sabrina carpenter musical deep dive: the albums she wishes we'd forget

We're kicking off the new year with a full deep dive into everyone's favorite bite-sized pop star, Sabrina Carpenter. Starting with her Disney days, we're going album by album, discussing the changes in musicality, each album's impact on her career, what what was going on in her personal life at the time. This first episode will cover Eyes Wide Open, Evolution, Singular: Act I, and Singular: Act II. 

Send us your favorite Sabrina Carpenter oldie at the links below, and don't forget to rate & review. 

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Theme Song by Patrick Dunnevant, (https://www.youtube.com/c/AcappellaVGM)
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Chapters

• 0:00 intro
• 3:33 quick career rundown
• 9:21 eyes wide open
• 39:16 evolution
• 1:03:48 singular: act I
• 1:29:00 singular: act II

Transcript

Get home from school turn on my TV who are these friends staring right back at me now that we're older [scratch]

Hi, I'm Amanda.

And I'm Jessica.

And this is 90s Babies Nostalgia, where a couple of fully grown millennial women re-listen and sometimes listen for the first time to some favorite artists of ours and yours from the early 2000s and um recently.

Just to be clear, we are not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the artists that we talk about, any of the studios that we talk about. We just really love talking about music. And today we're talking about...

Sabrina Carpenter! 

Eee!

We are going to do a full deep dive into Sabrina Carpenter's music career going chronologically album by album the way that we did with Demi Lovato. 

Mhmm

It'll also likely be two parts the way Demi Lovato was if you haven't heard that, go back and listen to it because that is one of our prized jewels from 2024. We're so proud of the work that we did and so excited to get into the woman of the fvcking hour month year.

Yeah. Literally.

And I also I'm I just I guess I want to get into this early is to say I'm excited about this one because I know that we both grew up loving Demi have loved Demi as kids and adults at different moments of Demi's career but Sabrina is someone I knew about from the beginning because I was watching Disney Channel when I was in college um judge me all you want I have this podcast so I don't think anyone listening should be surprised

Yeah.

But I was listening to her music when it first came out. And I've listened to most of it, turns out, up until this point. I wasn't like an avid avid fan, but I knew about her for the whole time. And you really only got into her. I think you probably became aware of her during emails I can't send and then got into her now, right?

Yeah, I became aware of her during emails I can't send. I definitely had listened to like majority of that album previous to us choosing to do this recording. And then once she blew up because of espresso and then very randomly, the like hiit workout lady that I do that does hiit workouts to popular songs has a Sabrina Carpenter workout that came out earlier this year, and it's one of my favorites. So then I became more familiar with her because of that workout. But yeah, besides for this podcast, like, I had not really gone and listened to her albums from beginning to end ever.

had you heard um Short n' Sweet before doing this?

I had because we chose to, we knew we were going to do this podcast prior to Short n' Sweet coming out. We made the decision to um do a Sabrina Carpenter episode. So when it came out, I made a point to listen to it. If we hadn't decided to do this episode, I don't know that if I would, if I would have went out of my way to listen to it from beginning to end.

Yeah, you may have only heard it just because all of the songs charted and Spotify may have fed that to you.

Yeah.

ah But before we get cut all the way to 2024, we should probably get started with our quick carpenter career rundown.

Yeah, um so she started her acting career in 2011 with a guest role on Law & Order SVU. And then at age 13, got her start on Disney, on Sofia the First as the reoccurring character Princess Vivian, and then was cast as Maya Hart on Girl Meets World in 2013.

which is the role she's known for the most, of course, as a Disney girl.

Mm-hmm.

I love that she credits her first TV appearance as being on the Hunan Broadcasting System's Gold Mango Audience Festival program in China, singing something's got a hold on me because apparently the covers she was posting on YouTube blew up in China and she got invited to fly there as a child and sing on a broadcasting.

So cute. It's very funny how things like take holding in countries that they were like not from, you know, how like certain artists are very randomly popular in like so very specific countries.

yeah but it it it's it's like how Ellen would have any kid that blew up on the internet even if they were in a different country.

Yeah, yeah, true. She began her music career, I put it in quotes on our document, um on YouTube, because I'm like, is that beginning your music career? But it was the start of hers. She uploaded videos of her singing covers, which led to her father building her own recording studio for her.

And in 2009

So nice 

I know, she placed third in Miley Cyrus' singing contest, The Next Miley Cyrus Project.

She recorded Smile in 2012 for the compilation album Disney fairies faith trust and pixie dust and was signed to Hollywood records prior to 2014 on a five album deal which is so many albums from a like 12 year old at this point almost 13 she's young yeah

she's young yeah yeah i think she's like 12 or 13 i guess spoiler or not spoiler she doesn't get the full five albums. She also sang the theme song for Girl Meets World with her co-star, Rowan Blanchard, and it was called Take On The World. And she has released six studio albums, Eyes Wide Open, Evolution, Singular Act 1, and Act 2, Emails I Can't Send, and Short and Sweet.

four EPs, including Can't Blame a Girl for Trying, Fruitcake, Pandora Sessions, and Spotify Singles. I'm sorry, I only knew Can't Blame a Girl for Trying by name, I was taken aback by Fruitcake.

Fruitcake is her Christmas EP

we should mention, actually, being that we are recording this in December, and she just came out with a nonsense Christmas

yeah 

that but she we're not really talking about it in this rundown, but she's been coming out with Christmas music throughout her entire career.

Mhmm mhmm she has. I kind of love that though. She has 24 singles, five as a feature artist, 23 promotional singles and 31 music videos, not including any additional charting songs and guest appearances.

Which like you thought that, not you, Jess, but you, the listener, maybe you thought that she started with Olivia Rodrigo and all of that nonsense. ah Nonsense. No, this girl has been working and grinding for a decade nonstop and it's ridiculous because she's 25.

Yeah, and like a lot of these things that we are talking about, like, happens between ages 15 to 20. So in the like first part of her music career, she put out four of those albums. She's done so much. It's like really crazy. And like we are focusing on the music. And we'll touch on other things that have happened in her life. But we don't like go through all the TV shows and stuff like that, because that's not the focus of this episode. But if you look at everything she's done, The last two albums, which is When She's Blown Up and, you know, people crediting Olivia Rodrigo and things like that, like, no, Girl has been gaining a following, booked and busy, like, working.

Yes. And she's said in interviews that she's the kind of person that um can't sit still.

Mm-hmm.

So she was doing a lot of this concurrently. Like she would be in another state filming a movie and still writing new music.

Yeah, it's crazy. Just touching on her activism in philanthropy, she's an ambassador for the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, um which she started doing in 2016. And as part of that, she visits children's hospitals. She released merchandise with them supporting American Red Cross. She also partnered with Do Something during their Love Letters Challenge, which was like focused on isolation that senior citizens experience in 2017. And she is a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and

eyy

Yeah

Sorry

in June of this year, she partnered with Plus One on her Short n Sweet tour to create the Sabrina Carpenter Fund, which is dedicated to supporting mental health, animal welfare and LGBTQ causes. And then she also had a collaboration with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which is that worldwide or is it just on the West Coast?

Oh, it's I thought it was an East Coast thing. I'm pretty sure I feel like it's a New York brand.

Oh, I just thought it was West Coast thing because we have one like right near me.

I have one a few blocks from me too.

Okay, so I guess it is across the country. Okay, 50% of those profits from that partnership ah was donated to the Ali Forney Center, which supports homeless LGBTQ+ youth. Okay, we're going to get into our album by album, Breakdown, in Chronological, I was going to say, Chronicle-logical. um In, I don't know why, Chronological Order, starting with Eyes Wide Open, which was released April 14th of 2015 on Hollywood Records. It had 12 tracks with a runtime of just over 40 minutes.

Which is like standard for an album, a little short, but long for her.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I would say, yeah, like you expect a standard album to be like 35 to 50 minutes, I would say. So this is like pretty standard, but long very long for um the rest of her albums. All of the tracks on her 2014 Can't Blame a Girl for Trying EP were also included on this album. There were four songs written by her, um which were, Your Love's Like, Too Young, Seamless, and Right Now. And the last song, Darling I'm a Mess, was the first song recorded for the album, and it was co-written with Meghan Trainor, who also wrote, Can't Blame a Girl for Trying The Song, which was Sabrina's debut single.

Yeah, which I recall being played all over Disney Channel before this album came out. Like she had a pretty strong debut before her actual first album.

Yeah, which shows with where her album charted compared to when you look further down in her career as well.

Show us how much Hollywood cares about you when you're currently on Disney Channel versus when you're not anymore.

Yeah, yeah. I would say the vibes of this album are like teen pop, bubblegum pop. There's a lot of focus on like friendship, love, teenage problems. There's a lot of wikis that like describe her music as pop folk even this early. We will get into it in episode two where I think she is the indie pop folk artist of our generation. um And I can't believe we slept on her and like how did I not know she was a folk artist? Which, again, we will get into that in the last two albums because I think it specifically shines there. But a lot of her earlier albums are credited as folk and you can kind of notice there's always a few songs in each that you're like, oh, this definitely has more of a like pop folk story telling like ah method that it follows.

Yeah, I agree. And ah we again, we will touch on it more in episode two, but I thought it was really interesting going back to these early albums, because her artistry has evolved so much. And I felt like I heard more of the version she is now in these first couple albums, especially this first album, even though she didn't write most of it, the sound was a little more similar to her current stuff than the stuff in between.

Yeah, totally. The lead single off this album was we'll be the stars, which I think is an interesting choice. um Feels very like Disney made that decision for her. It was released January 13, 2015, and then the music video was released on February 20th. The song was written by Skylar Stone Street Cameron Walker. Oh my God, who i I just have to note here, guys, he was in front of me at a concert last fall in the pit, and he was not very friendly to the people around him. And so when I saw his face show up, when I searched him, I was like, oh, it's that guy. I don't like this guy. That aside, he has written more for like pop punk artists. We the Kings, All Time Low, there was a couple others in there. um And then also has written for Lindsay Sterling.

This makes sense to me because 

yeah 

we'll be the stars kind of sounds like...Is it we'll be a dream or something?

Yeah.

The We the Kings with Demi Lovato song? Like it sounds similar.

Yeah, it does. It does. And then Steven Solomon also wrote on this song um and produced the track. I kind of touched on this, but the song's about reaching your dreams. It feels very like Disney breakout star, especially the video feels that way. It's a lot of her like lying in the grass and there's a white horse and the lighting is all very like ethereal and pretty. And I wrote this down because it just really stood out to me watching the video is like she has like a headband slash crown across her forehead, which is her own braided hair. And that just felt very 2015.

But also please save my girl from this hair braid because it's atrocious. It's not even the kind that's like a headband. It's across her forehead and someone's pulled it and teased it to make it look strawy and ugly and it just, it does not look good.

Yeah, I didn't hate it as much but it definitely stood out to me while I was watching it. I was like, this is a choice.

Yes, I also recognized I had to Google to fact check and it was a little hard to fact check but i I was right that her sister Sarah is in this video because you see Sabrina literally like guys we are so lucky for the music videos we get from her now her music videos from before are so boring and so it is just her looking like a pretty young girl in a field with a couple of friends and one of them is her sister Sarah And apparently their other older sister Shannon, she has like three sisters, ah was supposed to be in the video but then couldn't so they invited their mutual friend Fallon. So those are the two people in the video.

Do you have any other notes on we'll be the stars?

If I do, it's later down in our comments. 

Okay

I mean, I like the song.

Yeah.

I don't know about a lead single, but I also just think that can't blame a girl for trying is like a stronger lead single in general. And should they put the whole EP onto this album. So that should have just, they should have waited a second.

Yeah, I do think of the two singles that they released with this album, this one makes more sense to me. The title track, Eyes Wide Open, which was released April 7th, 2015, and then a music video came June 14th of 2015. It was written by Audra Mae, who has also written for Avicii, Miranda Lambert, Hilary Duff, Pentatonix, and also wrote Two Young Hearts on this album, as well as making Kabir and Jared Betis, who also produced this track. In the music video, this is another one. She's singing. Like guys, she's singing.

She's singing but this time it's in a hyatt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But to me, I was like, okay, you know, this was a Disney smash hit because she does not even have nails in the music video, like fake nails or acrylics. It's just like a simple gel manicure of gold glitter. And I was like, oh, this just feels very like clean cut Disney girl of this time.

Okay, yes, but her eye makeup

yeah 

is nuts.

like Girl has loved a heavy eye from the beginning.

Mhmm

It's actually the opposite of what you expect. like you When you watch all of her videos, you watch her eye makeup get slowly less and less dramatic. Because for some reason when she was 14, she had the most dramatic eye makeup. I kind of recreated it for the video version of this podcast and it's still way more subtle than it is in that video. It's like, they didn't even like, okay, she's wearing like a gold glitter eyeshadow with a heavy black shadow cat eye kind of thing. But then the glitter isn't even like faded to her brow bone. It's like fully packed on up to the brow bone.

Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

It's so why? She's 14. also, Sarah is in this one as well. Sarah is often her background um singer on both the recordings and on tour 

Yeah

during her early albums. And so she's in the video, which is cute.

And live performances as well, like not just 

Yes, I said on tour.

Oh, but besides her tour, like, if she performed on like,

Good morning, America.

Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. She also would be there.

Yes. I have to ask because this, so this video is her in a nice dress and she's walking around a Hyatt and occasionally, and I'm just calling it a Hyatt. I don't know what it is, but it looks like a Hyatt.

Mhmm

And then there's like a convention room where they're performing as a band and she's singing. But most of the time she's just like walking around with her eyes literally wide open. And I get that. She's like paying attention to her surroundings and stuff. But I'm like, what is it exactly is she supposed to be looking at? Like, are we supposed to think this is like a palace? Or like, like we're what's going on?

Yeah 

Because there's things to look at with your eyes wide open and it's not that.

Sure.

She's just like walking upstairs like, whoa, what is this place? And I'm like, it's a hyatt

Yeah, I think that... They probably just didn't have the money to get the production value needed. But in later music videos, we'll see. She does ones where like she films them abroad and like this would be a good time to use like the architecture of a city like a London or a Paris or to like rent out a castle or something as your background, even if it's going to be the same concept. But I agree with you that it is just giving like giant cavernous ballroom hotel.

Yeah, and you don't have to go abroad. You could film it at like a beach.

Sure, sure.

You could film it in LA where there's like the water and pillar thingy. I don't know what it's called, but everyone films there and takes photos there. 

Yeah

Like there's plenty of places in LA that are more interesting.

Are you talking about LACMA?

I don't know. I've never heard the name. I've just seen photos.

I'm pretty sure you're talking about LACMA.

Probably, but like there's so many places in LA that are more visually interesting than where they filmed this.

Yeah, I don't disagree.

And then I also had the additional question of at the end she like is on a rooftop like she's like come out onto a rooftop and is now in plain clothes and looking around. And it's almost like she's like waking up from a dream that she's someday going to be a performer in this big dress in this fancy ballroom. And then so does that mean she's not actually keeping her eyes wide open. She's daydreaming through life.

I did not analyze this to this level, but yes. Yeah.

Thank you. That's all.

I don't think she also analyzed it. I'm pretty sure she was just told what to do. And she's like, okay, I guess this is what we're doing. We're filming it in one day.

I agree it's a much better single. It's one of my favorite songs off the album.

Yeah, yeah, it is. It also won Radio Disney Music Award for Best Anthem, which is a confusing award category, but that aside it won in 2016.

That's the most radio Disney music sh*t I've ever heard

I know 

that that's a category.

I know. This album, her debut album, peaked at 43 on the Billboard 200 as well as 31 in top album sales and 14 on Billboard Digital Albums. And then, besides for Best Anthem, which it won for Eyes Wide Open, as I just mentioned, it also won an additional radio music award for Best Crush Song, um which is Can't Blame a Girl for Trying. Which what is the worst category? I would argue both bad.

I would also argue that of all of the songs on this album, that's not...okay. It's fine. It's just not really like a crush song comparatively, but it kind of is, but it doesn't have to be. I'm done. I'm done.

Mkay, this album is really like the, besides for the EP, this is really the kicking off point of her music career. she's actively starring in Disney channel shows. She released her EP a year prior. and this is kind of like, yeah, I would say her establishing herself, not just as an actress, but also as a musician and artist.

And this is when she was still on Disney Channel, so I'm only taking this note from you because I wanted to say like, because I was watching Disney Channel, I remember seeing these music videos on Disney Channel.

Yep. Yeah. yeah Yep. She was in Girl Meets World from 2014 to 2017. She also at this same time, around the same time that this album came out, she was filming the Adventures in Babysitting movie.

The Dcom.

Yeah. In interviews promoting this album, a lot of interviewers don't know how to interview a 15-year-old. But besides for that, they also just all asked the same questions. And one of them was, what's your inspiration? And in almost every single one I watched, she said that Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus was her inspiration, which I found hilarious. but also it made sense

It makes sense, but I think my favorite part of it is that I watched a Girl Meets World cast interview where they were asked a bunch of dumb questions and one of them was like, who's your favorite Disney Channel star? And she said Selena Gomez.

Oh my God. Wait, I love that. That's hilarious. It's like this is the one that's my inspiration. It's not my favorite though.

Period.

Additional music influences that she quoted for this album was Christina Aguilera and Adele.

And she cited Christina from an early age as saying that she felt like her voice was almost manly, like Sabrina felt that her voice was kind of manly, and like she maybe couldn't be a singer, and then she heard Christina Aguilera's voice and was like, oh no I could, because she she has that voice.

Mm-hmm.

And she sounds incredible. Getting into our favorite songs. Lyrics we love, musical choices we love. I don't know if this is what I love, but I wrote that can't blame a girl for trying. There's like a specific combination of uke chords. in this song that feels very 2015, also knowing that Meghan Trainor wrote it, I'm like, duh. Like it it adds to the 2015 of it all with the Uke chords.

It is a very charming, very Disney-sounding song. And also, yes, the Uke chords when you mention it, it's like this is Jason Mraz.

Yeah, yes. yes

Yeah, I just want to touch on the video because it is very cute. She's playing a pink guitar that regularly turns into like a badminton racket. She has pink Converse on and then she has blue roller skates on and she's like roller skating indoors. It looks like it was filmed in an Ikea showroom. It but very much starts off her image as being like, a very pretty, very cute, quirky girl.

Mm-hmm.

which is still kind of her brand, but evolved.

Yeah, it is. Yes, it is, but evolved. I was going to say, I think it's like if you just look at her and you're like, oh, she's a hot blonde white girl, you don't see the quirkiness behind it. But like, if you do a deep like dive like this, it becomes very obvious.

I have so many thoughts about that for episode two.

the other song I noted was Middle of Starting Over, which was not my favorite on the album, but I know that I would have loved this song if it came out during my peak Disney listening era.

I like that song.

Yeah.

I feel like some of these songs, particularly like middle of starting over, are like, they kind of soothe your inner child even when you're older.

Yes, yeah, I really liked the messaging behind the lyrics. It felt very like a therapy session of like when you're starting over, things aren't going to be like great all of a sudden. And one of the lyrics is like, life gives you pennies, turn them into dimes. And I like the idea of that you're like taking things in achievable steps. Like you're not taking pennies and turning them into something grand. You're just you know, baby steps to start over, like I really liked the lyrical messaging in this song too.

It's also a clever play on turning lemons into lemonade.

Yep, yep. I also enjoyed your love's like.

The main songwriter on that song, on Your Love's Life, is Matthew Tischler, who I just needed to note because he has a really interesting discography, which is like half Disney Channel, like songs for Austin and Ally and for some of the Dcoms and various things. And then the other half is like K-pop.

Oh, interesting.

which isn't that as uncommon as you would think 

No

because there are like English writing camps for K-pop, but it was just, yeah, of note.

Yeah, yeah, that is interesting. I found myself, and because you listened to this album previously, like you listened to it when it came out and you heard it on Disney Channel, like I'm curious if you felt the same re-listening to it now, but I found myself getting over the fact that every song was about like finding your other half. And not every song on this album is. But I noted here, Too Young, Seamless, Best Thing I Got. I now know that Seamless is about a friendship, which makes me love it more. But there are other songs on this album that also are about love and finding your other half. And it just feels very like, why are we making this 15-year-old sing about this? It's different on the songs that she wrote on. Like if she has writing credits, then like let her sing those songs, even if that is the messaging, but then to give her more songs that are similar with that same messaging, I'm like, is this all we can have her sing about?

Yeah, the thing is that i I didn't consciously listen to the album in full when it was out. i listened to YouTube has always been my main source of music, which drives Jess crazy because she doesn't know how I live that way. But it has always been, which means I found a lot of different artists that way.

Yep.

And at this time in my life, and for actually at least five years, probably closer to 10, I was just like building playlists that weren't even like categorized they were just like music and I would add any music video that I liked or song that I liked and it was just a running music playlist 

I hate this.

and so a lot of her early songs ended up on that playlist and so I've heard them a million times from those 

okay

In general, it feels like what studios do a lot. Two young women, they pigeonhole them.

Yep.

Young girls, because she is a girl at this point. So listening to it all the way through, yeah, I did feel like it was a bit heavy-handed on that.

Yeah

I think also, though, when I was a younger person and I was listening to songs like this, I sometimes got confused by them or albums like this. like i I felt like that that is then the expectation is that like as girls we're just like obsessed with love 

Yeah

and like finding love is the goal. and that's i I've never personally been obsessed with that and then I felt like different or other. and so yeah it's It's like a weird conditional societal norm that I don't like.

yeah Yeah, because it's like, is that the message we want to continue to then spread to young girls? And I'm not putting the spreading this message on s Sabrina at all.

No.

I'm putting it on um the people who are curating these albums for these young artists, because you know, in this first one, she didn't have a lot of decision making power. Yeah, it kind of makes it seem like this is your one track and what you need to stick to. And then everyone listening to it also thinks that for themselves.

it shows in the interviews where they're they don't know how to talk to girls and they're asking them about their crushes and various things. And it's like, why is this, like, this is a 14 year old who has about three jobs right now. Why is the most interesting thing you can think to ask her about or write for her about her love life?

Yeah, yeah.

That was a bit of a rant, but I felt necessary. 

It did

and And on your note about Seamless is that that is the song known to be written about Rowan Blanchard. It's like you mentioned earlier, one of the four songs on the album that Sabrina actually wrote. And she did say when the album was coming out, she she mentioned that a song was about Rowan. You can tell that it's this one because in the chorus she says you and me together take on the world forever Which is like a really cute nod to the theme song of girl meets world Which is mostly them saying take on the world We're gonna take on the world 

Cute, cute. I didn't even put those together. That's very cute.

But I don't think you've ever heard that theme song

No, probably not. Just my last comment on this album, and um Amanda can get into a few of her other faves, right now felt very Disney to me.

I don't know if it felt very Disney to me, but I really liked The Present Is Our Future Past, which is a line in the chorus.

Yeah.

And I was listening to this and I was like, mind blown emoji went into my notes app.

Hahaha That's funny.

Because it's such a fun little play.

It is, it is.

as I said, I didn't listen to this album actively when it came out, but like her songs would end up in my recommended and then I would click on them. And so I found when I listened to it consciously for this podcast that I actually had heard the majority of the album before, which kind of surprised me. And I do enjoy a lot of it. But especially eyes wide Open, as I mentioned, and White Flag, i I have no idea why. But White Flag is one of the few songs that has been from a non-single of hers that was on one of those music playlists I had. I have probably heard it more than any other song of hers, save maybe for singular act one, because I actually that was the first album of hers I purposely listened to. But like, there's just something about it, even though I've heard it so many times, I still really, really love it. And it's not by any means one of the most watched videos of hers for her like non singles on YouTube. But I just I really like the production in it. I like that messaging of like when when it comes time to surrender, like I'll throw up the white flag, but not forever. Just for this moment, like I'll give in for now, like kind of like a you lost the battle, not the war sentiment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I really, I don't know why.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it's a crazy that that is one of the songs you've listened to the most. It's good. I liked it. But of all of them, it's like this is the one.

I know, but I still listen to it. I'm like, yeah, it's a good song. I think there's something about the chorus when she goes, (singing) There's something about like the way her voice sounds and the production in it that just like is crack in my brain.

It's sonically pleasing. Yeah, I like that.

Yeah, I also feel like there's a lot, or maybe just like a sprinkle of, there's some young person, old soul lyrics in this album.

Mm-hmm.

Eyes Wide Open starts with, everyone tells me I'm an old soul. Two Young Hearts is all about we're two, two old souls with two young hearts.

Mm hmm.

And I don't love it. 

I agree, I agree, I just want to snap along to you that I re listened to the album again this morning and I was like, man, there are a lot of old soul lyrics and like, why are we branding this 15 year old house an old soul?
 
Thank you. As a young person, I liked that sh*t because I related to it because I was told I was like an old soul. But as a 30 year old, I think it's creepy. Don't tell young people that they have an old soul because then they're going to feel like they're extra mature and like they're going to grow up faster. I take personal offense. 

Okay.

Like some some young people just aren't wild and crazy. That doesn't mean they're

Old souls, yeah.

and then this is just like the randomnest note that I found and I thought was a fun fact is the song best thing I got, which I can't even recall how it goes, but it was like very not important was written by the person who wrote primadonna for marina and the diamonds.

Oh, fun. Just a few iconic moments from um this album era is Sabrina. I don't know if this is an iconic moment, but it's important to note. Sabrina and Bradley Steven Perry of Good Luck Charlie dated for about two years during 

One year

ah multiple interviews said two.

Oh.

During this time, like 2014 to 2015, The relationship inspired a lot of this album. Smoke and Fire is about their breakup. And it serves as a standalone single to transition between the albums.

That's also part of why I don't fully hate how many love songs there are on this album is because she was in a relationship when it was written 

Kay

versus like the next album, the next few There's no evidence of one.

Yeah.

But yes, Smoke and Fire is a single to transition. This is something s Sabrina has done throughout her career where she will release a single and be like, it doesn't belong in the world of an album, but it transitions my sound to the next one. She performed it at the 2016 RDMA's Radio Disney Music Awards and the performance was honestly kind of a slay. I really enjoyed it. She did a good run. Her voice sounded really good for an early performance. The music video has her doing like ballet practice and kissing a guy. Did you watch this?

No.

It was very not about the song like because the whole

Okay.

The point of the song is like loving you is like running into a burning building. It's like that we are smoke and fire. We make sense, but also we're dangerous together.

Okay.

And it's just like her at ballet practice and then also like kissing a guy. But there's no like fighting or like ah being in a bad relationship. 

Okay

But at the start of the song, they go... And then they do it throughout the chorus, and that makes me think of the greatest showman.

Okay, okay.

have Have you heard that? Have you seen it?

I have not seen The Greatest Showman.

Damn

I know.
 
The main song starts with... Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for.

ah Okay, okay.

and then also just, I thought it was the funniest note that it's called smoke and fire and it's about a relationship, but she used it to make merchandise that then the proceeds went towards a campaign through American Red Cross for fire safety awareness.

Yep, yep, I mentioned that during, well, I didn't mention that the song was included, but I touched on that campaign and I do think it's hilarious that they used this song for it.

So unserious.

Yeah, yes. Other big thing happening for her and in like the media is Rowbrina, which is the ship name of Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina. They were like super, super, super close um during their time on Girl Meets World. Seamless is about their friendship. And Rowan never confirmed, but it is rumored to have included a poem about Sabrina in her book.

Yeah, the poem includes lines like, you have music that'll never be about me, yet everything I write is about you, something like that.

Oh, spicy

And it came out in 2018, when they were still friends, so.

Okay. There's also no evidence that they're not friends. They're just not as close.

Yeah, no, they've said, or they've been asked if they're still close or something, and they've said like, they're not as close as they used to be.

Yeah. 

Amanda sent me over a clip of an interview from this time period of the two of them on a red carpet and they are asked if they're boy crazy. And from the beginning Sabrina is snappy with her answers. And I'm not saying snappy like always super quick. Like she takes pauses. She makes like I'm an awkward 15 year old faces, but like the way she's able to quip back at Grown adults asking her ridiculous questions from a very young age is like so fun to watch. And in this interview, they're asked if they're boy crazy. And Rowan gets like, you can tell like uncomfortable with the question and wants to move on and Sabrina goes, we appreciate the male gender, as well as the female and like gives a cute little nod to Rowan and then they move on and I just like loved it.

and it is an iconic clip that comes up all the time. Before Short 'n Sweet came out, this podcast of a couple of lesbians, where they had a clip on TikTok that went semi-viral Where they were talking about like, name the straightest pop star you can think of it's Sabrina Carpenter and everyone was like, excuse me. Have you seen this clip? Do you know about Rowbrina?

Yeah.

Because they also had like flirty tweets together. They didn't hate being shipped together. They use this name as their friendship name in that same interview. Rowan says it's Rowbrina day. It's like two years since they met or something like that. 

Yeah

They're very cute. But then also, yeah, we'll get into more with like part two about that. But it's just like a very interesting clip that is definitely iconic in the lore of Sabrina Carpenter.

Yeah, yeah. Sabrina, also at this time, in addition to Rowan, was close to her other Girl Meet World co-stars, including Corey...Oh, I watched a video on how to pronounce it. Fogelmanis.

Yes.

Yeah, Corey Fogelmanis and Danielle Fishel as well.

And she's still close with both of them.

So we had eyes wide open and then smoke and fire comes out and then her next album

Evolution, um which was released on October 14, 2016 by Hollywood Records, it has 10 tracks and it runs a little bit shorter than the first one at 33 minutes. Evolution was stylized written with EVOL Capital hinting at Evolve, but also on the album it's stylized with letters flipped so you see the love in evolution.

Sorry, that was just so cheesy.

I know it is very cheesy and hearing her talk about it in interviews. It's also cheesy, but I think it's important for this album to note the way it was stylized as well because I do think it is, since this is an audio mostly platform, important for people to know that that plays into it. production and songwriting. So we are increasing in Sabrina's influence and involvement on her album. So we noted in the eyes wide open, she wrote on four songs. She wrote on every single song on this album besides for thumbs. Also in this album, Ido Zmishlany co-wrote and produced three songs. And Ido has written and produced for Bieber, Khalid, Shawn Mendes, Imagine Dragons, Camila Cabello, Demi, like very, very, very big name to get on this album, especially at her age to help produce a few tracks

Vibes. This one is very dance pop.

The shift from Eyes Wide Open into this album um is quite obvious. Obviously hints at the word evolution. But it's a much more dancier album, I would say.

Yeah, not quite a singular

No

but it's definitely dropped the indie from the pop.

Mm-hmm, for sure. The lead single on this album was On Purpose. It's the opening track of the album. It was co-written by Sabrina and Ido, who also produced the track. It was released on July 29th of 2016 with a music video following on August 12th. It was nominated for a Radio Disney Music Award for Best Crush Song. And in interviews, she always said that this was her favorite song off the album. This is at the time that this album came out. I don't know if she would now today say that this was one of her favorites, but at that time, she always noted this one as her favorite on the album.

Mine too.

Yeah, it's a good one. It's a really, and for it as a lead single, this is one that I had heard, though. This wasn't one that I...

Really?

Oh, yeah.

That's surprising to me.

Like I knew it, both singles off this album I knew and had heard before.

That's surprising.

In this music video and at this time in interviews, I saw her wear the same style. So I think it was just part of her fashion at the time, but it was very weird. She's wearing like a skinny, tied scarf in kind of like a necktie fashion. that is like styled with a white t-shirt and it just, I don't love the skinny tied neck scarf because the pieces are long. It's not like short tied neck scarf. They like hang down. It's just weird.

Do you think it would be better if it were short?

Yeah, more like bandana style. I don't see that on Sabrina Carpenter, but like in general, I would say I prefer that style over what she has worn. Yeah.

Oh, like a thin silk driving scarf kind of thing.

Yes.

Hmm. I was thinking like thicker would make more sense. It is giving, uh, what was the thing in the get back video? The gloves. It's like the Demi gloves. It's like this one thing stands out and I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have even noticed that the scarf was so weird if I hadn't seen your note about it because I've seen this video so many times. The way that I said White Flag, I've probably heard the most. This is also up there because this was all this song was also on my music playlist like eyes I've heard this song so many times and again, it slaps every single time. and i was too I've seen the video so many of the times that I like wouldn't have noticed, but I was also too focused on the fact that like when we're in London, we wear trench coats which is the half the other half of the video. She's just walking around London in a trench coat and I'm like, I just know She was like, I'm in London, I need a trench coat.

Yeah, yeah.

But i do I do agree that the tied scarf thing was weird.

And I thought it was a one-off thing, and then when I saw her bring that style in multiple interviews, I was like, oh, this was a fashion choice she made during this era. That makes it even more curious.

or her stylist made.

yeah yeah yeah yes i'm using her loosely her and her surrounding people that make her ready for appearances the music video gave to me very much i'm an influencer travel with me to london here's my reel look how hot i am in london look oh now i'm over here in london and i'm walking down here and oh i'm in london and that's the whole video

I know. And it's weird because it's like voyeuristic, like you are the boyfriend. 

Yes

You're carrying the camera and she's interacting with you sometimes.

Yes.

I generally have kind of, also there's a weird filter on it. i I liked it when it came out because I think it's like aesthetic-y.

It is 

I don't like it now. 

Fair.

I don't like it now because it has nothing to do with the song, first of all. 

Mmm-mmm

And second of all, because I think just watching so many of her early videos, I kind of get why there's no guy in them a lot of the time because she's so young, but I also feel like it's like she's just the focus of every video. It's just her like smiling and goofing around and being pretty And she's so young that it started to rub me the wrong way. Like why are we focused so much on just how pretty she is? Why can't we put her in a story or something? Like we know she can act. She's acting actively at this time in her life.

Why are we not giving her plot? Like, we gave Demi plot to songs that Demi probably didn't deserve plot in the music video for. Like, a lot of these songs, specifically this one, does deserve plot. And it's like, why didn't we give a Sabrina that to work with instead of just like, be cute in London?

Yeah, and it's kind of like smoke and fire where even if you are the boyfriend and theoretically there's like a two person, this is about a relationship, you're not getting the essence of the relationship 

No

because the song has some tension involved in it.

Yeah.

And the video is all just like, I'm cute.

Yeah.

But you know, um, it, it, it's a good song at least.

Yeah, it's a good song and I didn't actually dislike the music video. I liked it. I thought it was perfectly fine. But I do think that she deserved more because of how many of these styles of videos she was given.

Yes. And I found this next note you put really interesting to this point.

Yeah, so the music video was supposed to include her co-star on Girl Meets World, Corey, but his scenes didn't make the final cut, which like leads me to be like, what were his scenes? Maybe there was plot.

were they worried about fans shipping them together or did they decide that he wasn't attractive enough because he's not as conventionally attractive as most like music video leads like it's it's strange to me or were there just not enough scenes for it to make sense maybe it just like felt strange that he was supposed to be in it he would have been in London and filmed it and yet they put out this music video that's just another one of her looking pretty

Yeah. I agree. Second single, Thumbs, which was released on January 3rd, 2017. It was the only song on the album that Sabrina did not write, and I think it shows. It was written by Priscilla Renea and Steve Mack. Priscilla, who also goes by Muni Long as an artist name, wrote Timber, Get Low, California King Bed, so wrote a lot of big pop hits. Well, Get Low, I wouldn't say is a pop hit, but it was a radio hit.

Get low yeah I mean, that was a hit in arm and in school.

All of these, Timber, Get Low, and California King Bed were on the radio hard. Timber, you were listening to at clubs. Get Low, you were listening to at clubs. like These were big hits. so um 

Hell yeah

I just wanted to shout that out because I thought that was fun that Priscilla wrote on this song. It peaks number one on billboard's bubbling under Hot 100, so basically that means it peaked 101. It was certified platinum in Australia, US, and to Norway. This one, I would say, is the first music video we've gotten that has a little bit more substance to it. She's in an empty subway like car but as the song continues the car starts to fill up and people start to join in on her dancing and singing and the lights start to flash and you get moments of choreography with her and the others on the subway car and then then at the end of the song we close in on Sabrina's face and when they pull back out the cart is empty

This is the most production we get out of one of her videos to this, to that point.

Yeah.

I'm also taking mild offense because Jess wrote this note down and put empty subway and I wrote in the number two in parentheses and she removed it.

Oh...

She was on the two train, which is, is a common commuter train that goes through Harlem into central Manhattan.

I thought that at like 9:30 when I was typing these notes that I accidentally put in the two in there.

in parentheses 

I was like, what? Why did I write it like that? That makes more sense that you wrote that note because I would have not known that.

yeah and she's at 14th street station well i don't know that she's actually there but the sign says that but then like the trash can's very clearly fake 

Mmm mmhmmm

because it has this like keep new york city clean sign on it but like our trash cans don't look like that

She made her late night talk show debut performance with this song, performing on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Which would be a recurrence for her. I think he did a lot for her early career. Like not to give him his flowers, but she performed on his show a lot more than others.

Yeah, This was her debut for late night television was this performance. But yeah, I think later on with other albums, she continued to really lean into late night because there are a lot of late night performances she does.

Mhmm but especially on Corden

Yeah.

I find it funny that this is the only song that she didn't write on the album because this song did numbers for her like to this day and I checked just last night before recording her most viewed music video on YouTube is espresso with 262 million views and thumbs has 260 million, which is very close.

Yeah 

And for reference, the third most viewed is Please, Please, Please with 162 million. So this has nearly 100 million more views than Please, Please, Please, which has her now ex-boyfriend, Barry Keoghan, in it.
 
yeah Yeah, it's very interesting.

Yeah. Also, she hates the song, famously, which is really fun. She loves to sh*t on it.

I mean, it shows in interviews because the amount of times I heard someone ask her, what does the song mean? And she starts the answer with, it's kind of confusing and then goes in to explain what the song is about. You can tell that even at this age, she did not love the song.

I did see in a video from the last year, so not that old, where she was going through some of her old lyrics that were thrown at her. And she was asked to talk about them. She was like, but everyone's going to be freaking out that I'm going to say something nice about it for a second. looking back at it, she does recognize that at least from a young age, she was trying to do something pretty unique.

Yeah.

That was the most she could give its flower. She's like I got a lot of fans from that song people love that song. I'm just not one of them

Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment. I don't think it's the best work that she's put out that represents her as an artist. Like it very clearly is written by someone else. It doesn't sound like her.

no it doesn't Going back to the music video, because we're going to have more to talk about on this song when we get into our other reactions to the album, I just wanted to say that generally I don't care about the music video for having as high of a production value as it does, but I do kind of like the part where the people lip-sync. you know There's like a part in like the bridge where where suddenly everyone's lip-syncing her lines. It's kind of fun.

Yeah, it it is fun. It was definitely the most entertaining to watch. Like I found myself glancing at my phone the least because I'm like, well, at least there's something happening.

Yeah, there's like break dancing.

In addition to these two singles, she also had two other promotional singles. All we have is Love and Run and Hide. And these tracks were released early for those who preordered the album. This album did debut at the Billboard 200 at 28, which was her highest-peaking album on the charts at the time. Alongside this album, she went on her first headlining tour, the Evolution Tour, in fall of 2016, followed by the D Tour in 2017. The entire tour sold out before it started, If you look at where she's at, like it makes sense because of her Disney fame, but also I think that is incredibly impressive that she sold out an entire tour 

That's very impressive. 

for her first ever headlining tour.

I imagine the venues are much smaller.

Yeah.

I also, I hate to say it, I think it's because of thumbs.

Oh God, you think?

I think it had a big part to play in it because that song was kind of, it is a big part of her career.

Ugh I kind of see this is what's interesting of being someone coming in who did not like listen to much of her music prior to us deciding to do this is again I had awareness of this song I did not realize that it did as much as it did for her career and it's kind of disappointing to learn because she has much better music

It's just, trust me, it disappoints no one more than it does Sabrina Carpenter.

That's fair. Also during this time in 2017, she joined Ariana Grande on her Dangerous Woman tour as an opener and opened for the Vamps on their Middle of the Night tour.

the Vamps make sense, but the dangerous woman tour kind of surprised me just because I mean obviously they're very similar in their careers Ariana's just like a step ahead of Sabrina at that time in their lives, but dangerous woman was Ariana's like Big breakout kind of like grown woman sound and I don't think we're there yet with Sabrina We're about to get there, but we're not yet. So it's kind of surprised that she booked that

Yeah, I wonder if she also pushed to be included on that, like how much involvement she had because it's a very interesting move to make with this being her second album and then choosing to open for Ariana, but also I think it really sets her up for the next two albums and even next four albums.

Yes, absolutely.

What the heck does this mean? I don't know what this means.

Other things going on in Sabrina's life at this time. Andi Mack came out in 2017. It's another Disney Channel show that Jess hasn't watched, but I've seen it was created by Terry Minsky, the creator of Lizzie McGuire, and it's a fan.

Oh, I bet I would love it.

You would. Anyway, so in March 2017, Andi Mack came out and Sabrina Carpenter sang the theme song for it. And I say, hell yeah, because I like Sabrina Carpenter and I like Andi Mack.

Also at the time, she frequented the Zach Singh show a lot. Amanda went into a true deep dive onto this, but I did watch a few clips. Dan Zolot, who is also always interviewing with Zach Sang, was always like very creepy towards her as well as many other girls at the time. There's this one clip where he asks how old she is, and then proceeds to ask her if she's into sexting after she said she's 17. the fvck?

And he's eight to nine years older than her.

fvck fvcking creepy weird just stop just no just don't

What's extra creepy is that Dan has, ah he's one of Zach's friends. He's always been involved in his show and still is. But this interview, at like the whole interview was removed from Zach's channel years ago. And recently compilations of creepy interactions like that with Sabrina or other artists on the show from Zach and from Dan have been like cropping up in the last six plus months. on Twitter and TikTok and very frequently they get taken down. Like Zach's team is like trying to scrub the internet.

Mmm.

It's just like gross.

It is.

But you even can still find it because I did and I shared it with Jess.

In our life, we were in our first year of college, Amanda was listening.

First year out of college,

Oh, we were first year. Oh, my God, we're old, we're old, we're old.

Mm hmm.

Oh, my goodness. Favorite songs

And or just our reception to the album.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, general like what we enjoyed. 

Or didn't 

I need a dance club remix of Feels Like Loneliness yesterday. I require I it. I re-listen to this album. I re-listen to all the albums we're talking about today, this morning. And I like had the same exact thought when this song came on. I was like, God, I just need a club mix of this song. She has this line where she's like, oh didn't mean to make you love me. It's not to that tune, but it's like the way she says it and like the, like the high pitched coming. I don't know. I really loved it. I really loved it. It's a fun one.

can't recall what that song sounds like. But that's for a note I have later. But I love that you love it. I have a love-hate relationship with thumbs, as previously mentioned, which you wrote, me too.

Mm hmm.

I too have wondered what this song is about. It's about nothing, and everything, and nothing. Like, the lines, I think really, I wrote it down just two lines that I i think stand out. One being, the bank robbed the people, so the people robbed the bank. Okay, that's that's a slay. I would love to Robin Hood. But then there's also, it it never ends till it ends, and then it starts again.

Mhmm

Which means nothing.

Yep, yep all the times I've listened to this song in prepping for this episode, I really hate the first verse. I don't know why it sonically makes me want to rip my brain out. But then it does grow on me. I'm like, oh, this is catchy by the end. So I understand why it had a big impact, but I don't think it should have.

Yeah, that's the love hate relationship, is I'm always like, what is this song about? Like, it's so dumb, but that I'm also like, is it somehow profound? And I am bopping along by the end of it.

Yeah.

It's weird.

it just feels like it wasn't written for her either Like maybe if a different artist sung it. I don't know. I don't know. It's just it's a strange song. On this album. I really enjoyed shadows and run and hide one of the main lines of shadows is don't mind your shadows because they disappear in the light It's just very gorgeous like ballad-y Song I really liked it

Yeah, I liked the lyricism of that one as well. And I also really liked Run and Hide. I don't have any particular notes about it. I was in the shower while I was re-listening to it this morning, but I was in the shower listening to her songs and thought, okay, I got to peek around the curtain and check what the title of that song is because I'm enjoying it.

Yeah, yeah. This album ends with a song called All We Have Is Love, and I didn't i just felt like it didn't end this album. It felt weird. The production was weird. The sound was weird. I didn't hate the song. It just, maybe in a different order on the album, I would have appreciated it more. It just didn't feel like an album ender.

I didn't hate it as an album endor, honestly. Message-wise. But I also hate the message. But it's fine. The production, though, has a little like a doo-doo-doo-doo kind of sound. It's not that. But you know, in Justin Bieber's Sorry, the doo-doo-doo-doo, the dolphin sound

Yes

there's something in there that's like reminiscent of it.

Mmm Okay. All in all, I have to say... In re-listening to this this morning, I would say this album has grown on me. But in general, I'm not sure that this is the Sabrina Carpenter album for me. If I had to do a definitive ranking of her albums, this probably would be at the bottom and not by probably, like it would be at the bottom um for me.

It would probably definitively be at the bottom.

yes exactly I appreciated that she did something different. I appreciated that Disney allowed her to do something different. I appreciated that it wasn't just another copy of Eyes Wide Open. So that I recognized in the album. I just don't think it's the one that I like the most.

I feel similarly. I actually don't know that it grew on me. I think that it probably did the opposite.

Okay

Like the first time that I was listening to Eyes Wide Open and Evolution, I was like, okay, wait, these kind of bop. And then I was listening to it again today. And part of why I had to re-listen to these albums, despite having heard a lot of the songs before, granted I heard more of Eyes Wide Open than than Evolution when it came out, was that nothing stands out to me. It kind of reminds me of Demi, the album.

Mhmm

where it has a cohesive sound, but in a way that's almost detrimental to the actual album. It's kind of boring. None of the songs are really trying to do anything except for thumbs, which God forbid, you know?

Yeah

So it's hard to pick standouts.

I hear the this so song titles and I can't tell you what that song is, aside from On Purpose and Thumbs. And those are the singles for a reason.

Mm-hmm. True.

It's not a terrible album.

No.

I don't hate it. It's easy listening. It just, it's kind of boring.

Yeah, agreed. It's not my favorite, but it's not bad. This album Evolution kicked off the first year that Sabrina started doing a photo shoot with her album in a Target cart. um And she's continued to do that since. Danielle Fishel also does this. It's very cute. I found a cute little Pinterest compilation of the photos. Maybe Amanda will add it in the edit. Maybe she won't 

I will

But they were very, very cute. It brought me joy to look at them.

I'm glad because that's probably something you didn't know about, right? 

No.

That I put a note about because every year Sabrina does it to this day. She did it for short n sweet. She gets in a cart and also Danielle Fishel does it independently of Sabrina. She does it without her and also posts it and is like, she said that Sabrina is like the closest she'll get to a daughter and and loves to support her and stuff. And it's just so cute.

It's yeah, it's very cute and I don't know why I pictured when you said it But I didn't picture this so I was glad I went and searched it on Pinterest because I was like this is adorable as hell It's so cute 

You didn't picture your grown women getting in Target carts to hold the albums.

no, even though you said that that's what it was but it just in my brain didn't click it's cute I enjoyed it Enjoyed

Enjoyed. 

Enjoyed

Okay, getting into Singular Act 1. Released on November 9th, 2018, also still on Hollywood Records, we have eight tracks with a real snappy runtime of 25 minutes and one second, which Jess thinks is rude.

I don't know, eight songs and 25 minutes and calling it in an album. Like it's an EP.

Hmm.

Eight songs is a little long for an EP. Normally those are five to seven, but an EP's runtime is normally 18 to 25 minutes.

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think part of it comes down to something I really appreciate about Sabrina that I noted later on is she's not afraid to write a short song.

Mmm mhmm 

You know, she's not afraid to say the song is done when it's less than three minutes. And sometimes I think that's okay. Sometimes I like this song is a little short, but most of the times with hers, I'm like, yeah, this is where it needed to end. If it went on any longer, I would probably not like it as much. 

Yeah

So I think that comes into it, but I do agree. It's a small, it's a short album. This is the first album where all of the songs were co-written by Sabrina, which it I will get into kind of later of what this marked in her career, but she was she's on record as being more heavily involved in the writing and production than ever before, more so than she knew she wanted to be. The vibes are very pop and dance-y with a bit of R&B. This is like Sabrina decided she really wanted to make a dance song. It goes through both singulars and she she has also referred to it as that for some of the songs. for our lead single of singular act one. I'm sorry, I just like, to me, this is like such an iconic album. Okay, I need to calm myself down. Almost love. Released on June 6 of 2018, written by Sabrina and Stargate, which is a huge writing production group. It's done so sick, irreplaceable, firework, a lot of Rihanna. I'm not listing every single person involved in writing and production of her singles, but like the ones that have done stuff we know. And Stargate, trust me guys, you know what they've done. Peaked at number 1 on the US Dance Club Songs chart and number 21 on the US Mainstream Top 40 chart. Kinda crazy. 

Mhmm

the music video released on june or july 13th 2018 and four days prior she actually performed this at wango tango which i thought was ballsy as hell jess says this is pretty typical promotional move and i get that but also you're performing to a crowd that could be up to 22,000 people a song that they've never heard and you're an artist that they don't care about yet

Yeah, but it's a perfect mid-set song. You play a song they know to draw them in. You play your biggest song last. You put a song in to keep people intrigued. You keep them intrigued by saying, this is unreleased and it's coming out in four days. Like, it feels like a pretty standard promotional move to me.

Fair.

And clever, smart, like as artists should.

The video is basically just her dancing around in hot outfits and at the end she kisses a guy and he turns into a statue. You don't see the guy for very long before she kisses him. He's not a feature throughout the video. And there's different outfits and dancing and that's about it. But for some reason, because I remember when this this song came out, I remember watching it for the first time and being like, oh, Sabrina has arrived.

Yeah, this very much reminded me a lot of Disney, like Demi had this, Miley Cyrus had this moment, Selena Gomez also I feel like had this moment, but this really gave me like, I wrote Disney star that has now turned 19, Disney star that's now turned 18, but in this case, she's 19, but this like, I'm now an adult, I get to like, be a little bit more involved, I can be sexy if I want to, it really felt like her like showing up and being like, this is how I want to portray myself as an artist now, which I feel like shows in the music video. It also is just fun. like It looks like she's having a lot of fun.

It is, it is. It was actually only written in then like three hours and it was one of the last I believe it was the last song that she wrote for Singular Act one and one of the last ones she wrote for the whole of the two part singular albums. And she identified it as being surprising because she wrote it so quickly and like tapped into this confident persona that she didn't know she had in her. So then I think choosing it as a lead single is a really strong choice. It's the most sort of like confident vocally and persona wise that she's been thus far.

Mmhmm.

She also came up with the idea of using statues. She kisses the guy, he turns into a statue that was also the artwork for the single because of this idea of like, you know, a man that can't give you what you want from him because he's a statue. He's not emotionally available.

Yeah, yeah. I wrote that. I appreciated that this is the first one I watched that had some sort of story or twist. I would say that probably was thumbs with the story, but I did like the twist that they all turned into statues. She's not the only one kissing a man and he's turning into statues. She also has a group of friends that this happens to. It's just fun.

Her second single also iconic even more so sue me uh Released on January 8th 2019 peaked number one on the US Dance Club songs chart music video released on November 16th 2018 written after she was being sued by her ex music managers, Stan Rogow and Elliot Lurie, for allegedly not paying them commissions after she fired them in 2014. She couldn't talk about what she was being sued for. She was under various NDAs. But when asked about this song, she would say, I was being sued at 16. And so I likened it to a breakup. Incredible. Sabrina wrote it with Warren Oakfelder, who does a lot of R&B and pop. He's worked a lot with Kehlani, Alessia Cara, Nicki Minaj, a lot of Demi Lovato, surprisingly, including Holy Fvck, but started back in the Tell Me You Love Me era So another big name. And the music video is so iconic. It is her first real video to have a story to me. Well, I don't know if it still has a story. It's still just her dancing and looking hot. Nothing's really had a story, okay? But it's a high production value.

But it has a concept.

It has a concept.

It's more yeah it's more conceptually fleshed out than the other ones.

That is true. It's a Legally Blonde parody. That's it. But it's like fully a Legally Blonde parody.

Yeah.

We're not telling a story, we're not putting anyone away, but she's just like in various hot outfits dancing with her friends, sometimes at the pool, sometimes in the library, sometimes in the courtroom. but like mimicking, you you can tell. And also one of those friends that's with her is Joey King, who she's been friends with since like roughly 2010 or earlier.

Wow.

They said that they knew each other before they knew each other. They were the kind of like friendly acquaintances that would see each other like once a year at work events. And then eventually they got really close and to the point where I think Sabrina was in Joey's wedding.

Oh wow.

Yeah, they're very good friends.

And it's just like a very unserious song and video to me because this is the start like you're being sued and you're making a funny song about being overly confident and a breakup about it and then you on top of that you're making a video that's a parody and to me like that is the start of her sense of humor really showing and she also has credited that as being the start of finding herself lyrically and her sense of humor in playing a role like that. And also just like in general has credited this song as as having a lot of diehard fans similarly to thumbs but this one I think she's actually a little proud of.

Yeah, it's a good song too. 

Other promotional singles that preceded the album included Paris and Bad Time, Paris actually got a music video filmed in Paris, and it's it's just it's just Sabrina standing around looking hot in vintage clothes in Paris.

I liked that. I enjoyed that it was let me be hot in Paris. What I thought was weird is she's being hot on a canopy bed. And I did not very specifically did not like the fabric that was used for this canopy bed. It was like super thick, but also wrinkled. And like, I don't know, canopy beds are supposed to be like very like romantic and drapey. And this one just looked not comfortable and not romantic. It looked bad.

Tell me you've worked in hospitality without telling me you've worked in hospitality.

I just feel like Paris is supposed to be romantic and that canopy bed was a not giving that.

Well, I never even noticed, baby.

Okay okay 

I was too busy looking at her.

Fair, fair, fair.

The way that Smoke and Fire was a transitional single between Eyes Wide Open and Evolution, there was also a transitional single between Evolution and Singular Act I, which was Why and then she also had another song alien and both of these were included as bonus tracks on the Japanese version of the album But she has said alien wasn't her song alien. She wrote and performed on but it was for I think Jonas blue or something But why is her song but she never felt like it belonged in the singular world hence she released it independently in July of 20th, July of 20th, July 20th, 2017 features Casey Cott from Riverdale, who I did not know because I've never seen that. And literally, it's like the dumbest concepts at the beginning.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It is.

You've seen this one?

Yep, I watched it and it was dumb

This is also one that I had on my music playlist, though. So I've heard this song a lot. they start off in a diner in New York City and she's like, name your favorite horror movie. And he's like, horror movies suck. And she's like, what? That's crazy. And she's like, we're so different. And he's like, we're like salt and pepper. We're so different, but everyone knows we belong together. And then the song starts and it's just them in New York City. That's it. That's the song and the video. But I do like the song.

Yeah, that is a good song.

And I agree with it as a transition because it's more dance-ier than evolution, but it's not quite to the R&B singular song sound.

Yeah, that's true.

Accolades for Singular Act 1 it debuted at 103 on Billboard 200 and 38th on the US top album sales chart. It had growing global popularity with the album reaching number 20 in Australia and 48 in the UK. And then within Sabrina's career and growth, I actually listed a lot of things because I think that the singular albums like charted the worst a bit or had fewer sales than her previous two albums and compared to her following albums when she switches labels but you can see how much more of her sound is in them. It's mature, there's humor in the lyrics, it's sexy. Also vocally, there's a little more head voice in there, which I think she switches to a lot in her newer stuff. It was critically well received, heralded by some as a pop masterpiece, which I might personally agree with. And also in the production, this was the first time that she had a writing camp. So for a week, her label or whomever rented out a whole writing camp had a bunch of people there. And so she said there were like three different rooms of writers working at one time. And she had to like go between each room and give input on what they were working on at that time. And a lot of the songs came from that camp. And she got to work with a lot of big writers and producers, particularly, as I mentioned, Stargate, also Leland, who famously like has worked on a lot of Troye Sivan's work and is the in-house writer and producer for RuPaul's Drag Race has been for years. So like any of the songs that they perform in the show and the rusicle that they do every season, he's doing the music for. Grammy wrote in an article about the evolution of her career, I just wanted to note on this, because it has to do with like the maturity of her sound, that this is like reminiscent of Miley Cyrus' Can't Be Tamed, 

Yep

that she grew into an adult and felt like she needed to shed the Disney-fied image of her. Untrue. True, but untrue. 

Yeah

Yes, she grew into an adult. Yes, she matured. But she said on the Zach Sang interview that no one in her team was ever like, let's break the Disney mold, we need to sound older. It's just that because she was so involved in writing it, and because she was in fact, older, it came out sounding older. No one was pushing her in any particular direction.

which I think makes sense because this transition doesn't feel as strong as the transition into Can't Be Tamed felt like to me the transition between Eyes Wide Open to Evolution being a little bit more dancier, a little bit more pop, to then the transition into the singular albums. Even though the sounds continue to evolve, it's not like you listen to evolution and then you listen to these and be like, oh, this isn't an artist evolving. It sounds completely different. It kind of feels natural.

Yes, there is a transition versus can't be tamed was like a stark left turn.

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

she said with the writing camp that she didn't realize how heavy handed she is and wants to be in the writing of her music until that moment.

Mm, interesting.

and that like She's also said that you her albums serve sort of as an autobiography. She's very involved in putting herself into the music and that by this point in her career with writing, because she got so involved in it, while vulnerability in writing can be scary, she was more afraid of letting other people tell her story by not by staying silent on it. I also wanted to note that this is a start of this like vintage glam look that she now so encompasses like you could see it in the videos, right?

Mmhmm. Yep.

especially the clothes, the makeup and the hair weren't quite there yet. The hair wasn't as big. And also she has noticed because she's very involved in her fans to this day, she knows a group of fans that have been fans of her since she was 14. And she noticed in this era, because the genre was changing a bit that she started to gain more fans.

Yeah, and I think it's interesting to note that you kind of touched on it earlier because this album and the next one do chart significantly lower than the previous two. I don't actually think this was detrimental to her career. I think it was beneficial to her career. And I think you see that with the fact that even though it overall charts lower, you get some really high charting like both the singles were very high charting on specific charts. So she's able to, instead of just broadly being popular, she is nailing down a sound and speaking to that audience, which is what brings you more fans that are there for you versus being broadly popular. So I think you can really tell that this is her finding her sound.

Yeah, she's figuring out her branding in like every way.

Yeah.

She's not quite there, but she's figuring it out
Yeah

but she doesn't yet have a team that's willing to promote her, basically.

A hundred percent. Yep.

Yeah, within her life and the rest of her career, in September of 2018, she was on the soundtrack for Sierra Burgess is a Loser with the song Lie for Love. Leland also did the soundtrack for that, so it makes sense. She starred as Hailey in the Hate U Give in 2018, famously the white girl that you kind of hate because she's best friends with Amandla Stenberg and is like She's like kind of a cop sympathizer. Anyway

Oh, that's not good.

I don't know if you've ever seen that movie. It's a great movie.

I have not.

in March of 2019, she went on the singular tour. before Act 2 came out to promote both acts of the album. I also wanted to note a cute thing. In 2018, roughly six months before Act 1 came out, she took her first trip to Paris with Rowan Blanchard. And the writer of Girl Meets World used to be very active on Twitter. And so there is a tweet that I found a screenshot of where they said, as young girls, Rowan and Sabrina had dreams of someday going to Paris, tonight, two young women called just to let me know they were there. I asked how they were spending their time. They told me they were eating french fries. Boy, I love them.

So cute!

Very cute, but also makes people question. She has a song called Paris about how romantic it is on this album.

Mmmm mhmm mhmm

More about just like her life and her mentality at this time because she is quite young. Still, she was like 16 to 18 when she wrote this album. There's a song prfct spelled without the vowels because it's all about being imperfect but perfect for you So she wanted to reflect that in the way it was stylized. Zach Sang asked her about that song. So do you like being in difficult relationships? And she said, I really want someone to rip my heart out because I feel like I need that.

Oh my god

Like she dead ass said that at like 18 in an interview 

Hilarious 

and she still acts that way in interviews.

Yeah.

She did say Mona Lisa was the most like her sense of humor she's like we didn't even finish that song it doesn't have a bridge but I was like that's going on the album 

Okay, that makes sense, because the song does feel unfinished, but it fits with the album.

It does. and Hold tight was brought up and I thought this was of note because they brought it up as like, oh, that's a sexy song and it is a sexy song, right? they asked about like writing those kinds of songs and she felt like those are the ones she's least comfortable with because she's not a particularly like extra sexy or sensual person and she she wants it to be believable. and I just thought that was like a really interesting thing to hear in an interview when now that's so much of her branding 

Yeah

and she still to this day has been like, I am a normal level of horny. This is just like what I think is funny and like the music that I'm putting out but people think I'm very, very horny.

Sure, sure.

Personally in my life, this is the album I've listened to the most because this came out. Well, first of all, like I said, like I knew when the singles came out. So then I was like, okay, I'm curious about the album and so I got it and I was living in Korea in 2018 commuting to a job that I hated every day and I was listening to this album on my commute it was a comparable runtime to my commute and it was like yes we're getting confident we're having a great time and that's exactly what she wanted was she wanted this to be an album where people could like bop to it and feel their most confident 

Yeah, I think it does that, truly.

I agree. I think that it's like getting into our our overall reception and notes about this. I think that it's like a very concise, yes it's a short runtime, but I think it's concise and well done. Like It feels cohesive. Lyrically it's clever. Though it is quite repetitive, but like even the boring refrains, she gets into a lot of like contrarian writing of it's a bad time for a good time. It's so romantic in Paris, but I already have love in LA. You like New York City in the daytime. I like New York City in the nighttime. And sonically, it like kind of moves around, but I still feel like it like makes sense together.
 
Yeah, it definitely has a theme. I would say it's not as themed as we have to come, but you can tell there is a lyrical theme to this album that even when it moves around sonically, it still feels grounded.

Yes. My favorite songs are probably Bad Time, Paris, Almost Love, and Sue Me. I don't dislike any song on this album though, but those are just like the ones that I'm like, yeah, I can get down to these. Her favorite line from Almost Love, which is also my favorite line is, I want you like a loner wants an empty room.

Mmm Mhmm mhmm

Just very very funny 

Yeah

and then I also just like I have to I love sue me. I love sue me It's such a good song for boosting up your confidence. I love the lines of sue me for looking so pretty tonight Like sue me for doing everything right babe and also it's hard to see me on when you've been off as hell But I'm not gonna dull myself because you dull yourself 

Mhmm

Mwah

Yeah, it is a very good like confident boosting song. I also really enjoyed Paris and Sue me. Additionally, I really liked Mona Lisa and Diamonds are Forever. You noted the same thing that I want to note is I especially liked Diamonds Are Forever as an album finisher. I think it was a really really smart placement of that song. It is great because it does lead you into the next album. It also feels like it ends this album at a cohesive standpoint. It's just a really smart choice to put at the end of an album and I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, it's probably my least favorite on the album, but it kind of gives like bond theme and it, which I guess is the point. Like that is a diamonds are forever as a bond theme. And it it feels like a finisher, like you said. Yeah.

Yeah. The only thing that I noticed is Bad Time was probably my least favorite song. I know you put it in your favorites on the album just because there's moments in kind of the background where there's these yeah and sorrys that are in a different tone and they like threw me out of the song. Instead of like adding to it, I felt like I was like pulled out whenever those come on in the song.

oh I couldn't even remember what you're talking about until just now the like I'm sorry I'm just gonna say it one more time 

Yeah

yeah no I like those cuz I think bad time is funny 

Yeah

like I think singing it is funny and those saris add in the humor cuz it's like you're so unserious like about it

Yeah Yeah, but it's still like, I'm sorry. And it's like in a different like, I don't know how to explain it, but it's almost like it sounds further away than the rest of the music. Like it's almost in the background too. And it's just, yeah, I just didn't. Yeah, they threw me out of the song. Like I was like, whoa, this feels like it doesn't really belong or the way that it was produced is in a way that I just didn't enjoy.

That's interesting. I thought it was more like um like skinny dipping in emails I can't send 

Yep

the like narrative style where she's almost like speaking, but I didn't notice that Sonically it sounds further away.

yeah. yeah

Note that I did not include any relationships for this album as part of her life because to our knowledge, we don't know of any until 2019. But Iconic Moments. She released this album with a trailer, which included snippets from Sue Me, Mona Lisa and Can't Stop Me, which is on part two, revealed, okay, this pisses me off because it's so, this is another thing that's been removed from YouTube and I don't know why, because this isn't on her channel, it's on the James Corden channel.

Yeah.

But she performed Almost Love on the James Corden show, on the Late Late Show with James Corden.

Yeah.

where she had like busts of statues and I did find the video just not on his channel busts of statues and she's like painting over them and on the set and like just destroying it in visual art she's not really dancing but just like moving around it while performing the whole time and she like is wearing white and ends up like rolling around in paint and at one point like pulls off part of the wallpaper of the set and reveals the album cover of this album and it was it was incredible 

So fun 

Yes

so fun.

I also have to note this, I don't know that it's iconic in the fandom but it's iconic in my heart because a lot of people don't realize that Sabrina Carpenter can dance and I don't know why like I don't know that she took dance classes or anything growing up. I could not find any information on this but a lot of people think she's just like a stage strutter and she is currently but she can dance and this is evidenced in the Why choreography done by Kyle Hanagami, who is a good choreographer. you know This was the rise of those YouTube videos where everyone goes to that one studio in LA where they like learn the really cool hip hop performances and then they get posted everywhere. and They did one with this song and then at the last third of the video, she shows up and surprises the dancers and then learns the choreography and does it with them. 

Oh, fun!

she moves very fluidly like she clearly can dance which you also see I think especially in the sue me music video 

Yeah, I think her... In a few music videos, I feel like there are moments that show off the fact that she does have a like dancing ability.

do we want to get into act two

Yeah, let's do it.

So Singular Act 2 was released on July 19, 2019. Again, we're on Hollywood. We have nine tracks and 28 minutes and 46 seconds. Does those extra three and a half minutes make you happy, Jess?

It's still too short to be classified as an album, but nine songs, almost 30 minutes. I felt like it I felt better about it.

What's funny is that literally is one song. It's like it has one song more and it has the runtime of one song more.

Yep.

Production and songwriting again, she co-wrote every song on the album. A lot of these songs came from the same writing camp and time so she wrote both singular acts at the same time, and she intended on releasing it as one album and the name actually came out from her sending some of the songs to one of her friends and she said this sounds so singularly like you But then she started to notice that like half the songs had a different vibe. Singular Act 1 was all about being very confident and Singular Act 2 was about flipping that on its head and being more vulnerable and being comfortable and confident enough to question yourself. So she chose to split them up.

I don't know if you did research on this, but do you think she chose to split them up?

This is how she, that the way that I explained it is how she has explained it in every interview, was that she felt that they made more sense as two albums. Was your theory that it's about fulfilling her contract?

Yeah, I think that they were like, we gave you five albums, whatever, we're counting some of these EPs as an album. You wrote all these songs in this writing camp. you're not performing at what you were in your first two albums. Let's split this one up into two. You wrote, you know, 17 or 16 great 17, I guess, great songs for this album, which 17 songs in an album could totally be an album. And then they were just like, you got to split it into two. And then she was forced to switch it. I think that also like, why would you promotionally release a song that's going to be on act two with act one if you weren't intending on releasing it all in one piece like there are just some things that i'm like this does not feel like a her choice this feels like a forced choice but again this is my theory none of this is like factual this is just like what i have thought about in my brain i don't know what the actual story here is all we know is what's said in interviews, and I watched similar interviews that she said the same thing, but I just, yeah, I'd be curious to know.

conversely it could also be that she was already sick of Hollywood at this time and thought, let me get an extra album out so that I'm further along my contract.

Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised if it came from her because she did so many EPs and her albums in general were pretty short, but I think, and like the songs are short sometimes, you know, I think she's not afraid to come up with a package if it's concise.

Yeah.

But I also hear what you're saying. 

I also just think it makes more sense as one album. Like, artistically, the two together as one album is a much more well-rounded piece of art than splitting it into two. To me, splitting it into two just feels like, I don't know, a way to stretch things out.

I don't hate it as two. I could see it as one with an interlude to like really drive home the like act one, act two thing. 

Yeah

I do think they're sonically different enough for me to be two.

Yeah.

But I do wish if it came from Hollywood to make two albums that they actually promoted them. 

Yeah

Because this is where I also fell off a bit of Sabrina. i didn't listen to act two, even though I loved act one. So kind of sad. Anyway, chose to split it up. guest appear There's a guest appearance from Saweetie because this is 2019.

Yeah

And also, again, I mentioned this worked with Leland on a good chunk of the album. Vibes are more pop dance and R&B like the previous one, but I would say even more dancey. And she did work on these songs after the fact. like Act 2 evolved a bit after Act 1 coming out and the decision to divide them. Like I mentioned, this was all about turning Act 1 on its head and like getting more vulnerable. Our lead single is pushing 20. Okay, interesting choice. Came out March 8th, 2019, written by Sabrina for her birthday May of 2019, and also written with Oak Felder, who I've previously spoken about, and doesn't have a music video, just a visualizer of her with a birthday cake based off of the one that Hagrid brings Harry in the Sorcerer's Stone. 

I noted this here, I guess I could have noted it somewhere else, but it kind of stood out to me that in this song, on the verses, not on the Chorus and Bridge, but on the verses, the register that she sings in is quite lower than her normal verse register, I don't know, it it does give a huge sonic a difference, like, it just sounds very different, like her register is significantly lower.

i didn't notice that because the verses are so short on this song it's so repetitive and a lot of her songs are repetitive and i'm very gracious with that because sometimes it just bops anyway and this song song does bop

Yeah it does.

but it's so repetitive that like by the second third, I was questioning, wait, was there was there another verse in there?

Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

It does kind of feel like the maturity of a 30 year old though, or like the mentality of a 30 year old. It's the same attitude of like, and I've heard her describe it in an interview of like, yeah I'm 20, I'm too busy to deal with other people's drama. Like I have, enough going on in my life which i feel like was you turning 30 being like i'm a grown-up like you were so ready for 30 

Yeah

because you're like this is like i have my sh*t together kind of i like i don't have time for drama and like petty stuff of your 20s

Yeah, it does this song does give, I feel like, any like big transitional moment in life where you feel like you are now grown up, whatever that means, this song gives. So I'm sure like even for those who are turning 40, this song could resonate. you know like I think it's a very easy to relate to song.

Yeah at this point in her life, a lot of her songwriting, oddly enough, came out of coming up with the title before the song. 

Huh

And this came out from someone saying to her, like, what are you, like, pushing 20 now? And Almost Love, she had the words Almost Love written in a document for a while, knowing that, like, she, or like a notes app that she knew she wanted to use that. 

Interesting. 

Our second single is Exhale, released on May 3rd of 2019, written just before she departed for the Singular Tour by Sabrina, as well as Ross Golan, who has worked with a lot of notable people, but I noted that he also wrote Dangerous Woman for Ariana Grande, as well as Single Soon and Same Old Love by Selena Gomez. Johan Carlsson of the group Carolina Liar, who has worked on a lot of similar songs, seems to work with Ross Golan a lot, but did not work on those Selena songs, but does also still work in the pop realm. The music video was directed by Mowgly Lee, who I believe did, what was it, Eyes Wide Open? 

Okay

It was We mentioned this name earlier, did one of those first music videos. And was released on May 17th, 2019. And this is a pop ballad about anxiety. Is that not so relatable? Let me exhale for a minute. It started as an encore song on the singular tour, and then they decided to include it in act two.

Oh, fun! this is another video of her just posing in a field, singing and posing.

It is, but this time it kind of feels appropriate.

For the song, sure, but after I've seen 6, 7, maybe even more than that, videos of her doing that already, I'm like, hello? Can we have anything else, please?
 
It's also a little strange to see her so stripped down 

Yeah

back to what we saw in like her first album in the field and also like stylistically.

Yeah.

But I really like the song. I appreciate that she knows when a song is finished. I said that earlier, but I meant it about this song. It's less than three minutes. And then the third single's In My Bed. To me, this is the strongest single from the album.

Mhmm

was released on June 7th of 2019, written by Sabrina, as well as Mike Sabath, who's worked a lot with Lizzo, the Jonas Brothers, wrote Jade's two singles that came out recently that I love and are so interesting. If you know, you know. I just doesn't know, so she's giggling.

Mm-hm.

The music video was released on June 28th of 2019 and represents the feelings of like overthinking and how life feels when you're overwhelmed by anxiety. Um, someone get my girl a Xanax 

Yeah

and it's so like kooky. Um, the song feels kooky. It's very danceable. She's got like googly eyes. She's got like spinning circles. She's wearing a straight jacket at times, which I was like, Oh my God, is this okay? Um, but yeah

I thought the way it was done, I was okay with it

I was too

especially with the topic of the song. I loved this music video. I thought it was so fun. I love the room that she was in with the like, five lava lamps in the corner with giant stuffed animals that she just like sinks into and is singing in surrounded by stuffed animals. There's like this part where there's like four old businessmen behind her dancing with her with the song. She wears this really cool like green suit that has green studs all over it. I just thought this music video was a lot of fun while fitting the song.

It is very fun. And I think that Singular Act 1 had very concise visuals and videos. like I think that Sue me, Almost Love, and Paris do all belong in the same world. And where Singular Act 2 really fails is the singles are not cohesive, the videos don't make sense together, and I wish that this video set the tone for all the singles.

Yes, yes, that's what I wanna see.

Because it is like the tone overall of the album.

yeah

Exhale is an outlier song. not It's a great song, and I'm glad that it has a video, but it's an outlier song of the album cohesively.

Totally.

And then also why is Pushing 20 not even have a video?

Yeah, and it's the lead single, yeah.

Yes, I think that In My Bed should have been the lead single.

Yeah.

Great video, great song, very fun. I enjoy it. Every time that I see the scenes with the old men dancing behind her, I wonder how they sourced those guys.

I loved them.

they They're killing it.

They were. At one point they're kind of like, I'm gonna say twerk, they're not twerking. They're putting their hands on their knees and like popping their pelvis in and out to kind of like pop their booties with Sabrina. And it is just like, The way it was done is so comical, but so fun to watch and it's just fun. I loved this video, it was so good.

And there's a promotional single I'm faking I don't really care about those accolades debuted at number 138 on the US Billboard 200 reached 53 on the UK's download albums chart 55 in France and 13 in Australia Were you listening to this album?

No was anyone else? No 

Yeah, which is not true for an album to end up on the top 200 is still a huge success. 

Yes

But compared to the previous albums, it really shows the drop off in her widespread popularity. I do think her core of true fans grew significantly with these albums.

i I think that the success of this one is really owed to Act One. I think Act One is just so much more cohesive and branded better. But yes, some people did did did listen to this album. The album's significance in Sabrina's career, again, she was already on tour for about four months by the time that this came out. So she performed a few songs from it on the tour as like promo. And she credits this album as like being when she fell in love with writing. Whereas before she would like write to make music, now she would just like write to like express herself. Within her life and career, she didn't really tour on this album because she had already been doing the singular tour. I think that's also a strange choice. like I would have preferred she just wait a few months and then tour both of the albums, but okay.

This is why I don't think it was a choice.

She also in March of 2020 made her Broadway debut as Kady Herron in Mean Girls. And I am forever upset because I saw Mean Girls about one week before her run started. And I also didn't see Renee Rapp because her understudy was there. Her understudy was fantastic, but I missed both of them. And also her run on Broadway supposed was supposed to be like a month um It lasted for a week because then COVID happened and shut down Broadway.

yep

She also was in Tall Girl in 2019 and Tall Girl 2 in 2022, and on Tall Girl, she met Griffin Gluck, who then she was confirmed to be dating in 2019.

he better be hot as hell because what the fvck is the name griffin gla- 

He's not he's not

no he's not this is so disappointing 

Oh my god, the way that this girl loves a grungy brunette is so upsetting.

true true true true true

It's so upsetting. Like she very clearly has a type. And honey, you can do so much better. Do you know how many women would be so, oh my god, anyway.

Yeah.

She was also in a an indie film called The Short History of the Long Road in 2019, which is notable because she was filming it around the same time as The Hate U Give. And then the Netflix movie Work It, and which also co-starred Liza Koshy and Jordan Fisher came out in August of 2020. And she executive produced this film, it's the first time she's an EP on it, or EP on anything. And this is just like, so if you've seen this movie, you know, If you know, you know, I watched it when it came out. It's a dance movie in which she is like a nerdy girl who starts a dance team to help out her friend. I don't remember why I've seen it once. Okay. But she very, very much cannot dance like is terrible. And then but throughout the film, Jordan Fisher teaches her how to dance and then they like have a dance battle at the end or something. The clips, the compilations of her dancing badly are so funny and she has said in an interview that like Jack Antonoff's entire explore page on Instagram are just compilations of her being bad at dancing from that movie and he sends them to her regularly.

Oh my God. That's fun. and I love that.

I also wanted to say that in 2021 she became a Samsung Galaxy brand ambassador and any celebrity that I've ever seen be a Samsung Galaxy brand ambassador, which is basically Sabrina Carpenter and BTS. All the fans on Twitter are always like, please free my girl from Samsung, like let her get an iPhone.

Oh my God.

This is just of my life in 2019 is when I moved back to the US from Korea and I kind of fell off of her and also my life for a while.

yeah

What was going on with you in 2019, Jess?

um

Is that when you moved to L.A.?

That's when I moved to LA. Yeah.

So getting into our critical reception. I don't know where to put this, but I think the album artwork also did her dirty. This is when I say I think the first act was branded so much better. I think that the the artwork for act two sucks. And that's probably, I guarantee that's part of why I didn't get it. And I didn't even buy the CDs. I downloaded from iTunes, but that's probably part of why I didn't listen to it because I was like, what is this artwork? You can't even see her face on it well. And she has like darker looking hair. She's just like on a fire escape. Why?

Yeah. Yeah, it just doesn't scream Sabrina Carpenter. I think it's like an intriguing looking album if it was like a brand new artist, but it yeah, it does not fit how she has previously been branded. So yeah, you wouldn't like, wouldn't draw, you wouldn't be drawn to it.

No. so my favorite songs would be In My Bed, Exhale, and Looking at Me, because Looking at Me is such a fun, like this comes on all of the YouTube playlists I listen to that are like, It Girl, Confidence, You're a Baddie, like all of those ones, and it comes on and I like don't even remember that it's a Sabrina Carpenter song, because I've just heard it through those playlists and I, when I found out I was like so pleasantly surprised.

I didn't necessarily note this here. Amanda's talking a lot about how like, singular act one meant a lot to her. Again, and me listening to these albums from beginning to end for the first time in the last six months, and giving this one a few plays now, I do have to say, Of these four albums that we've talked about today, this probably is my favorite. 

Wow

Yeah, I like Act 2 a lot more than I like Act 1. I think it is lyrically just a way better album. It's lyrically really great. It's a very, very, very well written album. I think it tells a great story. um I know you're saying it's less cohesive and I think maybe sonically and maybe the flow of what songs they put in what order makes it a little less cohesive, but I do think it's lyrically very cohesive.

Yeah, I think it's the flow that makes it less cohesive because exhale's like in the middle and then  

Yeah, I would reorder all of them.

like looking at me is the final track. 

Yeah yeah 

like Exhale should be the final track, if anything.

yeah. I really like Take Off, Your Cool. I liked that it was a song about being vulnerable and authentic with someone. I also liked that the bridge is her like repeating the line, don't play hard to get, be hard to forget. It's a very like notable bridge.

Yeah, it was a good line and I liked the word play in that one of like, take off all your cool that she sings like take off all your clothes. And I like your soul when it's shirtless.

Yeah, yeah. The other one that I noted that I really liked it when I first listened to it, and now I've given it a ah couple listens, the concept of take you back I find very funny, but man, I like i like it even more after re-listening to it a couple times. um In the pre-chorus, she sings the sign like, but I just figured out now what hindsight means up until now, never had any reason to, which is really, I don't know it just seems like she's kind of poking fun at herself while also like the song the whole concept is like I want to return this person like I would return a pair of shoes like I'm gonna take you back to the store I'm done with you now it's fun it's good 

I thought this was the one where she was like, I'm probably like, I'm not gonna take you back, but I probably am. It's that one? She definitely has one of those songs. It's like, I'm done with you, but actually I'm probably not, but I'm gonna say I'm done with you.

no, I would say this one's very much I'm gonna put you back where I found you.

Great.

It's not like I'm gonna then take you back. It's very like yeah I'm done. There's another in the bridge. She sings the line, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, then go get rid of it. It's like the whole, it's just really well written and it's funny, but funny in a way that's relatable where you're like, oh, I have had someone in my life, whether that's a romantic relationship or a friendship where you're like, I felt this way, you know?

Mm-hmm.

It's like, I want to just return you, like I'm done. it's It was good, I really like it.

You know what I think as part of my issue with this one that like I also think I need to re-listen to act to because I was so unfamiliar with it versus act one I know so well. Sometimes, and she's way gotten out of this, sometimes in the past she has had issues with enunciation to where i'm if I'm not actively trying to find the lyrics, I don't fully know what she's saying.

I don't think her enunciation is the best and it does get better, but i there are some lines that I wrote down in emails I can't send where I'm like, can what who has taught you to speak, girl? Like, can we really think about what we're saying. I agree that sometimes you do there were a lot of songs where I would write down like go look at that bridge again or read the lyrics on the chorus because I thought I heard something but then I was like wait did I actually hear that or did I make it up?

Oh yeah, i didn't I kind of only picked out lyrics that I actually heard. I didn't really bother to go look at the lyrics for each of these because if I didn't hear it, then it doesn't exist.

fair fair 

Which I think is actually kind of fair. like it's like kind of like You don't need to sing like a musical theater person, but you if you want people to listen to your lyrics, you do need to enunciate a bit. And I think she's gotten better at that with age, but yeah.

yeah the only one that i didn't like super love on this album was i'm faking um i didn't dislike it it just wasn't my favorite

It's one that I can't recall what it goes like, but I can tell you that I danced to it. This might be the one that's like, I think I'm done with you, but I'm probably not. 

Yeah

Because she's saying I'm faking.

Yeah.

She's like faking confidence or something in this one. But as soon as it started, I was like bopping around my kitchen. So I will give it that.

Yeah.

I thought that it was really funny. that No, this Sabrina did not write this lyric, but on I Can't Stop Me, Saweetie has a line, and pussy so aquatic, so make that boy psychotic.

yep

and I the I texted Jess and I was like, the word pussy is on one of her Hollywood Records albums.

Yeah, you know that that song was not playing on Disney Channel.

No.

I love a lot of the lines in exile, but I especially like the opening line, who put the baby in charge because don't we all feel that way like all the time 

Yeah

when we have responsibility?

Yeah, me at work every day.

No, literally even at 30 years old, we're still like, who put this baby in charge?

Yeah.

And then also the line, I put too much on myself thinking I don't deserve what I've earned. which is very real, very imposter syndrome. Ladies, let's love ourselves. 

Yeah

I just grabbed my boobs while I said that. And I love the way that the song fades out and you just hear her kind of a capella singing. I think that it's a beautiful ending to the song.

Yeah, yeah, very, yeah, agreed.

stripped down.

Mm-hmm.

Looking at me, I love it. I love it. I already said this, but I had more notes on it later on in our document, so I'm saying them here. It makes me want to dance. It feels like a Camila Cabello song, but better.

Yep.

And it a lot of people have brought that up of like, it feels kind of Latin-y, but like, that's just like the instrumentation. I like the lines, if I leave you behind, you can look for the broken necks

Ha

And if you think they're looking at you, they're looking at me, which is the main line of the chorus. And she said that that was one that she was just like in the booth, didn't have words to the song and that came out and that line kind of like instructed or informed the rest of the song.

Cool.

This is also one that when it comes up in interviews, she's like, this is the main one where she's like, whoa, I was really in my like, I'm gonna write a dance song bag in that moment.

Yeah, she was.

And iconic moment from this kind of era, I guess. She revealed the album artwork by sending it to her fans using AirDrop. Wow, sketchy. I'd be like, what kind of malware is coming with this?

fair.

we're going to briefly mention, but we will detail later on that this again, this came out in July of 2019. And in at this point, she's still dating the guy from the thing that I mentioned from Tall Girl, but then she starts dating Joshua Bassett in the summer of 2020 to 2021, which leads us into our next album 

Yeah

in part two.

in part two so we hope you enjoyed this we really have fun doing these deep dives in the next one we're going to cover emails i can't send and short n sweet as well as um some of the tracks she's been featured on and we might throw a quiz in there so please please please give that one a listen And with that, please follow us on all of our social media. Nineties Babies nostalgia spelled the word 90s on YouTube and Instagram. We're also on TikTok, but use the numbers there. Comment, DM, rate and review. It really, really helps us out and we love engaging with you all. And with that, we'll see you in the next one.

Bye!

Bye.

90s babies nostalgia