Singer Sabrina Carpenter released her latest album on Aug. 29, titled Man’s Best Friend. Since her Disney Channel days, Carpenter has matured incredibly in her music, releasing recent albums that have received billions of streams from crazed fans all over the world.
Some fans were skeptical that Carpenter’s new album would sound like her previous one, not experimenting with a new genre or tone.
“I thought Man’s Best Friend was going to sound exactly like Short n’ Sweet because her new single, “Manchild”, sounded very similar to songs in her old album, as the song was made shortly after Short n’ Sweet was produced,” said sophomore Laila Adams-Christian, a fan of Sabrina Carpenter for about a year.
Carpenter’s previous album, Short n’ Sweet, came out in 2024, so Man’s Best Friend was by no means long awaited by fans. Carpenter teased the album with her single Manchild on Jun. 5, 2025, which included themes of confidence and implications of how women should be treated by men: highly.
The title of the album hints that Carpenter has a softer perspective on women’s confidence, contrasting themes in her last album, which strongly emphasized her confidence and the ease of standing up to men.
Some of the new themes have also led listeners to speculate that Carpenter’s new tone could reflect the evolution of her relationship with actor Barry Keoghan.
Keoghan and Carpenter broke up in December of 2024, but Man’s Best Friend includes lyrics that imply Carpenter is seeing someone new, defying predictions that the album would include the same bitter themes as Manchild.
Man’s Best Friend starts off with Carpenter’s latest single Manchild, a song about dealing with an immature man, then transitions right into one of the most popular songs on the album: Tears.
This song starts off angelic, with high octave violin and Carpenter humming to the tune, followed by an intro of up-beat and quick piano chords. Tears is very much a dancing song, as Carpenter brings in themes of disco through a very catchy chorus. She even includes a “dance break” near the end of the song, bringing back disco vibes.
While some anticipated this album being the opposite of what the title implied, Tears is almost the definition of Carpenter being a “Man’s Best Friend”, as Carpenter is swooning over a man who is “oh so responsible,” and “treating [her] like he’s supposed to.”
Man’s Best Friend also includes some slower songs like Sugar Talking and We Almost Broke Up Again, bringing a sad feeling to the middle of the track. Carpenter sounds very disappointed in these few slow songs, wanting men to “put [their] loving where [their] mouth is,” and that “a lot of ‘I love you’s’ and ‘I’m sorries’ were said,” implying that she’s talked to a lot of men, but ultimately it did not work out.
The vibe is then brought up again with Nobody’s Son, which although has a happy and dance-worthy vibe, is about how “nobody’s son” is good enough for her. This song does bring back the theme shown in Manchild of how men are not good enough for her, with lyrics like “there’s nobody’s son, not anyone left for me to believe in,” and “that boy is corrupt,” just as in Manchild Carpenter calls boys “stupid” and “slow.” In Manchild, Carpenter also asks “why you always come a running to me,” which brings the same feeling as Nobody’s Son when Carpenter says that she’s “the one they call for other women,” creating a familiar vibe of believing that she is superior to all men.
Towards the end of the album, a song called Go Go Juice brings some up-beat country and folk tones and is a whole dance party of a listen. Carpenter shows the talent of adding witty lyrics like “sippin’ on my Go Go Juice I, can’t be blamed,” and ending her song with drunken “ba-da-da ba-da-da how’ve you been, what’s up.” This brings back vibes of her song Nonsense from her album Emails I Can’t Send in 2022, as it changes up a few times. After this, to end the square-dance-esque song, the chorus comes back and wraps the party up.
To follow Go Go Juice, Carpenter includes a less-dance worthy song: Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry. The chorus of this song is comparable to a slower song by Ariana Grande or Billie Eilish as Carpenter shows her beautiful vocals in a run on the words “don’t worry.” It is an amazing way to contrast the last party of a song with something to cry to.
The final song on this album is called Goodbye, again bringing back the vibe from Manchild where Carpenter is happy to say “goodbye” to a man. She is also as disappointed as she was in Sugar Talking, thinking that this man was going to be it, but she has to say “goodbye.” She wants the man to know that he is “losing [her] for life,” and that it was really him that “said goodbye.” This up-beat hit really wraps up this rollercoaster of an album bringing back almost every theme in the track while also telling her audience “goodbye.”
Overall, Man’s Best Friend is a new way for Sabrina Carpenter to combine her playful confidence with meaningful and relatable lyrics. With a mix of disco-inspired and light-hearted songs and songs that cut into the heart, the album shows how multitalented Carpenter is. Although people are debating whether the album is about a heartbreak, or healing from a heartbreak, Carpenter continues to grow as a songwriter and she’s become a big figure in the industry. Man’s Best Friend is an album that has left fans crying, dancing and wanting more.
