Sabrina Carpenter’s newly released album “Man’s Best Friend” poses a pertinent question: Where have all the real men gone? A synth-pop ode to the state of modern dating, the album dropped on Aug. 29.
Carpenter received backlash prior to the album’s release due to its risqué cover, which depicts her kneeling in front of a man.
“It’s always so funny to me when people complain,” Carpenter told Rolling Stone in response to the criticism. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it.”
The album tells the story of a modern-day woman making excuses for her poor dating decisions, with a few subtle references to Carpenter’s own life.
With the opening track, “Manchild,” Carpenter sets the tone for the album both musically and thematically. She expresses her frustration with the men in her life, who she deems useless, unreliable, and stupid. Yet, at the end of the day, Carpenter admits that she chooses them herself in her refrain: “Oh, I like my boys playing hard to get/ And I like my men all incompetent/ And I swear they choose me, I’m not choosing them/ Amen? Hey men!”
“Tears” crosses the line of innuendo that Carpenter usually walks. Carpenter sings about tears running down her thighs when she envisions a man acting like a decent human being.
“Baby, just do the dishes and I’ll give you what you, what you, what you want,” Carpenter sings. “A little communication, yes, that’s my ideal foreplay.”
Though shocking, the themes of the song are not new. Many women are wondering where the thoughtful, competent, masculine men have gone. Carpenter speaks here, in her signature, innuendo-laced style, to a very real problem young women in the dating scene are recognizing.
The picture that Carpenter paints of the dating scene, representative of modern-day hookup culture, reveals the problem. Carpenter describes sex as transactional, utilitarian, and something to be used as a vehicle for gaining male attention.
In nearly all of the songs on “Man’s Best Friend,” Carpenter describes herself pursuing men by making herself available sexually.
In “Go Go Juice,” Carpenter peppily describes the drunken aftermath of being dumped, where she calls exes in an effort to forget her pain.
“Sipping on my go-go juice, I can’t be blamed/ Some good old-fashioned fun sure numbs the pain,” Carpenter sings, while alluding to her ex-boyfriends Shawn Mendes and Barry Keoghan.
In “My Man On Willpower,” Carpenter complains of how her partner has ceased to pay attention to her sexual advances, instead focusing on his goals and career.
“He fell in love with self-restraint and now it’s getting out of hand,” Carpenter sings. “He used to be literally obsessed with me/ I’m suddenly the least sought-after girl in the land/ Oh, my man on his willpower/ Is something I don’t under-, something I don’t understand.”
Though at times shocking, “Man’s Best Friend” paints an accurate picture of the effects of hook-up culture. It’s a bleak message wrapped in a glittery, synth-pop-inspired package filled with quotable lines and clippable moments.
