FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Sabrina Carpenter - Singular: Act I
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I have included Sabrina Carpenter…
PHOTO CREDIT: Hollywood Records
fairly recently but, as she has just announced a new album is complete, I wanted to revisit her third studio album (at eight tracks, it is more like a mini-album). Released in 2018, Singular: Act I is terrific. It was followed by Singular: Act II a year later. Despite the large number of producers and studios, there is a singularity and focus to the album. Carpenter is, perhaps, not talked about as one of the most innovative and impressive Pop artists of this time – ranking alongside the like of Dua Lipa and Selena Gomez. Although Singular: Act I got a few great reviews when it came out, it didn’t get high in the album charts. One does not hear too many songs from the album played today. An artist with an incredible voice and powerful personality, even if you are not a fan of modern Pop, you will find much to appreciate on Singular: Act I. This feature allows me to look back at albums released over the past three or four years. Ones that were popular and hyped at the time, yet they have sort of faded from consciousness or they are not as explored as they should be. Carpenter is such a strong and fascinating artist. I do remember when Singular: Act I and hearing songs like Almost Love and thinking how different they were to what is out there. Make sure that you take some time to listen to an album that ranks alongside the best of 2018.
To show the sort of reception and reaction Singular: Act I was afforded in 2018, I am going to drop in a couple of reviews. The first one comes from The Line of Best Fit. This is what they had to offer when they assessed Carpenter’s third studio album:
“While her sophomore album EVOLution symbolised Carpenter’s departure from the folk-flecked pop of Eyes Wide Open, Singular: Act I feels like an even larger progression from the LP preceding it – not necessarily just through her shifts in sound, but in the way it heralds her arrival as a fully-fledged star. This is immediately apparent on “Almost Love” – the album’s lead single and opening number – a commanding, urgent call-to-action for a relationship that needs to take its next step, pushed forward with intermittent whistles and drums.
The album goes on to explore a range of sounds, from “Hold Tight”, a stellar slow jam that kicks into high gear for a huge, stuttering chorus, to “Diamonds are Forever”, a swaggering, theatrical belter. These different leanings are all tied together by Carpenter’s now distinct, confident presence - which shines throughout the LP and imbues its tracks with a unifying sense of self-assuredness, regardless of how they choose to recount relationships both old or new. On the glimmering “Mona Lisa” she spurs on a potential love interest into finding the courage to approach her; the album’s excellent first promotional single “Paris” brings in bells and synths as she sings of returning to an old muse after exploring a new city; and the appropriately titled “prfct” places her vocals at the forefront of a track about embracing the unexpected turns every relationship takes.
Carpenter approaches sourer subjects with a similar sense of self-assuredness. “Sue Me” is an anthemic mid-tempo number about exiting a relationship with the same aplomb as she entered it, and on “Bad Time” – the album’s second promotional single and an undeniable highlight – she gleefully turns the tables on a serial flake. The latter track is also perhaps the best example of the lyricism and pop sensibility Carpenter brings to the album as a whole – creating image-heavy scenarios that are then exploded into a chorus with sticky hooks and a massive pay-off. And though Singular: Act I is described as the lead half of a larger project (with Act II slated for release next year), it’s moments like those, and there are many of them, that make the eight-track album feel like a complete production. It’s certainly no small triumph that Singular: Act I stands so firmly by itself – and its creation marks an exciting new phase of an artist properly coming into her own”.
There is another review that I am going to bring in. It is worth listening to Singular: Act II, as it is the second of the two-part project. I have opted to review Singular: Act I, as I prefer it slightly more. Earmilk highlighted Sabrina Carpenter’s versatility as a performer and writer:
“Je ne voulais pas trouver l’amour, mais Paris a quelque chose qui donne envie d’aimer, d’aimer passionnément,” Sabrina Carpenter utters during the bridge of “Paris,” the second track and one of three lead singles from her third album Singular: Act I. “I did not want to find love,” she says, “but Paris has something that makes you want to love, to love passionately.” Early on the 8 track project, the 19-year-old singer leaves behind the looming foothold that was ever present on her previous projects and instead sets the tone for an unbound new venture abundant with elegance and confidence throughout the 25-minute duration of her latest album.
With each track being solidified and pulled together by a different producer, Carpenter is able to showcase her versatility on a myriad of sonic landscapes. “Sue Me” was created with the help of producers Oak Felder and The Orphanage, the same team responsible for Demi Lovato‘s 2017 smash “Sorry Not Sorry.” On this anthemic declaration of self-assurance and personal strength, Carpenter embodies the energy of an individual unrestrained and unbothered by the discontentment of an ex-lover. This poised assertiveness continues on tracks like “Bad Time,” where Carpenter enlists Troye Sivan and Taylor Swift producer OZGO to flip the script on someone notorious for picking and choosing when they want to engage with someone. While “Diamonds are Forever,” produced by Johan Carlsson who holds a production credit from Ariana Grande‘s “Dangerous Woman,” allows Carpenter to dig deep and hit us with explosive and soul-filled vocals.
“Money don’t buy class, and I can’t be bought like that,” Carpenter boasts on the latter track in an effortless vocal progression reminiscent of a pop star ready to make her mark on an ever competitive and comparative genre. This energy appears first and foremost on Singular: Act I’s lead single and opening track, “Almost Love,” and again on “Mona Lisa,” where the singer sets the basis for a collection of stand out pop records. Carpenter succeeded in crafting hit after hit by pulling production efforts from those all over the pop world whom she hadn’t worked with before, although Rob Persaud, who worked on her 2016 sophomore album EVOLution, makes another appearance on “Prfct.”
Singular: Act I’s stand out track happens to be the one collaboration Carpenter decided to include on the album: “Hold Tight” which features rising hip-hop artist, and son of DJ Jazzy Jeff, Uhmeer. The electrifying production of the song is a product of the work of Mike Sabath who already formulated a hit earlier this year with J Balvin and Liam Payne’s “Familiar.” Uhmeer and Carpenter’s interconnection during the third verse of the track exemplifies two artists dynamic capable of demanding a listener’s undivided attention and reverence. The singer navigates her way through a sonic environment that is nebulous at times, manifesting the aura of a dark and hazy room, but invigorating and turbocharged with precision at others–a description easily extended to the versatility of the album as a whole”.
One of the finest and more underrated albums from 2018, I am looking forward to seeing what we might get from Carpenter’s fifth studio album. At only twenty-two, she has packed so much into her career already! There is no telling how far Carpenter can go in her undoubtably long career. She has so much promise! Spend a moment with Singular: Act I, as it is a great Dance Pop album that will definitely…
STAY in your head.