Man's Best Friend is the seventh studio album by the American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was released on August 29,2025,by Island Records. Carpenter produced the album with Jack Antonoff and John Ryan,who also produced tracks on her previous studio album,Short n' Sweet (2024). Primarily a pop album with elements of disco-pop,funk,R&B and synth-rock,its lead single,"Manchild",charted at number one in Ireland,the United Kingdom,and the United States and top ten in several worldwide territories. Carpenter selected "Tears" as the second single,released concurrently with the album.
The cover artwork,evoking dominance and submission,generated controversy and significant media attention;some criticized it as appealing to the male gaze in a detrimental manner to women,while others saw it as satire and a way to challenge misogynistic expectations of women's sexual behavior. Later,Carpenter released an alternate direct-to-consumer cover,which she described as "approved by God". The album reached number one in several countries including the United Kingdom,Germany and Australia.
Production and release
On June 11,2025,less than a year after the release of her sixth album Short n' Sweet (2024),Sabrina Carpenter teased her next album in an Instagram Live in which she was "rifling through a stack of records by Donna Summer,ABBA and Dolly Parton,before landing on her own".[3] A day after the album's announcement,Carpenter appeared on the front cover and cover story for Rolling Stone's July–August 2025 edition and revealed that the "slow and steady" writing sessions for the album started soon after Short n' Sweet was finished. She reflected on the consistent release schedules of her idols (such as Parton and Linda Ronstadt).[4]Man's Best Friend was released on August 29,2025.[3]
Album artwork and controversy
The album's cover artwork features Carpenter posed on a hand and knees in a black mini dress and heels while an anonymous figure,cropped out of the frame,grabs her hair. Another promotional image showcases a dog with the album's name written on its collar.[5] The cover received polarized responses and garnered controversy on social media.[6][7][8] Some critics deemed it offensive and appealing to the male gaze in a detrimental manner to women.[9] Glasgow Women's Aid,a charity providing support for victims of domestic abuse,called it "regressive" and "pandering to the male gaze and [promotion of] misogynistic stereotypes" with "an element of violence and control".[10] Kuba Shand-Baptiste of The i Paper wrote:"At best,Carpenter's cover is a bad example of satire. It's titillating to those who do believe women are inferior".[11] Arwa Mahdawi of The Guardian said the cover was not "subtle or sex-positive—it's just soft porn pandering to the male gaze",criticizing the concept of hair-grabbing as insensitive.[9]
Others saw the cover as satire—a way to challenge "misogynistic expectations of women" and their sexual desires.[11] Adrian Horton of The Guardian thought that Carpenter was "clearly working in the Madonna tradition of sexual provocation for provocation's sake,poking fun at tropes and people's prudishness with an alluring frankness".[12] Dominique Sisley of Dazed wrote:"The idea that one image has that much influence,in an internet full of hardcore pornography,where men can now freely make deepfakes or use AI prompts to create a whole world of horrors,seems a bit delusional".[13] Jessica Clark of Mamamia thought that Carpenter was "not reinforcing objectification,but rather skewering it".[14] Helen Coffey of The Independent believed that the cover's detractors "know literally nothing about Carpenter,her music or her brand".[15] Emma Specter of Vogue called the controversy the result of a "depressingly puritanical society".[16] Taylor Crumpton of Time similarly stated that Carpenter "is not the problem. Our lack of orgasms is."[17]Carly Simon,whose 1975 album Playing Possum received similar controversy,defended the cover and did not understand why it was "getting such flak". She said:"It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers."[18]
Carpenter released an alternative cover artwork for the album for pre-order on June 25,jokingly responding to the controversy by stating that the alternative cover was "approved by God";it depicts her in a gown at a formal event,grabbing onto a suited man's arm and looking off-camera.[19] Some media publications thought that the cover referenced a 1957 photograph of Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband,Arthur Miller.[20][21][22] A second artwork variant,featuring Carpenter lounging on a chair in a room filled with flowers and holding a card with the album's initials "M.B.F.",was made available for pre-order on July 8.[23] A third artwork variant—dubbed the "final" alternate—was unveiled on August 8,showcasing Carpenter hosting a dinner in a "sparkling" blue dress,while she "commands" five men,dressed in tuxedos;simultaneously,a bonus track for the variant,"Such a Funny Way",was announced.[24]
"Manchild" was released on June 5,2025,as the album's lead single. Co-written with Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff,both of whom had previously worked on Short n' Sweet,the song is a country-influenced pop song that lyrically adopts a playful tone as it critiques immature male behavior.[25][26] The single topped the charts in Ireland,[27] the United Kingdom,[28] the United States,where it marked Carpenter's second number-one on the Billboard Hot 100,[29] and top twenty internationally,including Germany,Norway and Philippines. A music video for the song was released on June 6 and was inspired by the fast-paced editing of movie trailers.[30]
Carpenter performed "Manchild" for the first time at Primavera Sound 2025 on June 6.[31] Starting on July 23,Carpenter began revealing track titles via social media posts of hand-selected fans posing with puppies.[32][33] She finished her Lollapalooza performance on August 3 with a teaser video for Man's Best Friend.[34] Carpenter held events in Los Angeles and New York where 26 fans each were given an exclusive listen to the unreleased album.[35][36] "Tears" was released as the second single in conjunction with the album,accompanied by a music video.[37]
Upon release,Man's Best Friend received generally positive reviews from music critics,who praised the production but thought the songwriting lacked depth.[50]According to the review aggregatorMetacritic,Man's Best Friend received "generally favorable reviews" based on aweighted average score of 75 out of 100 from 19 critic scores.[39] AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a score of 7.0 out of 10 based on 20 reviews.[38]
The Independent's Adam White concluded that "with Carpenter circling many of the same themes in her lyrics,the hit rate on Man's Best Friend is largely dependent on its song-by-song production." He opined that the writing would benefit from "keeping her songs in the oven a little longer," as much of it sounds like "a first draft".[44] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine named Carpenter "pop's proudest potty mouth," and criticized the lyricism's depth and dexterity,and felt it relied too much on expletives and puns. He added that "the sheer volume of her libidinous linguistics can be dulling."[48]Rolling Stone noted she was "break-up mode",as well as "sad but still horny and altogether self-aware". The publication further complimented Carpenter on her "innuendo-laden wit".[47]
The Guardian's Shaad D'Souza considered that even though "the over-reliance on profane language,the overstuffing of songs with innuendo,the vaudevillian hamminess is here in spades",everything else on the album "is so finely tuned,that it is easy to get over the occasionally lazy,internet-worn line ('I get wet at the thought of you / being a responsible guy') or the fact that many of these songs cover noticeably similar ideas."[43]The Times categorized the music as "surprisingly vanilla," with clumsy lyrics that fail to justify the daring imagery,concluding that the project is "far from a failure,but also far from a leap forward."[49]Clash complimented the production's expansive textures,highlighting the pop of "Manchild" and the sensual disco of "Tears" recalling Donna Summer.[51]The Hollywood Reporter highlighted "House Tour" as "the most groovy of the album and arguably the most fun."[52]Consequence's Kiana Fitzgerald reflected "where Short n' Sweet saw Carpenter breaking free from the middling pop field,Man's Best Friend is the singer's opportunity to immerse fully in the sound and style she's cultivated after finding herself across six albums."[41] In their review,Pitchfork felt that while the album showed Carpenter at her apex,they also felt the album began to "approach self-parody".[46]
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