Revisiting Emails I Can't Send (fwd:)

An updated ranking so I can finally sleep soundly at night.

Long time readers already know, but when Sabrina Carpenter’s album, Emails I Can’t Send, dropped I did a first impressions thoughts and ranking newsletter. It was posted within an hour of release, and it has driven me crazy ever since. I hate how it came out, and in retrospect consider it to have been a very bad idea to begin with. I couldn’t share concise thoughts because I did not know these songs! I would’ve deleted it, but it got decent engagement and I do things for the engagement, you know? You know. I had never intended to discuss music again after how that one turned out, but I do want to redeem myself a little and go on record with my actual thoughts about these songs. Ever since the deluxe tracks came out, I felt as though now is as good of a time as any.

In case you are unaware, I really like this album. I actually wouldn’t consider there to be a song I actively dislike. I wouldn’t say I loved them all at first listen, but over time they all have hit in different ways. Lyrically it’s the most definitively personal to Sabrina herself, and sonically she plays with different sounds that she hadn’t explored before. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a Pop Album, but it includes influences of so many different styles she hadn’t explored much before (country, disco even). It’s a different approach to her sound from the Singular era, which makes me excited to see what she does next in her music.

Before getting into the ranking, clearly I am no music expert. This is so subjective, I am not claiming which songs are the best and which songs are the worst.. I am just listing my personal preferences based on how they sound to my ears. I am not a critic, I don’t have a degree. This is just FUN, let’s have fun together. No drama!

RANKING.

17. Lonesome

Favorite Lyric : “Tell me I was more than a decent opportunity. Or will you tell me anything I wanna hear to control how you’re perceived?”

Before I even go forward, let me say, I am really struggling ranking this last. It might have some of the most cutting lyricism on the album. “If I fall in love with all my problems, will they leave me too?” Is one of the most insane opening lines I’ve ever encountered. Something I always loved about Emails I Can’t Send and its lyricism is how much it can read as a journaling of emotions, and I’d argue Lonesome is one of the most reminiscent of that style of writing. A fear of mine is that people will read this issue and assume I’m just ranking all of the slow songs near the bottom, and no! I love a ballad, I love a low-key slow song. I think the instrumental of this song just isn’t a noise I gravitate towards. It has the Western sad cowgirl sound to it, and I just don’t think that’s a sound I will ever personally prefer. The same lyricism with a different instrumental might have been higher for me, but I don’t dislike how it sounds now. I just don’t go out of my way to listen to this specific song outside of when I am listening to the album as a whole.

16. Bad For Business

Favorite Lyric : “He just makes me so crazy, I know everyone sees he’ll be the death of me.”

I have a mutual on Twitter who has this as their most favorite song, and I respect that. It wasn’t love at first listen, and it has also grown on me the least over any song on the album, but it’s still a very pleasant song to listen to. It’s sonically so relaxing in a way, it has a levitating effect on me. Unfortunately, this one just never really stood out as a heavy hitter on this album. It isn’t a style of song I gravitate towards, but it’s not a skip either. It has her place. It’s a very cute, happy, optimistic song, which I love for her! Nothing negative to say about her.

15. How Many Things

Favorite Lyric : “We talked until the sun came up, I wish we stayed just like we were up there.”

Long-time readers know, this is actually quite a drop for How Many Things. I think I ranked it within my top 5 upon first listen. It’s because, as I mentioned earlier, it has a very diary-like writing style, and stood out the most in terms of that lyricism on first listen. Wondering “how many things you think about before you get to me” is a feeling that I currently have, honestly. I’d imagine that’s a relatable sentiment to anyone, whether it be romantic or otherwise.  She sounds incredible on it, the music itself is pretty sounding. Forks and all, I really do like it. As time went by, other songs grew on me and, though I still do like it, it plays to the same effect from the first time I heard it. It isn’t a song I immediately go to relisten when I listen to Sabrina.

14. Emails I Can’t Send

Favorite Lyric : “Thanks to you I- I can’t love right, I get nice guys and villainize them.”

A lovely intro to the album. I was sharing that little clip left and right back when she first posted it. I love that she added that, “as they say in Chicago… he had it coming!” to the end of it. I love how it transitions into Vicious. It’s really just here because it had to be ranked somewhere, and I can’t quite justify having it higher.

13. Skinny Dipping

Favorite Lyric : “We’ll be thinking about how different we are from those scared little kids that had those arguments in your garage.”

I have a complicated history with Skinny Dipping. If you remember pre-release, I was hyping it up so much because I loved the snippets. Then it dropped, and it wasn’t an immediate favorite to me. I was one of the girls that loved the chorus, the bridge, the outro, but the verses didn’t click for me right away. Over time, though, I’ve grown to really appreciate it as a whole, and actually really love the overall progression of the song now. It builds up throughout, and I love the coming-of-age soundtrack sound it has. The transition from verse 2 into the pre-chorus is just so marvelous, I levitate. Again, it isn’t a song I gravitate towards when I revisit the album, but I get her vision now, and she sounds amazing, of course.

12. Fast Times

Favorite Lyric : “Tiptoeing past so many stages, but what the fuck is patience?” 

It’s funny, because they are completely different songs, but I feel similarly to Fast Times to how I felt about Skinny Dipping. I just mean Sabrina was teasing this song so much before release, posting TikToks and snippets so frequently building up to release, all of which sounded amazing, so when the single finally dropped… my momentum was kind of halted because I had heard so much of it already. But I do love this sound for her, the music video was iconic to me, and it really is just a very good song. In context of the album, it doesn’t manage to be one of my personal standouts, but it’s never been a skip to me. I always enjoy hearing it.

11. Opposite

Favorite Lyric : “I know now even if I tried to change, that somehow you’d end up with her anyways.”

If you remember the day the fwd: songs dropped, you might remember me declaring this as my most favorite new track. You might be shocked now to find it ranked 3rd out of the 4 fwd: tracks. You see, the thing is… although I feel the same way towards it, I love this song… the other two songs are just sooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooooooood to me. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about Opposite. I actually think, “If you wanted brown eyes, I could’ve got contacts,” is another one of those really strong examples of such a simple line feeling so straight-out-of-a-diary, a deep cutting line, just hiding in plain sight. Picking a lyric to single out actually proved to be very difficult, because it’s just a song that can be universal in feeling, despite being specific to her.

I guess from this point on this is where the songs, regardless of placement, have been considered “favorites” by me at one point or another. You can’t be mad where I ranked the songs now, because it comes from a place of love!!! I promise!!

10. Bet U Wanna

Favorite Lyric : “Bet you miss me, bet you're reminiscin', I bet you hate the way that you said goodbye and you still can't even tell me why. I hate the way that you left me dry, but I’ll keep that between you and I.”

This is a hit. It’s the most reminiscent of her Singular era, I’d say, and I love Singular era Sabrina. Some of my mutuals can attest but before this album came out I would recommend Singular Act II specifically to anybody that would listen to me, and I think this song fits into that style more than anything else on the album, which I appreciate. Though, I do think that’s also why I don’t have it much higher. It doesn’t stand-out as much for me, but I do always have a great time listening to it. A definitive Sabrina track, in a way, I think if I were to recommend someone to start getting into her music, I would use this song as an example because it is a good sample of (a lot of) her overall sound.

9. Already Over

Favorite Lyric : “I'll take three short hours over three long weeks pretendin' like we don't exist.”

Some close mutuals have called this their most favorite song on the album, but I’m not sure how popular of an opinion that is. Clearly it’s not my most favorite, but I do quite like it. It’s very country influenced and I actually think it suits her voice really well, I wouldn’t mind more of that from her. The bridge and outro are highlights of the album for me, and I like her little run in the pre-choruses, “saaaaAaaAme time HERE next… weekend… saaaAAaaaaAAy we won’t DO THIS… again…” just very fun to sing along to.

8. Because I Liked A Boy

Favorite Lyric : “It’s not internet illusion, just two kids going through it. You said I’m too late to be your first love, but I’ll always be your favorite.”

A definitive song for this era. I actually grew to really like Skin, but this felt like a much better reclamation of her narrative in terms of “response” songs. I also think this song has one of her stand-out music videos with a strong visual concept. The bridge really never fails to hit hard. A misunderstood hit to me.

7. Nonsense

 

Favorite Lyric : “WOKE UP THIS MORNING THOUGHT I’D WRITE A POP HIT!!!!!!”

I feel as though not having this in my top 5 will become a thing, but let it be known I am an original Nonsense stan. This top 7 are all songs that would make my all time favorite Sabrina song playlist. You can’t be mad it’s 7th, because don’t consider it to be 7th place, consider it tied for 1st. On any given day this top 7 could realistically be entirely shuffled. This is a hit. She woke up that morning, thought she’d write a pop hit, and that’s exactly what she did. Just silly goofy fun. When I first heard her sing, “oh it feels so good, I had to jump the octave!!!!” and she jumped the octave? Oh, I was obsessed then and there. I don’t stream the remixes as much, but I do love her lyric changes and additions throughout its evolution. Very fun time, and if I were ranking this based off the songs I’ve streamed the most, this would probably land in my top 3.

6. Things I Wish You Said

Favorite Lyric : “‘One day, I'll make sure you get a real apology.’ I waste my time, I waste my life on idiotic things, like things you never said- things you'll never say to me.”

I told one of my friends this was in my top tier of Sabrina songs, and he was baffled. I don’t know what to tell you, it makes perfect sense to me! Though I still consider Decode to be the perfect closing track, Things I Wish You Said fits seamlessly into the overall flow of the album as a fwd: track. This also just happens to be a song I can insert myself into quite easily, as a traumatized over-thinker who is kept up at night by things I wish had gone differently in past relationships. I’m the main character, you know this.

5. Read Your Mind

Favorite Lyric : “Double-checking, did I get the message in the way you intended? Got me second guessing when you sneak up on me, tell me that you need me in your life.”

I owe this song the greatest of apologies. I really slept on it in my first impression ranking. Second to last? I couldn’t have been serious! I think the problem was that, it’s such a dance song so at the time I was so invested in the beat and the music, but not the lyricism, so I started to forget how much I actually liked it. I have grown since then. I’m a different person than I was last year when I wrote my first issue. Sonically, it very well may be my favorite song on the album. I really love this beat, pace and overall sound for her music. It’s a song to sing and dance along to, and you know that is energy I love. I am sorry I was sleeping on her before, she’s a hit! Her little vocal moment in the last chorus. She cooked up something serious in that studio. Wouldn’t mind more of this style from her in future eras, and honestly, if I made the choices, this would’ve been a hit single.

4. Vicious

Favorite Lyric : “You don’t feel remorse, you don’t feel the effects, ‘cause you don’t think you hurt me if you wished me the best.”

When this first dropped on the timeline, I remember some mixed reactions to it, but over time I believe people got the overall vision. She was cooking, and not everybody was ready to hear her out yet, because this is one of her best songs. I truly do believe it! I won’t say this was an automatic favorite for me, but as I have learned, grown, and let this song marinate, I really can’t deny it anymore. It’s an all-timer. THE BRIDGE is some of her strongest work to date. But the verses are just as sharp in lyricism, the chorus. All around, it’s just a classic.

3. Feather

Favorite Lyric : “I got you blocked, excited to never talk, I… I’m so sorry for your loss!”

I knew this was a hit from first listen, but I thought it would kind of even out in the middle of my ranking… but then I just kept listening to it and listening to it. A completely infectious sound, I can’t get it out of my head. This will very well likely be my most streamed song of the year, truly. It has a similar post-recovery theme that Decode has, but with the same dance-pop/disco influence of Read Your Mind, and with such fun lyricism as well. It has everything I love in a Sabrina track. The first time I heard the bridge, I almost died. She was having fun with this one, and I stand by ranking it in my top 3! It’s a hit through and through.

2. Decode

Favorite Lyric : “There’s a weight off my shoulder now that I don’t chase you. Bein’ myself, did that emasculate you?”

This was a love at first listen track. It sounds stunning, and lyrically it is a perfect closing track for the album. The outro particularly closes the album so well. And not even just the song itself, the thematic journey of the album closes with this song so effectively. I genuinely consider this to be a perfect song just all around. Not much else to say about it. DONE LOOKING FOR SIGNS IN… THE GAPS IN THE SILENCE!!!!

1. Tornado Warnings

Favorite Lyric : “I deserve my own consideration, but sometimes I wish I kept some of my feelings in the basement so I'd still have some left.”

I know this is a perfectly well-liked song, but I don’t think anybody loves this song quite as much as I do. It gets her fair share of slander, some people don’t quite like her talk-singing or Julia Michaels pen, but I don’t care. This song speaks to me like no other. I think the lyricism is excellent (Verse 2 some of the best work on the album! The Pre-Chorus! The Chorus!!! The Bridge!!! The entire song, I suppose!!!!) Lyyyyyiiiiiing to my ther a pist!!!!!! I don’t know, this has been my favorite since the first listen, it feels so personal to me, myself. It’s hard to articulate what exactly it is about it, it’s just… my song. It’s part of my being now.

In conclusion, Sabrina Carpenter. My mutual. My sister. You will always be famous! I don’t know if I can safely call this my favorite Sabrina album… Singular Act II really got me through 2019, it was so serious to me… but I would consider this to be Sabrina’s current definitive album at this stage of her career. It speaks to her moment, and feels true to her in a way that hadn’t been seen before she released this. It also makes me excited for her future work, because I believe this to be just the beginning of her self-discovery.