Sabrina Carpenter “emails i can’t send fwd:” Album Review

emails i can’t send fwd:

Sabrina Carpenter

• Genre: Pop
• Date: 20 Mar, 2023
• Content: cleaned
• Region: NGA
• Track(s): 17
• ℗ 2023 Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

The fifth album by American singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter, “Emails I Can’t Send,” was released by Island Records on 15 July 2022. It is Carpenter’s debut studio record with the label. Five singles from the album—”Skinny Dipping,” “Fast Times,” “Vicious,” “Because I Loved a Guy,” and “Nonsense”—were released. The original, released on 15 July 2022, had 13 songs, while the deluxe included four more to bring the total to 17. Carpenter confirmed to Teen Vogue in September 2021 that several of the songs on the album were inspired by emails she wrote to herself, including the track she released on 7 August and later identified as the album’s title track.

To promote the album, Carpenter set out on the Emails I Can’t Mail Tour in September 2022. Rolling Stone’s list of the top 100 albums of 2022 placed the album at number 44. It became her highest-charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 23. “Nonsense,” the fifth single from the album, marked her second appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, making its debut at position 75. The album is “the most fully realized vision of Carpenter, the musician—and the most rounded portrait of Carpenter the human being—yet,” according to Liam Hess of Vogue.

Julia Michaels and JP Saxe provided backing vocals for track 6, Steph Jones on 8 and 9, Alida Garpestad Peck on 11, and John Ryan on 6 and 10.

Album Art

The black-clad Sabrina is seated on a bed with an open laptop on the album art. The room-like setting and the open laptop convey the narrative nicely without giving anything away, just like her narration about the songs being the fruits of her unsent emails that she penned to herself.

Tracks And Features

Sabrina reveals her past in “emails I can’t send” from the viewpoint of a daughter who learned that her father was having an affair. Over gentle piano sounds, the lyrics portray the hurt, disappointment, and loss of trust that resulted from this scenario in a lovely yet heartbreaking way. The song’s purpose as the opening track was first teased by Sabrina on her Instagram account. In the song “Vicious,” Sabrina berates the cruel individual who tricked her into believing he loved her. Carpenter highlights in each paragraph how this individual is distinct from how others perceive them and how he misled her by claiming to love her before leaving without regret. The third song is titled “Read your Mind.” Carpenter struggles to understand her significant other’s thoughts in the music as she deals with their ambivalence.

In the song “Tornado Warnings,” Sabrina sings about her propensity to disregard red flags, symbolically tornado warnings; she only sees the positive in the subject. Yet, even knowing they are bad for her, she wants to keep this person by her side. The song begins simply with a bassline and a pad loop; as it moves towards the chorus, though, drums enter the scene, and Sabrina starts to sing with a more chatty tone, lending the song a lovely, poetic feel.

Because of how Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett were cast as the secondary and tertiary antagonists in a Disney actor love triangle involving Sabrina, “because I Liked a Boy” explores the preconceptions and even harsh assumptions that Sabrina encountered. Sabrina recounts her experience and contrasts the ugly public response to her liking a male with the purity of her connection with Joshua.

Carpenter takes us through a relationship between herself and another person where they know they should’ve kept friends but haven’t broken out of their routine of being lovers. In the song “Already Over,” Carpenter explores the fragility of relationships that should’ve ended. In “how many things,” Carpenter exhibits a more sensitive side by singing about how she feels unworthy in her lover’s eyes because he no longer pays attention to her.

The instrumental guitar used in the song helps the listener understand Carpenter’s feelings. Throughout the song’s chorus, she wonders rhetorically why her significant other has been so distant. The story of Carpenter’s ex-partner abandoning her and subsequently discovering how much she is worth is told in the song “bet u wanna.”

The song opens with country-tinged guitar sounds before switching to a beat primarily based on drums. Later, the guitar and drum beats are blended to show a depressed Sabrina who won’t give her partner another chance at their relationship.

In “Nonsense,” Sabrina discusses her love for her significant other and how being around him makes her so nervous that she loses control of her speech and begins rambling. She plays with the nonsense idea, employs a comical vocabulary throughout the song’s pre-chorus, and bridges over a guitar-based instrumental. Young love in “Fast Times” is characterized by rash decisions. The narrative develops swiftly, showing how quickly this love affair happened. Sabrina emphasizes enjoying the moment in the song; she leaves the emotional fallout for another time.

The album’s twelfth song, “Bad for Business,” features Carpenter singing about being so in love with someone that they consume all her time and energy. The thirteenth and last song on the original disc is “decode.” Again, the Carpenter’s reluctance to accept circumstances beyond her control is discussed in the music. She was putting much pressure on herself and holding herself responsible for the whole thing. This song serves as a gentle reminder to herself to accept life’s events as they come.

The first deluxe track is titled “opposite.” She could have changed to become her lover’s desired person, but Carpenter claims that wouldn’t have worked because he didn’t want her. So instead, she looks envious of one of her ex-boyfriends’ new girlfriends and knows they would still prefer the unknown female even if she changed herself to that person’s only interest.

Listeners will be bopping along in no time to “Feather,” a lively and upbeat disco-inspired song. Anybody who enjoys lively and danceable music must listen to this song because of its captivating chorus and catchy pace. Sabrina’s strong vocals stand out as she sings about ending a bad relationship and feeling lighter. The sympathetic and inspirational words inspire listeners to let go of things that don’t serve them anymore. Fans will sing and dance to this upbeat anthem from beginning to end.

The last track on the album is “things I Wish You Said.” The album’s final track features Carpenter’s reflections on what she wishes she had heard from her ex. Carpenter acknowledges in the song’s last chorus that she wasted time daydreaming and thinking about what she wanted her ex had said.

https://youtu.be/f5T6ZZAAZeo

Tracklist

NO	TITLE	TIME
1	emails i can’t send	1:44
2	Vicious	2:29
3	Read your Mind	3:27
4	Tornado Warnings	3:24
5	because i liked a boy	3:16
6	Already Over	2:50
7	how many things	4:03
8	bet u wanna	3:11
9	Nonsense	2:43
10	Fast Times	2:54
11	skinny dipping	2:57
12	Bad for Business	3:08
13	decode	3:08
14	opposite	2:48
15	Feather	3:05
16	Lonesome	3:07
17	things i wish you said	2:42

Album Summary

Carpenter, JP Saxe, and Julia Michaels are all listed as authors on what is arguably her most personal album to date. It has gained widespread acclaim from critics and pop fans for its diverse sound, moving narratives, and Carpenter’s honest lyrics. Like one of her musical heroes, Taylor Swift, Carpenter’s lyrics are full of precise details and allusions, calling up things like Black Eyed Peas, forks, and Thin Mints in one instance.

Although many of the songs are inspired by or contain references to personal situations, Carpenter claims that as a result of using songwriting to let go of the past, she has been able to remove herself from them and move on. In addition, she claims that seeing her followers connect with particular songs has been wonderful because she wants to give them a chance to heal.

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