SLEEVE NOTES: Man’s Best Friend

Sabrina Carpenter

“If I’m a ten, you’re a two. I know that’s mean, but it’s true.”

With that line from her new single Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter reasserts what her career has steadily been proving:

She isn’t just making pop music. She’s documenting the female experience in a language the internet understands: irony, femininity, contradiction, and confrontation.

Her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, arrives August 29, 2025, hot on the high heels of her Grammy winning Short n’ Sweet era. This time.. the gloves, and the metaphors, are off. The announcement was made via Instagram on June 11, 2025, alongside artwork that instantly polarized critics: a staged photo of Sabrina in a black mini dress, on all fours, at a man’s feet.

The concept is bold, pointed, and designed to elicit a reaction. But this isn’t new territory for Carpenter. Since her early Disney exit, she’s intentionally embraced the visual cues of hyperfemininity. You know.. the blonde bombshell. A Taurus IS ruled by Venus. All while weaponizing them to expose the way society responds to empowered women. It’s a tactic that confuses many and empowers even more.

Critics of the cover art call it objectifying. Defenders, including Carpenter herself, call it commentary. In her Rolling Stone interview, she stated:

“There’s a lot of imagery that’s sexualized when a woman is in control of it… Female artists are under more scrutiny than ever.”

And she’s right. Co-written with Jack Antonoff and Amy Allen, it’s a synth-pop kiss off packed with satirical grit. It joins a long legacy of feminist pop anthems that sing in glitter and fight in falsetto.. from Marilyn and Dolly, to Madonna and Britney.

Sabrina’s genius lies in the contradiction:

She sings about unreliable men while dressing like their dream girl.

She poses like a fantasy and speaks like a threat.

She allows herself to be seen, while demanding she be heard.

That paradox is the point. That dissonance is the art.

And Man’s Best Friend looks to be her sharpest statement yet.