BONE COLORED VINYL

The fifth studio album from singer and actress Sabrina Carpenter, 2022's Emails I Can't Send is as charmingly ebullient as it is candid. Her first full-length release since moving to Island Records, the record builds nicely upon the upbeat dance-pop of her early work while also displaying her growing strength and honesty as a songwriter. It also finds her drawing inspiration from the classic singer/songwriter style of artists like Carly Simon and Carole King while fitting well alongside the contemporary work of artists like Conan Gray. Much of the album is loosely conceptualized around emails she wrote to herself. For example, the title track, "Emails I Can't Send," is a yearning piano ballad in which a daughter excoriates her father for his infidelity to her mother. Similarly, "Vicious" is a hooky, acoustic guitar-driven anthem in which Carpenter addresses her quiet anguish over a particularly toxic relationship. More upbeat is "Read Your Mind," in which she ruminates on a wishy-washy lover on a hooky track that evokes the sparkling disco-pop of the Cardigans. With Emails I Can't Send, Carpenter has crafted a record that reflects her emotional maturity five albums into her career, which also feels like a refreshing new start.

A1        Emails I Can't Send
A2        Vicious
A3        Read Your Mind
A4        Tornado Warnings
A5        Because I Liked A Boy
A6        Already Over
B1        How Many Things
B2        Bet U Wanna
B3        Nonsense
B4        Fast Times
B5        Skinny Dipping
B6        Bad For Business
B7        Decode