Bad Reviews

Album: Short n' Sweet (2025)
Charted: 87
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Sabrina Carpenter details her quick tempered, volatile boyfriend. Ignoring the flashing neon red flags and the chorus of well-meaning friends insisting she run for the hills, she stays put. Despite all the bad reviews he gets, love wins out.
  • The jaunty little pop ballad is the closing track on the deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet. Clocking in at 2:21, it's certainly short, reasonably sweet, but still not the briefest offering on the album; that honor belongs to "Dumb & Poetic," which makes its point in a brisk 2:13.
  • Carpenter wrote the song with Amy Allen, John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick. Ryan and Kirkpatrick also produced the track with Jack Antonoff. All of them contributed to multiple Short n' Sweet tracks.
  • As for the song's muse, who is this moody, tantrum-prone boyfriend? The answer is probably no one in particular. Rather than an ex with a particularly bad attitude, he's likely a mish mash of various real-life relationships; some lived, some witnessed, some entirely fabricated for the sake of a catchy hook. In the end, it doesn't matter who he is. What matters is that somewhere, someone is currently ignoring their best friend's texts about why they should break up, and this song is for them.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

JJ Burnel of The Stranglers

JJ Burnel of The StranglersSongwriter Interviews

JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.

Tim McIlrath of Rise Against

Tim McIlrath of Rise AgainstSongwriter Interviews

Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.

Tom Waits Lyrics Quiz

Tom Waits Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Pool balls, magpies and thorns without roses - how well do you know your Tom Waits lyrics?

Dan Reed

Dan ReedSongwriter Interviews

Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.

Amy Grant

Amy GrantSongwriter Interviews

The top Contemporary Christian artist of all time on song inspirations and what she learned from Johnny Carson.

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of WayneSongwriter Interviews

The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.