Written by Heidi K. Schoderbek
After dominating the charts last summer, with hits like “Espresso,” “Please, Please, Please,” and “Taste,” from her #1 album Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter is back with another release, titled Man’s Best Friend, due this summer. The singer made the announcement via her Instagram on Wednesday, immediately sparking controversy online over the album’s provocative cover art, which shows her on all fours while a man holds her hair like a leash.
The Grammy-winning artist is facing backlash from social media users who feel that the cover art is “demeaning” and “setting women back.” One X (formerly Twitter) user said, “Why degrade yourself for no reason?” While a women’s advocacy group based in Scotland condemned the singer in an Instagram post, writing, “Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover isn’t edgy, it’s regressive.”
The singer is used to being criticized for her flirty, satirical persona and song lyrics filled with sexual innuendos. During her Short n’ Sweet Tour — which is gearing up for its second leg in the UK and USA, some concert-goers were upset by the raunchy positions she did each night while performing “Juno,” arguably her album’s most NSFW track.
Carpenter, 26, addressed the backlash in her recent cover story for Rolling Stone, “It’s always funny to me when people complain. They’re like, ‘all she does is sing about this,’ but those are the songs that you’ve made popular.” She added, “I truly feel like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more.”
The lead single off Carpenter’s new album, “Manchild,” was released on June 5th. Fans speculate that the lyrics are about her ex-boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan (Saltburn and Hurry Up Tomorrow). While Carpenter doesn’t call out the Irish actor by name in the song, she sings about the struggles of dating an immature man. The lyrics read, “Why so sexy if so dumb? And how survive the earth so long?” In her Instagram post from June 3rd teasing the new single, Carpenter wrote in the caption, “this one’s about you!!”
“Manchild” currently sits at the number one spot on Spotify’s Weekly Top Songs Global Chart, and Man’s Best Friend is set to be released on August 29th. Carpenter will return to the stage for the second leg of her Short ‘n’ Sweet Tour on July 5th in London and will wrap up in Los Angeles in late November.
Stream Manchild on Spotify.
