Sabrina has a lot of amazing songs and albums, between the cute bubblegum poppy-ness of Eyes Wide Open, the confidence-inducing bops of Singular Act I and the vulnerable Singular Act II. However, EVOLution has always been my favorite Sabrina album. There's something about it that has remained unparalleled in any of Sabrina's work to date, even though I really like the majority of her current work.
EVOLution had a bit of a moody, edgy tone to it that really made it shine. The album opens with "On Purpose," and while it's about an unexpected relationship that turns out very happy, it has a bit of an edge to it. The opening and first verse is very dramatic and uncertain, and while it gets far more upbeat in the chorus and subsequent verses, there's a little bit of darkness nestled under the happy façade, giving the song multiple layers for analysis. We then move on to "Feels Like Loneliness," arguably Sabrina's most sassy track to date, in which Sabrina tells a potential suitor that she's uninterested in a relationship. Sabrina's sassy and condescending tone in the song ("Ooh-oops, didn't mean to make you love me") is so perfect and really gives her a distinct voice.
"Thumbs" is one of my favorite Sabrina songs, in which she not only takes on monotony, but also arguably capitalism with certain lyrics, such as the one about how families "keep on multiplying with one another." Families get numerous tax breaks for having children, and combined with the second verse which mentions "the bank robs the people so the people rob the bank" and "the police came to get him, but they let him get away, because they all just working to get paid the very same," it begins to sound like Sabrina is talking about how flawed the capitalist system is. Sabrina's best friend at the time, Rowan Blanchard, was very much against capitalism, so it makes total sense that Sabrina would be talking about capitalism here. Regardless of the song is discussing capitalism or getting out of monotony (or both), Sabrina worked some really clever, relatable subject matter into this song that really sets her apart from other pop singers.
"No Words" is probably the weakest song on this album in my opinion, but it's still decent and I'd take this over something like "Honeymoon Fades" or "I Can't Stop Me" any day. "No Words" continues this darkish undertone that's there in "On Purpose," despite talking about a relationship going well which is pretty happy subject matter.
Speaking of dark, "Run and Hide" is the darkest Sabrina song I know of, with her literally crying out "I wanna be loved" in the chorus. This song is a hard one for me to listen to because it just instantly makes me cry, so I don't listen to it very often. However, this song is amazingly vulnerable and takes on another big societal issue: vulnerability. We're all afraid to be vulnerable, so we wear masks to hide who we truly are as not to be placed in a vulnerable spot. Sabrina takes this issue head-on by asserting she does not want to hide herself from others, but wants to be loved. This song is sort of a dialogue with herself, but also has another meta-level of meaning about society's tendency to teach people that they should run and hide instead of being authentically themselves with others.
Did I say wearing masks to hide who we are? That transitions us perfectly (or should I say prfctly) into "Mirage." "Mirage" talks about Sabrina's experiences in Hollywood where everyone is fake, causing her to wonder if the interactions she's having with people are actually real or just a "mirage." For a young Disney star who was 17 at the time, this is an amazingly deep topic to be covering and shows Sabrina's artistically maturity.
"You've got my heart, I don't want it back" sounds like the lyrics to some sappy love song, right? Nope. Sabrina once again makes a happy song kind of dark and mysterious, as if there's something under the surface that one doesn't quite notice. With this recurring theme, she demonstrates that there's some vulnerability to giving unconditional love to another person, and it's not just this super happy thing that love songs make it out to be. Relationships can go wrong, feelings can change, and Sabrina acknowledges this by making these love songs a bit darker. Being vulnerable when you're a teenager and your hormones are raging can also be difficult, because relationships are far more fragile and dramatic during those teenage years. I commend Sabrina for her lyrical masterpiece that is "Don't Want It Back."
I don't think I've listened to "Shadows" more than once in my entire life, just because it's chillingly dark. "Shadows" talks about seeing the dark side of your lover, and acknowledging that you also have a dark side and/or dark past. I'd still argue "Run and Hide" is a bit darker and sadder, but Sabrina's level of vulnerability in this song is pretty chilling.
Moving away from the sad songs, "Space" is my favorite Sabrina Carpenter song. At its shallowest level, "Space" could be seen as needing personal space from a lover. However, this is another song that is super deep in meaning and has multiple layers of analysis that can be done on the lyrics. "Space" was written by Sabrina after she began growing more and more popular, and was constantly being chased by the press. I've sadly seen news stories about Sabrina going to get a cup of coffee with a friend or taking a walk with her dog, and while that type of popularity might seem nice at first, it imaginably grew very exhausting for Sabrina to constantly be under the public eye. The song is about the media's obsession with documenting every piece of Sabrina's life, with "Space" being Sabrina's response. This song marks another instance in the album where Sabrina sings about a deep societal issue of the media's obsession with documenting every single little thing about what a celebrity is doing at all times, and how it can be very emotionally exhausting and damaging to a teenage girl who just wants a little privacy sometimes.
"All We Have Is Love" closes out the album, and while the title may sound cutesy, it's actually not. The final track of EVOLution details a utopian society that Sabrina wishes we lived in, where love was the only thing that was in existence. After she sang about so many issues with society, talking about her utopian dreams was a perfect way to close out this album.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely do not hate the majority of Sabrina's most recent work. It just sort of makes me a little sad sometimes to think about the direction she's going in. There are some great songs on her most recent albums like "Paris," "Sue Me," "Bad Time," etc., etc. but other songs fall a bit flat in my opinion. "Hold Tight," "Honeymoon Fades," and much of Singular Act II are all very generic pop in my opinion and aren't anything special. "Let Me Move You" from Work It is one of Sabrina's best songs in years in my opinion, and I'd love to see her continue going in that direction. I really dislike this R&B trend she's going in, where she tries to have a super high voice that doesn't sound like her own. She has an amazing, strong voice as demonstrated by many of her songs, especially in EVOLution, but her whispery voice she's been using in recent songs sort of ignores that strong element of her vocal range. I mean no shade at Sabrina and still love her to death, but at the same time, I sometimes wish she wasn't going in the direction she seems to be.
EVOLution is such an amazing album because it takes on prevalent societal issues such as vulnerability, capitalism, the fakeness of Hollywood, the dark side of the media's obsession with celebrities, and much much more. She also has a bit of a dark, rebellious edge in this album, singing about vulnerable topics like craving authentic love, accepting one's biggest flaws, and the dark side of relationships. This style and lyrical tone feels the most authentically Sabrina to me and sets her apart from other artists. This sense of darkness and rebelliousness, as well as deep subject matter, has been missing on a lot of her recent work and is something I'd like to see come back someday. This obviously pales in comparison to some of the more shallow subject matter, such as the really dumb "remember when we was messin' in each other's beds" lyric from "Honeymoon Fades." I will still enjoy whatever current Sabrina music comes out as much as I can, yet I still hold out hope for a return to this tone for Sabrina.
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