Man's Best Friend (Sabrina Carpenter album)

Man's Best Friend is the upcoming seventh studio album by the American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It is set to be released on August 29, 2025, through Island Records. The album's lead single, "Manchild", charted at number one in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Carpenter produced the track with Jack Antonoff, who also co-produced her previous studio album, Short n' Sweet (2024).

The cover artwork of Man's Best Friend generated controversy and significant media attention; some criticized it as appealing to the male gaze in a detrimental manner to women, while others saw it as a way to challenge misogynistic expectations of women's sexual behavior. In response, Carpenter released an alternate direct-to-consumer cover, which she described as "approved by God".

In 2024, Sabrina Carpenter made a commercial breakthrough with her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet, which garnered various achievements and became her first album to reach number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.^[1] It received multiple nominations at the 2025 Grammy Awards, winning Best Pop Vocal Album; its lead single, "Espresso", also won Best Pop Solo Performance.^[2]

On June 11, 2025, less than a year after the release of Short n' Sweet, Carpenter teased her next album in an Instagram Live in which she was "rifling through a stack of records by Donna Summer, ABBA and Dolly Parton, before landing on her own".^[3] A day after the album's announcement, Carpenter appeared on the front cover and cover story for Rolling Stone's July–August 2025 edition and revealed that the "slow and steady" writing sessions for the album started soon after Short n' Sweet was finished.^[4] She reflected on the consistent release schedules of her idols (such as Parton and Linda Ronstadt).^[4] Man's Best Friend is set to be released on August 29, 2025.^[3]

The album's cover artwork features Carpenter posed on hands and knees in a black mini dress and heels while an anonymous figure, cropped out of the frame, grabs her hair. Another promotional image showcases a dog with the album's name written on its collar.^[5] The cover received polarized responses and garnered controversy on social media.^[6][7][8] Some critics deemed it offensive and appealing to the male gaze in a detrimental manner to women.^[9] Glasgow Women's Aid, a charity providing support for victims of domestic abuse, called it "regressive" and "pandering to the male gaze and [promotion of] misogynistic stereotypes" with "an element of violence and control".^[10] Kuba Shand-Baptiste of The i Paper wrote: "At best, Carpenter's cover is a bad example of satire. It's titillating to those who do believe women are inferior".^[11] Arwa Mahdawi of The Guardian said the cover was "[not] subtle or sex-positive—it's just soft porn pandering to the male gaze", criticizing the concept of hair-grabbing as insensitive.^[9]

Others saw the cover as satire—a way to challenge "misogynistic expectations of women" and their sexual desires.^[11] Adrian Horton of The Guardian thought that Carpenter was "clearly working in the Madonna tradition of sexual provocation for provocation's sake, poking fun at tropes and people's prudishness with an alluring frankness."^[12] Dominique Sisley of Dazed wrote: "The idea that one image has that much influence, in an internet full of hardcore pornography, where men can now freely make deepfakes or use AI prompts to create a whole world of horrors, seems a bit delusional."^[13] Jessica Clark of Mamamia thought that Carpenter was "not reinforcing objectification, but rather skewering it."^[14] Helen Coffey of The Independent believed that the cover's detractors "know literally nothing about Carpenter, her music or her brand."^[15] Emma Specter of Vogue called the controversy the result of a "depressingly puritanical society".^[16] Taylor Crumpton of Time similarly stated that Carpenter "is not the problem. Our lack of orgasms is."^[17] Carly Simon, whose 1975 album Playing Possum received similar controversy, defended the cover, saying: "It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. [...] So I don't know why she's getting such flak."^[18]

Carpenter released an alternative cover artwork for the album for pre-order on June 25, jokingly responding to the controversy by stating that the alternative cover was "approved by God"; it depicts her in a gown at a formal event, grabbing onto a suited man's arm and looking off-camera.^[19] Some media publications thought that the cover referenced a 1957 photograph of Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband, Arthur Miller.^[20][21][22] A second alternate cover, featuring Carpenter lounging on a chair in a room filled with flowers and holding a card with the album's initials "M.B.F.", was made available for pre-order on July 8.^[23]

"Manchild" was released on June 5, 2025, as the album's lead single. Co-written with Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff, both of whom had previously worked on Short n' Sweet, the song is a country-influenced pop song that lyrically adopts a playful tone as it critiques immature male behavior.^[24][25] The single topped the charts in Ireland,^[26] the United Kingdom,^[27] and the United States, where it marked Carpenter's second number-one and first song to debut atop the US Billboard Hot 100.^[28] A music video for the song was released on June 6 and was inspired by the fast-paced editing of movie trailers.^[29] The video depicts Carpenter hitchhiking across the American West with a "diverse crop of men" (some of whom use strange modes of transportation, such as a jet ski, a shopping cart attached to a motorcycle, and a motorized recliner chair),^[30] and getting into wacky and dangerous scenarios (such as wielding a shotgun, falling off a cliff, and encountering an orca).^[31] Carpenter performed "Manchild" for the first time at Primavera Sound 2025 on June 6.^[32]

Track listing adapted from Apple Music.^[33]