Rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter released a festive Christmas album fruitcake on November 17, 2023. Carpenter’s career is skyrocketing, as she is opening for Taylor Swift’s Latin American leg of the Eras tour. Carpenter’s fifth studio album emails i can’t send has been trending since its release on July 15, 2022, gaining her 27,805,668 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Fruitcake consists of six songs and is 15 minutes and 46 seconds long in total. The first track, “A Nonsense Christmas,” is a holiday remix of one of Carpenters’ songs, “Nonsense.” The song is playful and upbeat, alluding to famous holiday figures such as Mr. and Mrs. Claus, Vixen, and Santa’s elves. The song steers far from other Christmas songs, making it less traditional and more targeted towards her young adult audience.
The next song is “buy me presents.” Carpenter sings about how men should spoil her like Santa. They should treat her like the star on the top of their tree, jokingly saying that if they don’t, Santa will. The instrumentals and lyrics of the song create a holiday-filled aura. The bridge of the song has a beautiful saxophone solo that stands out.
The next track is “santa doesn’t know you like i do.” Carpenter sings to the boy she likes, telling him no one knows him as well as she does. Throughout the song, the story evolves and the listeners learn that the boy she likes does not like her back. Carpenter wishes for Santa to make Carpenter’s love interest finally see she is the one for him. She goes to the extent of saying how Santa can’t bring him anyone better for him than herself. The music production and melody make this song seem like a happy love song, but looking closer into the lyrics, it turns out to be quite sad. Carpenter expresses how her love goes unnoticed even in the holiday season.
The fourth song is one of my all-time favorites. “cindy lou who” parallels the last song by featuring the same love interest. Her love interest finds love with another girl. Carpenter compares his new girl to Cindy Lou Who from The Grinch. Carpenter sings about how in a time of holly and jolly, she can’t help but feel sad and lonely. She obsesses over his new girlfriend, which leads to self-criticism. The lyrics in this song are gut-wrenchingly beautiful and capture how life for a teenage girl really is. The song is only two minutes long, which is a crime. I need a longer version of this song, since it is by far the best track on the album.
The fifth album track is “is it new years yet?”. This song examines how holidays are not as fun for single people. Carpenter pokes fun at other downfalls of the holiday season, such as annoying relatives and overplayed Christmas songs. She hopes that the new year comes quickly in order to help her stop missing her ex. This song embodies the popular phrase “new year, new me.” The catchy beat makes this song very lighthearted.
The final song on this album is “white xmas.” Carpenter modernizes this classic song with impressive vocal runs and top-tier production. Her vocals exceed expectations. Carpenter ends the song with a couple of lines from “Jingle Bells.” This is the most traditional song on the album, which I liked at the end.
Sabrina Carpenter is rising fast and earning her spot next to the best of the best. She will go down in history as a pop star icon.
