GRAMMYs 2025: Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter

Without a doubt, the queen of delectable, tart, ear-candy pop is none other than Sabrina Carpenter. After nearly a decade in the music industry, Sabrina has burst like an overripe cherry to the very top of every chart imaginable with tracks from Short N' Sweet, her sixth studio album overall and second on Island Records. In the follow-up to her career-changing 2022 album Emails I Can't Send, Sabrina is more adventurous, more glitzy, and more brutally honest (if that's somehow possible). Short N' Sweet is dripping with sugary romance, complete with the bold bite that gives Sabrina Carpenter one of the best albums of the year.

CREDIT: @SABRINACARPENTER ON INSTAGRAM

Stand-out tracks: "Taste" "Espresso" "Bed Chem"

My Favorites: "Good Graces" "Don't Smile" "Juno"

"Taste" is that aforementioned bold bite. Right out of the gate, Sabrina makes it clear that she has no beef with her ex's rekindled romance, but she's certainly not one to allow someone else to get the last word. A pop-rock gem amidst an album of disco-pop and acoustic-pop, "Taste" is nonchalant and confessional as she belts out lines like "Well, I heard you're back together and if that's true/You'll just have to taste me when he's kissin' you" and "Hе's funny now, all his jokes hit different/Guеss who he learned that from?"

"Good Graces" and "Please Please Please" see Carpenter at her most sweetly ruthless, keeping her romantic partners in line with her angelic demeanor, but "don't mistake [her] nice for naive". She's singing out power plays on top of the most addictive and inventive production. A few of the best? (1)"If you wanna go and be stupid/Don't do it in front of me/If you don't wanna cry to my music/Don't make me hate you prolifically." (2)"I won't give a f*ck about you" (repeated x6). (3) "You should stay in my good graces/Or I'll switch it up like that so fast/'Cause no one's more amazin'/At turnin' lovin' into hatred." And the crown jewel? "Heartbreak is one thing/My egos another/I beg you don't embarrass me/Motherf*cker."

Some call it a skip, others (myself included) call Dolly-style country track "Slim Pickins" the glue that holds all the pieces of Short N' Sweet together. Layers upon layers of sugary-sweet vocal harmonies carry Carpenter through a facetiously woeful ode to the impossibility of finding "A boy who's nice that breathes." Its banjo-tinged production is the perfect complement to its honky-tonk inspired lyricism: "Since the good ones call their exes wasted/And since the Lord forgot my gay awakenin'/Then I'll just be here in the kitchen/Servin' up some moanin' and bitchin'."

The sparkling, flirtatious, R&B-influenced "Bed Chem" takes the cake for the most erotically-charged of Short N' Sweet's tracklisting, but amorous "Juno" is the album's standout (next to unofficial official Song of the Summer "Espresso"). A twinkling, 2000s-style (because yes, she is referencing that movie) classic pop gem, "Juno" has Sabrina finally having found the one who she might let "lock [her] down"  and tell her "I'm the only only only only one." But, as Sabrina does, she reminds her new romance that this is completely on her terms - "You make me wanna make you fall in love."

But don't think that cheek and wit is all Sabrina Carpenter has going for her. "Dumb & Poetic" sees her just so mad she could cry over the most pretentious bonehead she's had the misfortune to fall for. "Don't Smile" illustrates the numbness of the laying-in-bed-eating-ice-cream type of heartbreak, watching the world move on without you. "Lie to Girls" is perhaps her most insightful, unromanticized perspective on relationships, as she sings about the ends of the Earth girls will go to just to hold on to something less than they deserve: "You don't even have to try/Turn you into a good guy/You don't have to lift a finger/It's lucky for you I'm just like/My mother and my sisters/All my friends."

What seems to make Sabrina Carpenter such a massive success is that she unabashedly embraces her womanhood, flaunts her faux pas, and still won’t shut up about how great her life is. She’s unafraid and unserious half the time but is so deeply confident in knowing what makes Sabrina Sabrina. That deep understanding of who she is as a person and an artist has allowed her to spin a narrative that’s all her own, one that's composed of glossed-over lyrical digs and shameless innuendos amidst the most stunning of vocal lines and punchy production in pop music. She's been working her decade-long career to have a hit album like Short N' Sweet, so what made this one The One? That it's the Sabrina-led revolution of female fortitude in pop music that other women seem to have been waiting to hear. 

GRAMMY FOR ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Sabrina Carpenter getting the Grammy recognition she's gotten from nominations alone for Short N' Sweet is everything I could have hoped for from an artist who's been working over a decade for a break like this one. She's scooped up six nominations this year alone, and she deserves every single one of those nominations. Pop music is a hard genre to establish yourself as truly unique within, and Sabrina Carpenter has managed to get nominated for two different pop songs (that sound completely different from one another), a colossal pop album, and as a "new" pop artist. No other artist has claimed pop music as her own over the last year more than Sabrina Carpenter. Short N' Sweet checks every box to justify a win for Album of the Year, so while Sabrina isn't a lock for the award, I think it's safe to say she's a top contender for music's most coveted award.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED

GRAMMYs 2025: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan

There are few names bigger in the current pop music scene than Chappell Roan. Her popularity built organically before the supernova explosion of her mainstream success heading into the summer of 2024. Chappell Roan has wowed audiences with her bold attitude, fierce stage presence, and setlists chock-full of hits. But the thing about Chappell having a setlist full of those hits? She has one full-length album, her colossally successful debut The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released in September of 2023. And the star power of Chappell’s debut is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon - or should I say, femininomenon?

CREDIT: @CHAPPELLROAN ON INSTAGRAM

Standout tracks: “Femininomenon” “Red Wine Supernova” “Casual” “HOT TO GO!"

My favorites: “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” “My Kink Is Karma” “Pink Pony Club” “California”

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess doesn’t waste a single second on false pretenses - opener ‘Feminonmenon’ is everything you need to know about Chappell Roan. An addictive pop beat builds chorus after chorus, Chappell’s cheek oozing from every lyric as she calls to action “What we really need is a/Feminonmenon!” Leaning into her country-influenced beat patterns with a blown-out bass line on ‘Red Wine Supernova,’ Chappell powers through another undeniable hit. She’s as relatable as ever as she belts out “Well, back at my house/I've got California king/Okay, maybe it's a twin bed/And some roommates/Don't worry, we're cool!” Chappell’s smoother vocals carry her through jazzier, darker dance tracks in ‘After Midnight’ and ‘My Kink Is Karma,’ where she proves everything is a little more fun if you treat it so, including the sultriest of sultry-pop and brash bitterness.

While Chappell Roan could easily hide behind her huge personality and colossal pop hits, she has the vocal chops to shine in slower-paced, more emotionally-charged tracks as well, including ‘Coffee,’ ‘Kaleidoscope,’ and ‘California.’ Yet she finds the perfect balance of all her styles in ‘Casual,’ balancing remarkably relatable and sharply shrewd with the sonic atmosphere of a dark gymnasium dappled in disco ball lighting. She guards her heart tightly, impassively yearning for a partner who keeps her at arm's length: “I thought you thought of me better/Someone you couldn’t lose/You said, ‘We’re not together’/So now when we kiss, I have anger issues.”

From ‘Pink Pony Club’ to ‘Naked in Manhattan,’ Chappell injects a pop-tinged desperation and brutal honesty into her rise to fame spanning from West Hollywood to the Big Apple, showing it hasn’t all been glitz and glamour. She references the LA gay bar in ‘Pink Pony Club’ as the place she’s dreamed of and where she finally feels she belongs, much to the chagrin of those left behind in her Midwest roots.  She sees New York as a freeing place where “You can try things/An inch away from more than just friends.” Both tracks sonically mirror the glittering cities they’re set in, with ‘Pink Pony Club’ taking a laid-back synth-charged soundscape while ‘Naked in Manhattan’ is sleek, glossy, and ever-pulsing.

With ‘Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl’ and ‘HOT TO GO!,’ Chappell Roan settles herself into the modern median between Madonna and Hannah Montana, with the former track inadvertently claiming itself as the ultimate feminism anthem, pounding through every second with stadium-powered production. And if you haven’t learned the ‘HOT TO GO!’ dance yet, just do it– it’s out with ‘YMCA’ and in with ‘HOT TO GO!,’ because, you know, this is Chappell Roan’s fantastically feministic world and we’re all just living in it.

Despite all the stratospheric rising highs chased across The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, humbling, heartwrenching ‘California’ is the fall of the Midwest Princess. It chronicles the long-fought road Chappell has taken to make a name for herself and the heartbreaking defeat of needing to leave the “new lands, west coast, where my dreams lay” in exchange for the “seasons in Missouri, my dying town.” But Chappell would never leave us feeling down; with album closer ‘Guilty Pleasure’ she embraces the freedom of being a little bit of a mess. Because what’s the fun in having it all figured out?

GRAMMY FOR ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess objectively might be the single best album on this list. It's been an absolute culture shock that's skyrocketed a new artist to megastardom. It's produced so many hits it's hard to keep track of them all. That doesn't even tap into the unfathomably good writing and star-studded production on this album. If it were up to me, Chappell Roan would be taking home the Grammy for Album of the Year. But I think the power of some long-standing names in the music industry will unfortunately get in the way of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess taking the crown.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED

GRAMMYs 2025: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish

Long-anticipated. Mysterious. Powerful. Understated. Cohesive. Masterful. The list could go on to describe HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish‘s third studio album. Her first album in almost three years, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, is a perfect balance of the dark production and grit of her Grammy-winning 2019 debut, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO, and the emotionality and gentle instrumentals of 2021’s Happier Than Ever.

Billie Eilish has never been one to mold herself to fit into any kind of a metaphorical box, and in her third go around, she’s more outspoken, more daring, and the most confident of her unique artistry that she’s ever been.

Stand-out tracks: "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" "THE DINER" "BLUE"

My favorites: "SKINNY" "CHIHIRO" "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE"

@BILLIEEILISH ON INSTAGRAM

Few artists are so intimately connected to the duality of their work as Billie Eilish. Her latest project, aptly titled HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, perfectly encapsulates the paradoxical blend of sharp edges and dreamlike softness that define her life in the spotlight. The album feels like a masterful balancing act between vulnerability and power, allowing listeners a glimpse into the multifaceted layers of the mind of a true artist.

On the softer side, unguarded tracks like album opener 'SKINNY' and the tender (smash hit) 'BIRDS OF A FEATHER' exude a raw emotional openness that feels both delicate and disarming. Meanwhile, the hauntingly beautiful 'WILDFLOWER' carries a calamitous, almost ethereal weight, reminding us of the fragility that exists even within her most powerful moments. Yet, as the album unfolds, Billie’s undeniable and unspoken strength begins to shine through, peeking out from the cracks she allows us to see.

Tracks like 'THE GREATEST' and 'L’AMOUR DE MA VIE' are breathtaking examples of her ability to wield sophistication and ferocity like a glorious double-edged sword, embodying both grace and intensity with an effortless brilliance. Elsewhere, songs like 'CHIHIRO' and 'THE DINER' exude a sleek, cool confidence, embodying the Billie Eilish we’ve come to know and love—fresh, daring, and entirely her own. Billie isn't afraid to defy the expectation in regards to song structure or length for commercial success either, with 'THE GREATEST,' 'L'AMOUR DE MA VIE,' and 'CHIHIRO' all clocking in around five minutes in length and boasting internal genre switches and production gymnastics that truly can't be found in any other artists catalog.

With HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie invites us into a world where vulnerability meets strength, softness meets sharpness, and every note feels like a reflection of the complexity that defines her as both an artist and a person. It’s a stunning portrait of an artist unafraid to embrace the contradictions that make her truly unforgettable.

GRAMMY FOR ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Quite simply, Billie Eilish is a world-class artist who creates some of the most captivating, dynamic, and electrifying music of the current scene, and HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is one of the most ambitious, creative projects of this year. But in a pool of nominees this colossal, Billie hasn't re-invented herself enough in her third go around to justify an album of the year win this time. However, we'll likely see her take home a golden gramophone this year for the part of her music career that was colossal and inventive in itself, top-song-on-Spotify-of-2024 'Birds of a Feather.'

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED