I’m saying “Goodbye” to “Man’s Best Friend”
Some say Sabrina Carpenter’s “Man’s Best Friend” is a guy’s worst nightmare and others say it sets feminism back 50 years. I say that the album is too boring to be either.
For me to enjoy an album, something unique in its sound, lyrics and appearance will always catch my eye. One of the main things “Man’s Best Friend” is lacking is diversity. Every song seems to center around one thing: men. For the first 10 minutes, I was enjoying the playful vibe. However, it gets boring very fast when the only thing Carpenter is singing about is how much of a manchild her boyfriend is while still continuing to date him. She fails to stray from her shrill vocals, resulting in a heavily strained, almost thin voice. This only contributes to the monotony of the album.
“Gogo juice” is one of the few songs that I actually enjoyed on this album. Its production stood out to me, considering it starts out with a light acoustic guitar and then progresses into upbeat pop synth. I had more fun listening to the end of “Gogo juice” than I did while listening to this whole project, as it evolves into a drunken sing-along. The song’s country twang gave me a break from the other repetitive works on this album. My one qualm with this song, and seemingly with the rest of the album, is that it relies heavily on instrumentals while the lyrics are nothing special. Yes, “Gogo juice” is catchy, however that doesn’t automatically make it good. I found this to be true for the majority of the album, with songs consisting of a few mediocre verses and a chorus that’s easy to sing.
“My man on willpower” was hard to listen to. The syllables do not roll off the tongue like they should. This is especially present in verses like “He used to be literally obsessed with me, I’m suddenly the least-sought-after girl in the land.” Moreover, the instrumentals combined with her high-pitched voice seem to almost drown each other out.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the controversial album cover, which pictures Carpenter having her hair pulled on by a man, presumably referencing the title by getting “walked like a dog.” Although this put “Man’s Best Friend” in the spotlight prior to its full release, I was expecting something much more subversive than the final product, as the photo presented a central idea of satirizing the expectation for women to be loyal and obedient, like dogs.
Carpenter attempts to play on themes of misogyny and the male gaze through provocative imagery and lyrics; however, her songs don’t reflect this idea. Rather, in the majority of this album, Carpenter praises men for the bare minimum while coming back for more. With all of this in mind, I’m still confused as to why Carpenter chose this image as the poster child for the album when she had multiple alternative, and much more suitable, images that would play on the theme of the album effectively.
“Man’s Best Friend” is a very surface-level interpretation of modern love and relationships. Carpenter continually references retreating back to a loser of a boyfriend, but never goes into why this happens. Thus, listening to this album felt like the musical equivalent of watching someone walk into a glass door over and over again.
