Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”
Pitchfork Score: 5.8

On “Manchild,” Sabrina Carpenter trades in her usual sugary pop flair for what feels like a subtweet set to music. The song drips with sarcasm, which is fitting, because it sounds like it was written directly after seeing an ex-boyfriend post a thirst trap captioned “rise and grind.”

Carpenter takes aim at the boy-men of the world: guys who Venmo you $7.43 for half a burrito but still call themselves entrepreneurs, who post inspirational quotes with typos, who think playing pickup basketball counts as cardio. Her lyrics are clever in spots, but often teeter on the edge of being too pleased with themselves, like a barista who insists on telling you their stand-up routine while you’re just trying to get a flat white.

Production-wise, “Manchild” is all glossy minimalism—like a synth-pop beat that dressed up in Zara to impress its girlfriend’s parents. It’s catchy, but you can’t shake the feeling you’ve heard it before, probably on the soundtrack of a Netflix rom-com where the protagonist realizes her boyfriend is, in fact, a manchild.

Still, Carpenter delivers with a wink and a smirk, and the song thrives in its pettiness. It’s not her boldest work, but it does provide excellent background music for sending passive-aggressive texts or deleting your Hinge app for the seventh time this month.

Best Fit For: playing loudly in your apartment while rehearsing a speech about ho