Sabrina Carpenter, the rapidly rising popstar, dropped the highly anticipated album, “Short n’ Sweet,” on Aug. 23, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Carpenter has been filling the music charts and Valley students’ earbuds with hits.
Senior Lindsay Semiao was introduced to Carpenter through her older music and was hooked by the album “Emails I Can’t Send.”
“I started listening to that album first and I love her now,” Semiao said.
Freshman Hannah Hertzler has been acquainted with the popstar for some time, first seeing her when she appeared in “Girl Meets World” on Disney Channel.
“I first heard about her when I was five, when I watched the show she was in. I started listening to her music when she started singing,” Hertzler said.
Now Carpenter has moved up from a Disney star to opening for Taylor Swift during a portion of “The Eras Tour.” In early April, she released her hit single “Espresso” a few days before performing at Coachella 2024. “Espresso” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first in her career to reach that height. It became her first song to reach No. 1 in the U.K., Ireland, and Australia.
Freshman Keara Bills claims “Espresso” as her favorite song on “Short n’ Sweet.”
“It just gets in your head really easily. I’m in chorus and most of her songs have a good range for altos, which is what I am,” Bills said.
Carpenter’s successful consecutive single, “Please Please Please” is freshman Nikka Mallette’s favorite song on Carpenter’s album.
“It has a really nice beat, and I think that it’s really catchy, but in a good way,” Mallette said.
Semiao’s top song is not one of the popular singles, but a track titled “Good Graces.”
“I relate to that song a lot because I don’t put up with crap,” Semiao said, “I feel like I am that song.”
Alongside that track, Semiao finds most of the album relatable.
“I’m very alike to the person she’s portraying in that song, or the person she is. It’s life experience and growing up.”
Hertzler didn’t find herself relating to the music, but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying it.
“I just like her music. I don’t know how I relate to it,” Hertzler said.
“I would say she’s definitely going in a different direction than before, but I definitely like the direction she’s going in,” Bills said.
It seems Valley took the album’s title to heart — it’s sweet on “Short n’ Sweet.”
