Ranked: The 10 best Sabrina Carpenter bangers, since she just dropped a new one

What a year to be Sabrina Carpenter. You get the biggest song of the year, you bag the lad everyone loves from Saltburn as your boyfriend and you go viral every day for simply slaying. It’s quite the life, and it’s been a journey. I reckon a lot of people only got introduced to Sabrina Carpenter through the runaway success of Espresso – but her upcoming album Short n’ Sweet is actually her sixth album and she’s been dropping bangers for years now. With the release of her latest single Please Please Please, written and produced by Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, what better time to get the best 10 Sabrina Carpenter songs ever ranked?

If you’ve never dabbled deep with Sabrina Carpenter before, here’s exactly where you need to start.

BONUS: Thumbs

Not quite good enough to make it into the top 10, but I couldn’t do this list without mentioning Thumbs. Coming out in 2016, a baby Sabrina Carpenter gave us a single here that could wipe the floor with most Eurovision tunes if it ever competed. Camp! Ridiculous strings! A fun chorus! Huge belt near the end! It has it all, and it’s a little bit corny – but it was the first Sabrina Carpenter song I ever heard and you should all hear it too.

10. Sue Me

After Thumbs, it was Sue Me that got me right back in my Carpenter bag. I’m a huge Kim Petras fan, and Sue Me gives me Kim Petras with both its high school music video and the melody. The two’s vocals here sound identical to me. Perfect 2018 pop, and that big vocal near the end is stratospheric.

9. Read Your Mind

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How this was only an album track on Emails I Can’t Send is beyond me – it just sounds like a worldwide smash. It has the same bouncy jubilant sound that makes Espresso so irresistible. A proper disco swagger that makes not getting up to dance literally impossible.

8. Looking At Me

Again… NOT A SINGLE? We need strong words with The Carpenter on what she’s up to, because Looking At Me should have been huge. The final song on Singular Act II, the closer of the album echoes the brilliance of Havana by Camila Cabello with a brassy melody motif and a Latin sounding groove that works better than you’d expect on a Sabs Carps tune. It’s racked up over 200 MILLION streams, a feat considering it never got a video or a single push.

7. Please Please Please

The latest addition to Sabrina Carpenter top 10 songs ranked is the much hyped, much awaited Please Please Please. The sequel to Espresso takes a different switch sound wise, swerving the nudisco for a country tinged softer song that never loses what made its predecessor so special. Jack Antonoff at the helm with his trademark twinkly synths and lyrics almost as quotable as the mega smash lead – prepare to not be able to escape it all summer.

6. Nonsense

You’ve got to get a gimmick, and with Nonsense Sabrina Carpenter struck gold. The final single from Emails I Can’t Send, Nonsense has an Ariana charm to it that’s made all the better when it’s live and she performs the outro to the track with different lyrics each time. This makes the song feel like it’s got something unique every time, and the best and most recent one is what she laid down at BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend the other week: “BBC said I should keep it PG, BBC I wish I had it in me / There’s a double meaning if you dig deep.” Queen.

5. In My Bed

Kicking off the top five best ranked Sabrina Carpenter songs, Singular Act II’s raucous opener starts deceivingly quiet. A Selena Gomez vibed intro that builds slowly with minimal production into a lush pre-chorus that crescendos with the funkiest little chorus breakdown. A bop, a weave and a slay. Cherish it. Deserved to be huge.

4. Feather

The biggest hit Sabrina Carpenter had ever had until Espresso blew it out the water, Feather comes in hard with a groove from the off that shows this is a girl who means business – probably her first foray into main pop girl territory. Like the object the tune’s named after, Feather glides through the air with a cool confidence that buries its way into your consciousness with its heavenly, head voice melody, coos and ahhs. Never gets old.

3. Paris

Maybe it’s because I’m going to Paris next month, or maybe it’s because it’s the greatest song ever – I can’t think of a better way to kick off the top three Sabrina Carpenter songs ranked than Singular Act I’s Paris. That deliriously good guitar that opens the whole thing like a western, to the subdued chorus where she sounds perfectly over it – a proper cool girl anthem.

2. Fast Times

A song that sounds like no other in her catalogue, Fast Times boots right off with an urgent piano riff that doesn’t let up. The bizarre, Bossa nova tinged sound of it all helps Fast Times stand out in a very strong collection of singles and sounds like a pop star hitting her stride.

1. Espresso

A song so great I wrote 1000 words on why it’s so fucking perfect. It’s always a beautiful moment when a song that truly deserves to become a huge hit does so. One day I literally listened to it 30 times in a row, back to back. Not many songs have that power to never get boring, and Espresso nails everything it’s trying to do and more. It has a Doja Cat Kiss Me More era funk to it, coupled with lyrics that have no business working so great that have become quotable and legendary. It’s insane to think this song has only been in our lives a matter of months but will be an anthem that defines the year of 2024 forever. Goddess-presso.

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Related stories recommended by this writer:

• They just hard launched! The full Sabrina Carpenter and Barry Keoghan relationship timeline

• Sabrina Carpenter slammed for ‘copying’ artwork for new album cover Short n Sweet

• Memes, streams, popstar of dreams: How Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso took over the world

Featured image via Sabrina Carpenter on Instagram.