Revisited: Sabrina Carpenter - emails i can't send

No time for rewrites, I couldn't help it.

It’s no secret that I’m a pretty big Sabrina Carpenter fan. I’ve been a fan of her work since practically day one. Obviously, she’s grown a lot over the past year, effectively skyrocketing to pop stardom with her singles Espresso and Please, Please, Please.

With the release of Short n’ Sweet next week, I’d like to spend time reflecting on her last album release, emails i can’t send, her fifth studio album release.

Background

emails i can’t send was Sabrina’s first release under her new record label. Previously, she’s been stuck with Disney’s Hollywood Records. Without much knowledge of the business, I’ve heard Hollywood Records can be pretty brutal and controlling in terms of what you can and can’t release, often limiting artists’ creativity.

I remember the ramp up to the release, with her singles skinny dipping and Fast Times. I think these were excellent single choices as they demonstrated the duality of the album. One that can be very emotional and close to the heart, but also upbeat, fun, and most importantly: badass.

I think that’s no more evident by the first track on the album.

emails i can’t send

The title track is a fairly simple song with just her vocals over a soft piano and some light strings. It paints a picture of a father who allegedly cheated on her mother. About a daughter essentially asking, "Why?" and, "Did you really do this?" The line that always gets me is, There’s no us in us when I’m lacking trust.

It’s easily one of my favorite album openers. It’s not a surprise and delight. It’s not trying to go for a shock factor. Yet, it sets the tone for the album very beautifully. It’s emotionally raw and you can hear it in her vocals. ’Cause you were all I looked up to. Now I can’t even look at you.

Vicious

I know some people hate the comparison game. But the production of this track does remind me of Olivia Rodrigo’s first album. It has that same pop-rock-punk vibe to it, especially near the end of the track. While Olivia wasn’t the first to do distorted vocals and guitars, she popularized it for the modern era.

I love the clap pattern with the aggressively strummed guitar during the first half of the track. I also love the ad-libs in the second half of the first verse.

Overall, I’m very "whelmed" by this track. It’s nothing special and I don’t find it terribly interesting. I don’t love it, but I don’t quite hate it either.

Read your Mind

I think Read your Mind is underrated. I love this track. It’s classic Sabrina. It’s an upbeat, fun, pop song with a slight depressive undertone in the songwriting. I love the spaciousness of the track, especially at the beginning. The soundstage is very wide there.

The heavy kick drum, light bass, funky guitar, and ad-lbs. It just screams "this is a pop song." But my absolute favorite thing about this song is instead of an EDM-style bass drop, you get the reverse. Everything comes together during the choruses and as soon as the verses hit, we’re back to the basics.

Likewise, the bass "following" the vocals throughout the track is complete eargasm to my ears. Audio nirvana, if you will. The following track is usually a synth or something similar in a pop song.

The bridge on this song is killer. Her vocals glide so beautifully coming out of the chorus.

It’s an absolute banger of a third track.

Tornado Warnings

Thematically, I love this track. You don’t need to read between the lines. It’s about seeing but ignoring the red flags (in this case, the Tornado Warnings). This track absolutely showcases her songwriting skills. I mean, We were never in the park. Talking on a seesaw, teetering with our feelings in the dark. Ignoring tornado warnings. You can’t sit there and tell me that you didn’t immediately try to imagine this exact situation in your head.

I can’t give enough credit to the songwriting and lyricism here. It’s a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, but in the best way possible. Just as you think it’s all over, it punches you in the gut.

Again with the spaciousness. The dual synths in the beginning are followed by a very wet bass. There’s some minor echo in that bass for sure. Not totally unheard of, but most bass lines in pop are super dry and focused. Likewise, her vocals and backing vocals are super dry, close, and intimate on this track. I love the role reversal there.

It’s a sleeper track from me. I don’t play it a lot, but I say that with the heaviest of hearts. I wish I played it more often. It’s a fantastic track overall. All you need to know is, But that’s not gonna stop me from lying to my therapist. Ouch.

because i liked a boy

I think this track draws the line between older fans and the post-ECIS fans. For older fans, I feel like a lot of us felt like we got shortchanged. This was going to be the breakout track. The uncontested post-album release single.

I loved this track when it came out. It easily became one of my most streamed tracks on the album. It has that EDM-pop vibe that I fell in love with from Sabrina’s EVOLution era. Combine that with how much the fans loved it. I went to the ECIS tour twice. Once on the first leg in Washington DC, and the second in Vancouver, Canada. The fans loved it both times.

I loved everything about this track. It was Sabrina’s first truly unhinged track. The production, the lyricism, the fan reaction, and the music video. Yet, it pretty much got overshadowed by Nonsense and her later singles.

My favorite thing about the production on this track is the high-pass filter that’s applied up until the chorus. It slowly eases off up until then, but it really gives Sabrina’s voice space to breathe. And let me tell you, this track digs deep into the sub-bass. If you have a chance to listen to it on a proper setup with a subwoofer that goes into the low 20, possibly high 10 Hz, you’ll understand what I mean.

But once that high-pass filter is eased off, she lets it rip in the most subtle of ways. The hi-hats and the tambourines are very subtle. The snare comes in, but there’s no depth to it.

Already Over

This is the first time we’re really hearing her country twang come out (of course, later we got her rendition of I Knew You Were Trouble, which showed this off a bit more). This track has hints of pop, but is for the most part a country song from top to bottom. It’s a song that I personally think could’ve landed in one of the Singular albums. Likewise, I’m glad it’s here on emails because it’s a great breather track.

Not to dismiss its greatness, it holds its own. But Already Over and how many things are both tracks that once you realize what’s going on, you’ll start sobbing to every time. I’m there every single time. It’s a sad song disguised by a slightly upbeat instrumentation.

But that’s just cause Sabrina tells us a story about how it’s Already Over, at least he thinks so. She’s not ready for it to be over, but he’s already over it. Brutal, she needs time to heal but he’s already moved on.

how many things

You used a fork once. It turns out forks are fucking everywhere. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. Joking, of course. If you thought Already Over was sad, you’re in for a trip now.

This track is so fucking sad. Already Over was about him moving on but Sabrina isn’t quite there yet. how many things amplifies that. She’s really not ready to move on and now all of a sudden, everything they used to do together as a couple is showing up in her everyday life. Her favorite places restaurants, places to hang out, etc. Everything just reminds our dear Sabrina about him.

For the most part, the track is just an acoustic guitar (maybe two or three, layered together) and her vocals. But that’s all she needs. She’s able to convey her sadness extremely well. I wonder how many things you think about before you get to me, and I feel myself falling further down your priorities. And I still make excuses for you constantly.

It’s admittedly not a track I play super often, but when it does come on, I have to prepare myself for the sob fest. It’s that song.

bet u wanna

Again, another case of the Sabrina we know and love. This song is so fun. The cowbells, the driving bass, the EDM-ish drum track. Of all the "underrated" songs on the album, bet u wanna is a track I was hoping would get more popularity. It reminds me a lot of another track by her, Looking at Me, another upbeat pop track. Neither really charted terribly well, but both are very fun, danceable tracks to me.

The pre-chorus to this track absolutely gets me every time. It’s so good. The vocals are split but they aren’t super wide, so they’re still a little intimate. But the vocals have a ton of filters to make them sound a lot bigger than they probably are. There’s also the layered vocal here as well. From what I can hear, it’s only two layers. But that second layer is very low in the mix.

Story wise, I’m super happy for her. She’s now finally over him and is now teasing him. Letting him know that he can’t have her back even if he wants to. He’s made too many mistakes. Later!

Nonsense

This is the track that went off the rails and blew up. I think the funniest thing about this track is how it almost didn’t make it to the album. This track doesn’t fit the album terribly well, but I think everyone can agree that we’re all happy it’s there.

As the title implies, it’s complete nonsense. Both literally and metaphorically. The songwriting describes a relationship that just does not fit. It’s all over the place, and she struggles to figure out what to do next. Everything is unpredictable and she’s unsure if she wants to break it off or keep riding the train.

Of course, we can’t talk about Nonsense without talking about the live outros. I think this is the first time where Sabrina understood that her brand is being way out there and unhinged. Every city had a different outro and that created a slight viral effect on social media once fans found out.

Unlike the unreleased/hidden verse from Mona Lisa on her previous tour, these Nonsense outros were unique to each city. If you haven’t heard about these outros, I’d advise you to look them up. They’re great.

I think Nonsense is a track that caught everyone by surprise. It certainly did for me. I remember hearing it for the first few times and not thinking too much of it. It was a slow burn, if you will. It took a few months before it really took off. But once it did, it got yeeted into the atmosphere. Little did we know what would come next, a few years later.

Fast Times

This was by far my favorite track on the album. So much so that it became my phone’s ringtone for years to come. Some may argue that it’s a pretty basic production. And I wouldn’t disagree with that. But I just loved the bridge going into the guitar solo. If I’m not mistaken it’s her first and only guitar solo to date. This was even more epic to date. My only complaint with it is that it’s not long enough. I loved the slight remix when the track was performed live, with a slightly more dynamic solo.

I think the music video for this one was very great as well. It showed off her dance skills alongside a very James Bond-esk storyline. Which, honestly fits in with the sound of the track perfectly. It really gave female empowerment and I’m here for all of it. Girl boss is in full motion.

Being her first record on the new label, it was also the very first track that really featured explicit lyrics. She’s had explicit lyrics before, but she swore maybe once in the whole track. For Fast Times it’s featured very prominently, But what the fuck is patience?

I think this is one of the first times where she opted for a more basic backing vocal, just having a few Oooohs and Aaaaahhs complimenting her vocals during the pre/choruses.

skinny dipping

Can you sense a pattern here? I loved this track from the moment I heard it as a single. From a production standpoint, I love the lack of treble for the most part. Typically, her vocals tend to have a lot of detail and range in the upper treble regions. Yet, this gives us a glimpse into what she would sound like if that all went away. This track also had the horns near the end which gave the song a bit more texture before closing out.

As much as I loved the production of this track, it’s hard to ignore its songwriting. Some lines were very long, and it doesn’t necessarily follow a strict rhyme or rhythm. It’s really a story that must be told.

It’s one of very few "talk singing" tracks Sabrina has ever released. And if anything, it makes me want more of it. The songwriting on this track is better than it’s ever been. There’s so much to tell without the typical bells and whistles. It’s a truly sad story.

It’s also the first track where I feel like she gave no fucks. She laid everything out. She called everyone out that she needed to. This is vulnerable, emotional, and empowered Sabrina and I’m here for it. Yet, she’s ready to move on, It’d be so nice, right? Right? If we could take it all off and just exist. And skinny dipping, water under the bridge.

Bad for Business

I can’t not read the title of the track without singing, He’s good for my heart / But he’s bad for business, every single time. It’s infectious. The mono vocal doubled and panned to each channel has a great effect here. I also love how the producer just let her voice breathe on this track. You can hear all the depth and sharpness in her voice.

The track talks about how she really wanted the relationship but the optics for her career with him involved weren’t gonna turn out great. She wants it to, but it won’t. I’m mad for you. It’s sad but true, and I know it. But also, if she does stay with him, would anyone listen to her music? If I’m just happy songs, will anybody sing along?

This track also has a bit of that country twang mixed in with that acoustic guitar. Though, it’s still a pop track in my eyes. I love the shaker throughout the track. It changes in loudness depending on if it’s the chorus or verse, but it never goes away (besides during the bridge). It complements the relatively easy hi-hats.

I love how the track ends. There are many ways to interpret it, but the way I hear it, it sounds like a record slowing itself down until it can’t be played anymore.

decode

This track makes so much sense being at the end of the album. Thematically and lyrically. It’s criminally underrated and it’s always a delight when it comes up when I’m listening to music. You can hear the raw emotion in her voice.

It’s all about learning from what just happened in your life and being ready to move on. Even if you don’t want to or are not ready. It doesn’t matter. Life moves on. This track is one of those duality songs to me. It’s both sad and happy at the same time. Sometimes I’ll bawl my eyes out, and other times I’m like, "Yes Sabrina! I’m proud of you for moving on."

I love the production here as well. Very thick and deep bass combined with an ever heavier kick drum. Meanwhile, the acoustic guitar fills out the midrange and her vocal up above. The strings complement her vocals very well. The compartmentalizing is quite excellent on this track.

Where else can we go? There’s nothing left to decode. That’s all you need to know. What a way to end an album. It started very angry and sad and ended on a high note.

Conclusion

I loved and continue to love this album. Sabrina knows how to put out great music and in my opinion, has yet to put out a bad track. There are tracks that I love more than others, sure. But emails i can’t send is an excellent pop album. It has strong songwriting and an awesome production.

emails i can’t send holds a special spot in my heart. In my eyes, it’s the last album she’ll ever release where she was an "indie" artist. The fanbase was small, we all commented on her YouTube videos "criminally underrated." Well, that’s changed now. Short n’ Sweet has a lot riding on it as the singles have exploded her into A-List pop star status.

Combine that with a sold out tour. I remember being able to wait for payday and getting VIP tickets for the emails i cant send tour. To the point where I saw her twice, both in Washington D.C., and in Vancouver, Canada. Those will be some of my favorite concert memories.

But to close it out, I have nothing bad to say about emails i can’t send. If you’re a new fan and have only heard her newer singles, I’d urge you to listen to this album. Especially now when we’re less than a week away from her sixth release. Get yourself ready and prepared for what’s to come. You will not regret it.