First Listen preview: Sabrina Carpenter hits the highway on Fast Times

Following a big breakout year in 2021, Sabrina speeds ahead on her genre-bending new single.
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Sometimes, you just have to let life take you into the fast lane, even if those higher speeds carry more danger than you'd anticipated.

This is the problem that Sabrina Carpenter faces on her confidently genre-fluid new single, Fast Times, which sees her rollick through the beginning of a relationship in high gear; "you speak in such a perfect cadence, tip-toeing past so many stages, but what the f*ck is patience?"

And if there is one thing Fast Times is not, it's patient. It's very keen to get going and is constantly shifting. Initially, it carries a baroque, chamber-pop sound reminiscent of the more bombastic cuts from Lana Del Rey's influential album Born To Die and Fiona Apple's morose debut, Tidal. 

But Fast Times isn't content with just staying in one lane. It has to swerve - both lyrically ("give me a second to forget I ever really meant it") and sonically. The track naturally evolves as it travels down the highway, before reaching it's final form with a flourish of post-disco violins and a funky electric guitar solo before its full-throttle climax. 

MORE: Sabrina Carpenter's Official Charts history in full

Fast Times is also very different to what we've heard from Sabrina's forthcoming fifth album. It doesn't have the headline-ready narrative of Skin, or Skinny Dipping's surprise pivots, but it is fast and it is fun, and ultimately you understand how freeing making this music must have been.

This is the type of material you release when you've released yourself of all the pressure of having a hit (which is, as we know, how most hits are actually made).

"These are the fast times," Sabrina declares, and it's both a celebration and a lament. That's the thing about speed - it catches up to you when you inevitably tire out. No-one can run so fast forever. 

Fast Times is out this Friday (February 18) via Polydor.

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Aqua

1

welp Olivia Rodrigo STANS Exist so what is the point

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Greg

0

Great...another Disney star out to "break away from their squeaky-clean image." SHOCKING! How many does that make? About 4 million at last count...

D

drew

1

she hasn't been on Disney Channel in 5 years sweetie. that's literally not what she's doing but ok. clearly you didn't read the article

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Greg

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Let me clarify: former Disney star (which, if you noticed, has now been edited out of the article - SOMEONE demanded THAT change). Clearly, if a young lady's putting out music like this, she's not on Disney anymore. My point is that the whole "I used to be kid friendly, now I'm gonna twerk all day long" thing is getting old. You don't think "artists" like this one aren't completely manufactured? The career trajectory is old school cliche: from Can't Blame a Girl for Trying (because you have to cater to the tweens) to Skin/Skinny Dipping/In My Bed (because she finally hit 18). Someone's trying too hard.

JG

Jane G

1

There’s nothing wrong with rebranding her image. She’s 22 now, of course she’s going to shift her image as more adult and a bit more sexualized since that is what adults do. If you expected her to keep her squeaky clean image from her “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” era then that is just not going to happen because she’s matured and that’s not the demographic she wants to target anymore. Plus, the fans that started with her from a young age, has matured along with her.

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Greg

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Anyone can like her (or love her), and that's fine. It would be ridiculous to keep the squeaky-clean image, that's true. But, let's not kid ourselves, she's no more or less a "brand" than she used to be. She's yet another Disney product who figures (and has been told by managers, producers, agents, label heads) the only way to the top is a raunchier act. And she's nailing it, I'll give her that much. Of course, it's all in service of girl-power or whatever. But, there's no going back, even if she wanted to. Because then all of this would go away.