by Chloe Wilson
Culture Editor
With the release of her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, on Aug. 29, two-time Grammy-winning artist Sabrina Carpenter has charmed the music industry again with her new retro-pop songs. Carpenter released a new single, Manchild, before the album, and it has already reached 300 million streams and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Carpenter has wowed her fans for over ten years with her clever wordplay and versatility. The album centers around comedy, using a mix of various insults towards men, hence the mocking title Man’s Best Friend. Carpenter wrote the captivating tracks with her co-writers Jack Antonoff, Amy Allen, and John Ryan.
Throughout this album, Carpenter and her writers obtained a perfect balance of comedy and pop that will make anyone listening smile. One of the songs, Tears, already has a music video to accompany it, featuring award-winning actor Coleman Domingo. In the video, Carpenter arrives at a house, and a variety of characters in elaborate outfits greet her.
With the album featuring R-rated lyrics, Carpenter acknowledged in an interview with CBS Mornings that: “There will be pearl clutching, but I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.” This is presumably in response to some viewers’ reactions to Manchild, the first song on Man’s Best Friend, and the album’s controversial cover. She defended this in an interview with Zane Lowe by saying, “The whole purpose of the photo was to be cheeky, airy, and playful.” Clearly, Carpenter is not opposed to ruffling some feathers and using her wit to create controversial but lovable songs, album covers, and music videos. The main debate surrounding the album has been its degrading nature towards women. Carpenter laughs at heartbreak, which makes light of situations that many of her fans can relate to. She pointed out, “It kind of sounds like women speaking to each other because it is women speaking to each other.” Additionally, she shared that listening to the album in order presents a story and constitutes the stages of a relationship.
The album achieved over 65 million streams globally on its first day, setting a record for the biggest debut by a female artist in 2025. Carpenter explains that she can’t believe it. Though the artist must be used to setting many records in the music industry, this accomplishment is a great honor, especially after describing that she “wrote Manchild on a random Tuesday shortly after finishing Short n’ Sweet.” Carpenter is on tour currently for her Short n’ Sheet album, and has not yet released tour dates for her Manchild tour. The Short n’ Sweet tour was completely sold out, and the artist additionally performed at various music festivals such as Outside Lands in San Francisco.
(Sources: Billboard, Deadline, NPR, Variety)