Sabrina Carpenter has no desire to take care of any grown men. Just her luck, though, she’s being pursued by a “Manchild” in her flouncy new single. The song’s a common lament for women in their 20s; all the boys they meet are stuck in a state of extended adolescence, leaving them with few options for mature, stable relationships (and plenty of opportunities for careless flings that get old fast). “Why so sexy if so dumb? / And how survive the Earth so long?” she wonders of her latest dalliance. “If I’m not there, it won’t get done / I choose to blame your mom.”
“Manchild” is the first new Sabrina Carpenter single since the runaway success of her last album, Short n’ Sweet, which launched her into superstardom behind the juggernaut success of its single “Espresso.” Carpenter teased the new song with a video snippet earlier this week, suggesting that she could be at the beginning of a new album rollout. After putting quotes from the song on billboards, she confirmed the song with an Instagram post in which she declared that “this one’s about you!!” Who the “you” is remains to be seen, but I’m sure he’s somewhere questioning all the life decisions that brought him to this point.
In another post, Sabrina explained the song, writing, “i wrote manchild on a random tuesday with amy and jack not too long after finishing short n’ sweet and it ended up being the best random tuesday of my life. not only was it so fun to write, but this song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life. it sounds like the song embodiment of a loving eye roll and it feels like a never ending road trip in the summer ! hence why i wanted to give it to you now- so you can stick your head out the car window and scream it all summer long! thank you always and forever for listening and thank you men for testing me!”
You can listen to “Manchild” above.
