So what do I actually think of Sabrina Carpenter’s writing?

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We should start by stating the obvious: lyrics are not poems. They are not meant to be enjoyed on their own. They work in concert with melody and other musical traits. Which is why it’s possible to have stonecold rockandroll masterpieces with intensely stupid lyrics.

So I don’t think it’s fair to judge lyrics by the standard of words that stand alone. You can have a good song without intelligible lyrics.

Anyway. Let’s get to Man’s Best Friend.

Pretty much every song has at least one good line. Pretty much every song has some miserably bad lines. Some of those lines don’t even work with music like some of the times she tries to squeeze “responsible” into “Tears.”

I find it fascinating that a tradition that was born of super-regular lyrical forms (eg ballads, the blues) has evolved into something that rejects regular form entirely. The times her lyrics put together lines that have obvious metrical similarities are rare. If you didn’t have the music to listen to (as, recall, I did not), it can be a real bear to figure out what she’s attempting to do in turns of such musical basics as rhythm and the beat the beat the beat.

Many of her best images are, no surprise, sexual. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but this is one of the horniest collection of words I’ve ever read. And when I say “best” images, what I really mean is that they’re simple but evocative. Speaking of “Tears,” the song’s about a woman “get[ting] wet” at the thought of her man doing the dishes or speaking clearly, ergo “tears run down [her] thighs.” But hold on! There’s another layer her! Because he’s hardly that sort of guy at all So tears also equals sadness, do you get it? do you get it? I get it. Those are sad vaginal juices. It’s very clever.

Sigh.

Anyway, there’s not much motivation, best I can tell, to get better at lyric writing. Or perhaps “better” can only refer to ease of singing along with and general simplicity? Sure Courtney Barnett and Jason Isbell get lots of props for the quality of their lyrics (and rightly so) but they don’t get every song on their album on the Hot 100 and dollars in the gazillions. So perhaps we’re overthinking this.

And even great lyricists’ lyrics don’t always work sans music. And I think that’s fine.

(I know I don’t give musicals this same leeway. So sue me.)

So, in my final analysis, the lyrics of Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend work well as something for a voice to do while engaging in pop melodies and they can provide titillating TikTok fodder, but they won’t hold up to, say, a half hour’s attention in a literature class.*

*(Obviously, this is untrue. Us literature people can find buckets to talk about in anything.)

If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll remember I was surprised to learn how heavily Sabrina Carpenter is leaning on Taylor Swift’s playbook. You may wonder what I think of Ms Swift’s lyrics as she has (I think?) a better reputations, lyricswise.

I’m a bit ashamed to say the only Taylor Swift album I’ve listened to through (let alone more than once) is this one. I did really like it though and sometime late pandemic when my wife started streaming Taylor Swift I was thus predisposed to give her a fair show.

I am notoriously bad at picking out lyrics without the words before my eyeballs so I can’t really say how clever she is. I suspect that “No Body, No Crime” is probably smarter than “Shake It Off,” but what do I know.

If you’re implying, however, that I should be prepping a second book on Showgirl and that it might be even more fun to work from a stronger lyrical base, hahaha, probably not.