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HomeNEWSSabrina Carpenter's new album captures our dating hellscape

Sabrina Carpenter’s new album captures our dating hellscape



These songs make me chuckle as I recall all the times I checked my friends’ locations just to see they’re with he-who-shall-not-be-named. Oh well! Maybe she’ll come her senses one day.

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If you’re a girl, or know one, braving the current dating landscape, you’re probably well aware that good men are hard to come by. I’ve been there. Well … not really, but I’ve been the shoulder and pseudo-therapist for my girl friends who have been emotionally maligned by many a man.

Through texts and voice notes and alcohol-induced gossip sessions, I’ve listened to them chronicle the fiery initial attraction, the traumatic whiplash of the situationship and its frustrating dissolution. Oh well! I’ll be there to support her when she’s ready to dust herself off and give it another go!

Sabrina Carpenter croons about this painfully universal experience on her latest album, “Man’s Best Friend,” through her newfound knack for catchy, country pop hooks. While her previous effort, “Short n’ Sweet” put the highs and lows of modern dating to song, “Man’s Best Friend” is Carpenter’s hard-won admittance that, after all, boys will be boys and she’s better served having fun before they drive her completely insane. 

Why so sexy, if so dumb?

On the lead single “Manchild,” Carpenter takes aim at immature men, but can’t not feel attracted to them. “Why so sexy if so dumb?” she asks the age-old question. “I like my boys playing hard to get / And I like my men all incompetent.” At least she’s honest!

She keeps her standards just as low on the sparkly, nu-disco hit, “Tears.” “A little respect for women can get you very, very far / Remembering how to use your phone gets me oh so (Oh so), oh so hot,” she sings in the second verse. I guess it’s better to keep your expectations low than face disappointment. 

In observing my friends’ adventures in dating, I’ve witnessed a push-and-pull that leaves them emotionally exhausted and me perpetually confused. You were just in his bed last night, now you’re not talking? You just told me you were through with him. Why are you two at Costco together? How does that work? It’s a phenomenon Carpenter tries to make sense of on the scintillating “My Man on Willpower”: “He used to be literally obsessed with me / I’m suddenly the least sought after girl in the land.”

Carpenter must double as a hacker, because the lyrics of “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” feel ripped directly from my text messages as friends tell how having sex reignited a dulling flame. These songs make me chuckle as I recall all the times I checked my friends’ locations on Find My, just to see they’re with he-who-shall-not-be-named. All you can do is sigh, really. Maybe she’ll come to her senses one day. 

At some point, we have to say ‘Goodbye’

“Man’s Best Friend” falters when the would-be salacious sexual lyrics are buried in overstuffed, country production. Carpenter’s humor, unfortunately, loses its edge at times. But so does a relationship marred by indecision. 

Relationships as volatile as the ones Carpenter and my friends find themselves in can’t go on forever. The album closer “Goodbye” chronicles a breakup. In her newsletter, Carpenter says that “not every ending is a negative thing, maybe it’s just the beginning of something better.” Maybe it’s time we all wish for better for ourselves when it comes to love.

Kofi Mframa is a columnist and digital producer for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network.

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