Carpenter, Sabrina / Man's Best Friend (1LP/GF/BLUE OPAQUE)

Following the extraordinary commercial and critical success of Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter returned in August 2025 with Man's Best Friend, her seventh studio album and a record that consolidates her position as one of the most accomplished pop songwriters of her generation. The album title plays knowingly on devotion — the loyal, unconditional bond at the centre of the record's emotional world — and Carpenter mines that theme with the wit and emotional precision that has become her signature. Where Short n' Sweet was lean and direct, Man's Best Friend expands her sonic palette, drawing more explicitly on country, slide guitar, and orchestral textures alongside the melodically sophisticated pop she has made her own.

The album opens with "Manchild", co-written with Jack Antonoff and Amy Allen, which immediately establishes the record's sharper lyrical edge. "Tears" and "My Man on Willpower" demonstrate her capacity for writing about romantic dynamics with clarity and dry humour; "We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night" is a highlight, its melody one of the most immediate on the record. "Go Go Juice" and "House Tour" show a willingness to explore stranger, more idiosyncratic territory. This blue opaque vinyl pressing in a gatefold sleeve is a collectible edition of an artist who has become one of the defining pop voices of the 2020s.