Photo by Sarah Carpenter

Give credit to where credit is due to Sabrina Carpenter who is continuing to make the most out of her tried and tested formula of using the male gaze and playing it against the boys to her stans’ delight not even one year after achieving pop superstardom with her breakthrough effort and listmaker, Short ‘N Sweet. The announcement of its follow-up, Man’s Best Friend, and its lead single, “Manchild”, maintains the momentum of what’s expected of one of the pop industry’s shiniest and most sparkliest new machines, and through a few batted lashes and tussles of her hair, has already gotten everyone up in a tizzy on just the visuals alone.

As for the song? The funny part about Carpenter’s music itself is that it’s not really something you need to deeply discourse over beyond the fact that it’s created from a perfect formula of pop songwriting science. It’s one part Jack Antonoff and one part Amy Allen in its co-writes and production — in itself an equal ratio of ’80s synth pop, countrypolitan, and mirror ball sparkle — and it’s swirled all around a series of quoteables about sexy dumb fuckbois who are giving her an unwanted mother complex. “And I swear they choose me, I’m not choosing them,” she sings. Of course, Sabrina. For science.

Directed by: Vania Heymann & Gal Muggia

Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend will be released August 29th on Island Records.