The production of this album is flawless, but to me it feels very plastic. This album feels like more of an effort to capitalize on social media fame than an honest musical effort - the songs are all hook, and even the best hooks feel like social media bait more than anything. That seems to be Carpenter’s business model, though; hooks and one-liners designed for TikTok. And identifying a successful business model, then executing it flawlessly, is arguably one kind of genius even if it’s not everyone’s favorite kind.

The beats are enjoyable and bouncy, and her voice is big, which is kind of at odds with the uncomfortable-to-watch pre-teen aura she seems to put off. This is pop designed to be pop, with all the good stuff at the surface with little hidden underneath. But hey, that’s perfectly fair; it’s a tried and true route to success, and every generation is entitled to reinvent the tried and true in their own way.

To be totally clear, this album is not bad. It’s actually closer to perfection, from a certain point of view - it’s exactly what it’s designed to be. But it feels like an actress/influencer making an album as a promotional tool, not a musician making music to authentically express herself. She’s bouncing around genres to see what sticks (see the insanely awkward country-thing “Slim Pickins” and the R&B experiment “Don’t Smile”). It feels like she’s saying “Idk who I am as a musician, so here are some options. You pick!”

To be fair, “Espresso” is an absolute bubblegum banger despite the above complaints, and the world can never have too many of those.

While I’m improving when it comes to my acceptance of pop for pop’s sake, this album was difficult to embrace musically. I guess I get why it’s popular - it’s almost like today’s version of easy listening, with no brainpower required to bop to the beats, the only thing to shock your mind back into activity being the occasional lewd reference or inexplicable genre change. I just don’t value the traits that make it so popular, which is probably a reflection of my exhaustion with social media as anything else. Social media stars, and those who pursue that kind of ten-second-soundbyte fame, rub me the wrong way. And this music is so entwined with the influencer and Disney kid vibe that I don’t know how to separate the two. Would I like it if I hadn’t been on Instagram in the past year? I’m not sure, but I’d probably like it more.

Jams

“Espresso”

From the roundup Jamwise #45 - Special Edition: 2024's Chart-Topping Albums.