Why Sabrina Carpenter Made a New Album So Quickly After ‘Short n’ Sweet’

On Aug. 29, Sabrina Carpenter will release her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend. It arrives exactly 359 days after her last record, the massive Short n’ Sweet.

That’s an unusual move these days, when stars typically wait longer between releases. Plus, Carpenter is still touring behind Short n’ Sweet, hitting the festival circuit this summer before launching another North American leg in the fall. In her new Rolling Stone cover story, she explained why she’s moving fast.

“If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short n’ Sweet much, much longer,” she told RS. “But I’m at that point in my life where I’m like, ‘Wait a second, there’s no rules.’ If I’m inspired to write and make something new, I would rather do that. Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years? It’s all about what feels right. I’m learning to listen to that a lot more, instead of what is perceived as the right or wrong move.”

Carpenter also said that her decision was influenced by her favorite artists from past decades, like ABBA, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. “They would release a 10-song album every year,” she said. “I’m like, ‘When did we stop doing that?’ Writers write, they make music, and they release music. I understand the beauty of disappearing. My last two albums both took two and a half years to make, and they needed to. I just think every project is different. It just has to feel right.”

Her producer, Jack Antonoff, agrees: “I think, as a culture, we got a little obsessed with marketing,” he added in the RS story. “The lesson to me, which we talked about when we’re making this, is that listening to anything besides the music as a guide is ridiculous.”

Elsewhere in the story, Carpenter discussed her new single “Manchild,” how she maintains a healthy lifestyle on the road (cold-plunging and rarely drinking alcohol), and how she uses humor as a device. She also addresses the internet’s obsession with her love life and the more sexual parts of her show, and how it feels to live in a time in which “women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity.”