Is anyone else tired of sad girl pop? In recent years, the pop landscape has been flooded with Phoebe Bridgers and Lana Del Rey lookalikes, bringing us ballads that, while beautifully emotional, just wear the listener down after a while. The state of the world is depressing enough — we need escapist pop anthems to make us get up from our existential crises and dance. That’s why people latched onto Sabrina Carpenter’s lead single, “Espresso,” so strongly. From the track’s beachy, disco-pop sound to Carpenter declaring, “My give-a-fucks are on vacation,” “Espresso” filled the gap in the genre of feel-good music. Social media soon became addicted to “that me espresso” — whatever that truly means. With the subsequent release of Carpenter’s sixth studio album “Short n’ Sweet,” fans are confident that the five-foot-tall pop princess has brewed up a masterpiece.

Dipping into genres like country, hip-hop, folk-pop and indie-rock, Carpenter gives “Short n’ Sweet” a sense of variety while still maintaining its cohesion. She achieves this by including at least two songs on the album with similar influences. The otherwise experimental southern twang of “Slim Pickins” feels right at home when preceded by the subtle country essence of “Please Please Please.” “Good Graces” shares the same throwback rhythm and blues elements as “Don’t Smile.” As a stripped-down breakup ballad, “Dumb & Poetic” resembles “Lie to Girls.” Carpenter also makes sure to anchor the influences of most tracks in pop so they don’t stick out. For example, the brash electric guitar of “Taste” gives the song a certain edge without straying too far from its home in pop. Only “Coincidence” feels out of place in this regard. As fun as it is with its campfire-song charm, the folksy flare isn’t grounded enough in pop and therefore doesn’t fit as well in the album as a whole.

The star of the show is Carpenter’s lyricism. Her wit knows no bounds, turning her album into a pseudo comedy routine at times. She often weaponizes her humor against the idiotic and disloyal actions of certain men. In “Slim Pickins,” Carpenter rolls her eyes at men who “don’t know the difference between there, their and they are.” She confronts a cheating ex in “Coincidence,” exposing that he “drove [his] car from [Los Angeles]to her thighs.” Mixing humor with sexuality is a key part of Carpenter’s brand. Over the sensual groove of “Bed Chem,” she’s not afraid to crank up the goofy innuendos. Carpenter gives listeners no time to recover from one absurdly risqué line — “Come right on me, I mean camaraderie” — before she hits them with another — “Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?” Because of its strong focus on lyrics, however, the track falls short sonically. The same can be said for “Please Please Please” — the single’s cheeky, viral lyrics eclipse its rather forgettable synth-pop melody. On the other hand, “Juno” strikes the perfect balance between fun lyrics and hard-hitting sonics. Carpenter combines her never-ending double entendres with a sunny, pure-pop sound that, like “Short n’ Sweet” itself, leaves the listener floating on a cloud of optimism.