together on a track so beautifully crafted it deserves to be under the hammer at Christie’s. ‘Please, Please, Please’ is Carpenter’s show of pop mastery, distinctive in sound but still hugely radio-friendly and undeniably catchy, with warm country vocals, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a smart concept. Carpenter has a knack for identifying very specific but widely relatable feelings and putting them concisely into words, and this track about begging your boyfriend not to prove to your friends that you have bad taste in men displays some of her best writing. Jack Antonoff’s production is wonderful, sparkly and melodic, something to which you could perform a melancholy line dance. The track showcases everything that makes Carpenter special as an artist – a unique style of lyricism, a distinct vocal tone, a confident grasp on genre-mashing, and, of course, the ability not to take herself too seriously. The next decade of pop is in good hands.
