On August 29, 2025, one of the most storytelling and impactful albums in Sabrina Carpenter’s discography was released. Man’s Best Friend represents her life and feelings now that she is single and away from the toxicity of her previous relationships. I believe it’s a fabulous album.

Just as Short n’ Sweet had “Taste” had its hot single, Man’s Best Friend also has that single, “Manchild”. Both albums open with the songs, making them easily the most-streamed tracks on the albums when they were released. 

In my opinion, “Manchild” is better than “Taste”. However, the music video doesn’t compare to the “Taste” music video. The kiss between Jenna Ortega and Sabrina Carpenter was all anybody could discuss about this song until the album came out.

Both albums have their positive aspects, and each tells its own story. Short n’ Sweet focuses on the adventure of her relationship with her ex, Barry Keoghan. Meanwhile, Man’s Best Friend focuses on her journey during and after her breakup, showing us how she felt during that grieving period, her struggles with moving on, and her eventual attempts to make him feel guilty and regretful. 

My understanding of Man’s Best Friend’s first couple of songs is that they represent her being in her relationship, but it’s getting near the end, right before the breakup, when they were trying to resolve. Near the middle of the album, the songs represent the breakup itself: the heartache, the emotions, and the process of her breakup. And the songs at the album’s end show her moving on from the breakup. 

However, I hypothesize a new man is in the picture in her song “House Tour”. In this song, she describes herself after a possible date and invites the person to “her house,” which is a metaphor for her body. She describes her body as having floors and is “proud of her design”. 

This album references many of her notable exes, including Barry Keoghan and Joshua Bassett, particularly in her song “Go Go Juice”. She finds similar names to name-drop them, calling them Gosh and Larry. 

Also, in her song, “Never Getting Laid”, Carpenter describes her hopes for her ex. She says she hopes he is happy; however, like the song title, she also hopes he doesn’t get laid again.

This is one of my favorite songs due to its last couple of lines, which always make me laugh because it’s just a super ironic line: “At the end of the rainbow, I hope you find a good whole lot of nothin’cause you’re still inside. And abstinence is just a state of mind.” These lines of the song are just mind-blowing, and it’s wild that she would add that into a song.

I also believe that the four exes mentioned in the album are depicted on one of her album variants: Man’s Best Friend D2C Alt Cover LP. In this cover, four men are standing farther and farther from her, which I believe depicts how much longer it’s been since the relationships. The closest is the man of her most recent relationship and the arm she is holding (Barry Keoghan), and the farthest is her relationship from a long time ago (Joshua Basset). 

However, on a separate note, on another one of her vinyl variants, the Man’s Best Friend D2C Bonus Track LP, there are five men in the photo, which, as I mentioned earlier, could support the theory that she has a new partner.

Many people have different opinions and speculations about her vinyl covers and the lyrics in the songs. Most people say they enjoy the album as a whole, while others consider it inappropriate. There are some listeners stating that the original album cover is showing her selling her sexuality to the public and expressing too much of her romantic life. The album covers are beautifully done!

However, some discussion has been about the bonus track that can only be obtained with one of the album variants. In this song, “Such A Funny Way,” Sabrina sings about how her ex had a “funny way” of showing his love by not paying attention to her or answering her attempts to reach out. This adds a nice touch to the album because it calls out Keoghan for how he “loved” her.

This album is well written; it tells a clear story if you listen closely. We gain a lot of insight into her life and some valuable advice that anyone going through a breakup should heed. However, some of that advice is very good, comical advice. So take some of it to heart. 

Everyone has differing opinions about the album, but the truth is that more people love her album than dislike it. The 1 billion streams since the album came out prove that, and it set a new record for the most-streamed album on Spotify in a single day by a female artist in 2025 (before Life Of A Showgirl debuted, of course).