Sabrina Carpenter - Short N' Sweet 2LP 33⅓rpm (Deluxe Edition)

Sabrina Carpenter's sixth studio album Short N Sweet defines an era, triply word-playing on the briefness of her first romances, media runtimes, and the artist's height. Exploring the Gen Z icon's love life and perspectives on 2020s dating, the title refers to Carpenter's shortest ever romantic relationship, as she endeavours to honour the validity of said encounter in a glacial climate of a staid romantic culture that emphasises long-termism as the only possible form of true love. And yet despite the imaginary spirit of carefreeness, Carpenter's lyrics are pretty pessimistic if you listen past the poppified blitz of sound: the sense is that generations of lovers have failed to account for the true polyvalence of love, where even the shortest of encounters can engender the worst of heartbreaks.