Album Review: "Man's Best Friend" - Sabrina Carpenter

Ashley Adams
Sep 9
7 min read

Sabrina Carpenter Man's Best Friend Cover Art

Man's Best Friend is the newest album from icon and superstar Sabrina Carpenter, filled with songs about the hardships of love, with production styles inspired by music from pop and country stars throughout the 20th century alike.

T R A C K L I S T

Manchild
Tears
My Man on Willpower
Sugar Talking
We Almost Broke Up Again
Nobody's Son
Never Getting Laid
When Did You Get Hot?
Go Go Juice
Don't Worry I'll Make You Worry
House Tour
Goodbye

Many people may say that Sabrina Carpenter is a new artist, according to her breakout single "Espresso" in 2024, which was a global hit. However, she has found an interest in music all of her life, and has been performing from a young age, whether it be for music or acting. She began as a Disney star, while simultaneously releasing her debut album Eyes Wide Open. Her hit song "Thumbs" came off of her sophomore album EVOLution. Following this were her next albums Singular Act I and II. By 2022, she had moved from Hollywood Records to Island Records, where she released emails i can't send, which spawned the hits "Nonsense" and "Feather". With Short n' Sweet, she took the world by storm with songs like "Taste" and "Please Please Please", as well as her iconic tour of the same name. In 2025, she's back at it again with Man's Best Friend.

Manchild

The album starts off with its sole single, a combination of 80s disco synths and early 2000s country pop. Released before the album was announced, this sent Carpenters (the name of Sabrina’s fans) and also everyone else in the world into a frenzy, as they knew another Sabrina album was on the rise, just a year after the release of Short n’ Sweet. With her amazing vocal talent, Carpenter sings about having to put up with immature men over and over again, and she is unsure why she keeps attracting them like moths to a flame. Reoccurring throughout the album are lyric styles that reference how she believes lots of men are dumb. It first appears in the first track, with the lines “Why so sexy // If so dumb? // And how survive the Earth so long?”.

Tears

Based on the title alone, and even the instrumental introduction of the second track, you would think this was a sad song. However, it’s anything but, with Carpenter incorporating a clever plot twist into Man’s Best Friend. Listening to the song, you quickly realize the tears she’s singing about aren’t from sadness, and “Tears” opposes the overall message from “Manchild”, as who she’s singing about is someone who isn’t incompetent and knows how to treat her right. So many different things about this track are iconic, from the 80’s-inspired production and the “dance break”, to the music video costarring Colman Domingo and the ending secretly changing, to Carpenter’s performance of the song at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards where she danced in the pouring rain while referencing Britney Spears.

My Man on Willpower

The first but not last track on the album where you can depict the ABBA influences is “My Man on Willpower”. Carpenter calls out a man who acts one way but then suddenly changes overnight into an unloving and distant partner. Carpenter is overwhelmingly puzzled by this and doesn’t know why he is now acting differently. Her significant other went from the perfect guy to a completely different person in what felt like a matter of moments. Carpenter doesn’t want to feed into a complicated relationship but also wants the closure she deserves because of how confusing this individual is and was to her and their relationship.

Sugar Talking

The phrase “all talk and no action” plays heavily into the overall message and themes of the fourth track of Man’s Best Friend. Carpenter approaches another rocky relationship and complicated significant other through amazing vocals, her impeccable singing abilities not coming as a surprise at all. She describes a relationship she is in where her partner doesn’t own up to what he says. He expresses his love for her verbally, but doesn’t put in the effort to keep the relationship alive. Carpenter encourages him to start doing so and warns him that they will break up if he doesn’t become the model boyfriend he claims to be.

We Almost Broke Up Again

Acoustic production transforms into a chorus harboring an infectious melody that sounds straight out of a romantic Disney movie, though the lyrics prove otherwise, as Carpenter explains how the on-and-off relationship she is in is everything but. She is conflicted on whether or not the relationship should end, as things start to go bad when they suddenly start going good again, only for them to turn bad once more. The relationship feels more like a vicious cycle than a healthy romantic partnership.

Nobody’s Son

Carpenter expresses her loneliness in the dating world as she is consistently let down by men and is left by them. She doesn’t enjoy seeing other people in happy relationships as she cannot relate to this. She is emotionally exhausted from being in toxic relationships and just wants to find someone who will treat her right and be a good person; the kind of person she desired in “Tears”. The production drastically differs from the melancholy lyrics, as upbeat guitars and synths lead the instrumentation like they’re the heads of a marching band. A mix of summery production and themes of the pain of love are what make this song pop perfection.

Never Getting Laid

“Never Getting Laid” features jazzy, easy listening melodies, incorporated with RnB influences, and the main outstanding instrument being a funky organ alongside complimenting sound effects. Even with these new production and instrumentation styles on the album, it still manages to capture Carpenter's signature sound. She elegantly sings about trying to move on from a relationship in which she was cheated on, but her resentment for her unfaithful partner leaks through. The fact that he lied to her about loving her while not being loyal makes Carpenter hope that he gets the karma he deserves for destroying their relationship.

When Did You Get Hot?

Romantic feelings work in mysterious ways. One day, you could be not interested in a certain person at all, and then suddenly, without warning, you can’t help but fall head over heels for them. Amongst a fun, 90’s-inspired, and somewhat Bond films-inspired production, Carpenter describes what this exact experience feels like to a T. After having bad luck with relationships, she has decided to give them another try, this time with someone who once didn’t strike her fancy, but now is all she can think about.

Go Go Juice

Carpenter sings about a common coping mechanism amongst people who have been repeatedly disappointed in regard to romantic relationships adjacent to a fun, upbeat, country-pop production. Carpenter says that when she drinks, she cannot help but want to call her exes. In between the moments of fast-paced instrumentation are the strums of a guitar and a simple drum beat of a slower tempo. This could be a metaphor to the highs and lows of the hardships Carpenter faces when it comes to romance.

Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry

Carpenter feels she has to serve up just deserts for someone that she is in a conflicted relationship with in the tenth track of Man’s Best Friend. Tired of being used and disappointed by men, she flips the script and makes her partner feel what she has been put through many times. She doesn’t want to have to think about whether or not she should end a relationship anymore, now giving that responsibility to someone else. The production of “Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry” is slow paced and sounds like if ocean waves gently crashing onto a beach were turned into a song.

House Tour

If you’ve been on TikTok and have seen edits of the movie Barbie reappear again, chances are they have been set to this bubbly and upbeat disco song. What some Carpenters refer to as the “Juno” (another merry song from Short n’ Sweet) of Man’s Best Friend is a lively pop song filled with invigorating synths that could make anyone want to get up and dance right away. Fun phrases and “metaphors” are used throughout these creative and distinctly entertaining lyrics that reinvent the cheerfulness pop music has always possessed. Carpenter sings about a first date gone well in what feels like a party in your headphones.

Goodbye

The last track and a farewell to the album could be predicted to be sad, but it’s actually very uplifting, thanks to not only the confident lyrics but the ABBA-inspired production. Unique elements are used to take this inspiration and turn into a Carpenter original at almost every point in the song. In the lyrics, Carpenter ensures that she has no interest in taking her exes back, and that once they leave her, she wants nothing to do with them. She doesn’t want to waste her time on people that won’t put the effort into upholding a relationship or treat her right. This song is motivational to anyone stuck in a loveless relationship.

When Sabrina Carpenter said, "I'm working late, 'cause I'm a singer", she wasn't lying. To make not just an album, but an album this perfect while touring and being able to release it a year after your last is an impressive feat not many artists are capable of doing anymore. The amount of creativity and effort she puts into every aspect of her music is astounding. She has truly reached superstar status and I'm so happy for her. I remember when I was younger listening to her first album and immediately knew she was always going to be one of my favorite musicians, and that opinion of mine has never changed.

Written By Ashley Adams

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