Sabrina Carpenter spent years being “the other one” — a Disney girl, a supporting player, a punchline. Short n’ Sweet is her definitive statement that those days are over. This is the work of an artist who knows exactly who she is and what she’s doing.

The album is a comedy of manners wrapped in immaculate pop production. Carpenter’s lyrics are sharp and funny in a way that pop rarely allows itself to be. Espresso is as close to a perfect pop single as 2024 produced, and the album sustains that quality across its 12 tracks.

The influences — Doris Day, Shania Twain, a touch of Kacey Musgraves — are worn lightly. This feels like a genuine synthesis rather than pastiche. It is the kind of album that announces a major artist fully arrived.