By LoffMusic Editorial Staff
Sabrina Carpenter has done it again. After making “Espresso” a global phenomenon last summer, the pop star returns with “Manchild,” a perfect dose of irony, summer energy and addictive hooks that promises to dominate playlists and speakers alike.
On the road, sarcasm and gasoline
The music video for “Manchild”, released less than 24 hours after the single’s official release, is as much a visual journey as a conceptual one. Carpenter appears crossing desert landscapes in vans, shopping carts and vintage motorcycles, surrounded by himbos bathing in gasoline or smoking firecrackers as if they were cigarettes.
The aesthetic between the absurd and the cinematic accompanies the mocking tone of the lyrics, where Sabrina sings about “stupid, hopeless men,” with sharp lines like:
“Why so sexy if so dumb?”
The creative trident of the winning formula
Sabrina co-wrote “Manchild” with Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff, with whom she already worked on her album Short N’ Sweet. As she posted on Instagram:
“I wrote it on a random Tuesday, and it ended up being the best Tuesday of my life.”
Carpenter describes the track as “the sonic embodiment of a loving but weary gaze, like an eternal summer road trip.”
Summer queen two years in a row?
Manchild arrives just a year after “Please Please Please,” her first number one on Billboard Hot 100. Although “Espresso” didn’t reach the top, it was her most played song (over 2.2 billion times on Spotify), with 59 weeks on the Hot 100. In addition, Short N’ Sweet earned her two Grammys in 2025: Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.
Now, with dates confirmed at Madison Square Garden and Crypto.com Arena for the fall, Manchild is presented as the emotional soundtrack to a new stage of pop maturity loaded with sarcasm and freedom.
