Sabrina Carpenter announced her new album Man’s Best Friend on Wednesday, but the cover art for the upcoming release sparked fierce criticism from fans.
During an Instagram Live, the 26-year-old pop singer shared a video of herself flipping through a stack of records by Donna Summer, ABBA, and Dolly Parton, before stopping on her own, revealing Man’s Best Friend.
The teaser gave a peek at the album cover, showing Carpenter on all fours while a person dressed in black slacks — whose face is not visible — pulls her blonde hair.
She also posted a close-up image of a heart-shaped dog collar engraved with Man’s Best Friend.
The highly sexualized and provocative album art quickly drew backlash.
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Sabrina Carpenter announced her new album Man’s Best Friend on Wednesday, but the cover art for the upcoming release sparked fierce criticism from fans
Sabrina gave a peek at the album cover, showing her on all fours while a person dressed in black slacks — whose face is not visible — pulls her blonde hair
She also posted a close-up image of a heart-shaped dog collar engraved with Man’s Best Friend
‘Pathetic. Wtf is she thinking,’ one critic wrote, while another commented, ‘Dumpster humanity.’
A third added, ‘I get she’s going for transgressive but this is the opposite of transgressive in this era,’ before concluding, ‘She looks dumb.’
Yet another said, ‘Cringe.’
Naturally, some fans were thrilled by the album cover and the new music announcement.
‘Sabrina is coming for album of the year, artist of the year, pop vocal album, all of it and I’m here for it,’ one fan enthused.
Another added, ‘Man’s Best Friend is saving my life and it’s not even out yet.’
Last week, Carpenter dropped the lead single from the upcoming album, titled Manchild.
It was co-written with Jack Antonoff, a longtime collaborator who is also well known for his extensive work with Taylor Swift.
The highly sexualized and provocative album art quickly drew backlash
‘Pathetic. Wtf is she thinking,’ one critic wrote, while another commented, ‘Dumpster humanity’ (seen in March)
The track quickly climbed to the top spot on both the Spotify U.S. and Global charts.
Her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, is set to release nearly a year after her previous chart-topping project, Short n’ Sweet, which came out last August.
All three singles from Short n’ Sweet — Espresso, Please Please Please, and Taste — achieved the rare feat of entering Spotify’s Billion Streams Club.
The album sold 10 million copies worldwide and earned Carpenter six Grammy nominations as a first-time nominee.
She won two awards: Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance for Espresso.
Meanwhile, when Sabrina announced Manchild last week, she seemed to deliver a sharp dig at her ex Barry Keoghan.
She cryptically captioned the announcement with, ‘This one’s about you!!’
Sabrina and Barry began dating in December 2023 before going public with their romance during their joint appearance at the Met Gala in May 2024.
And the star seemed to take a dig at her ex as she penned: ‘this one’s about you!! “Manchild” is out this Thursday 6/5 8pm EST♥️’
Sharing some of the lyrics, they read: ‘Inside of your head when you’ve just won an argument with a man’
Barry previously starred in the singer’s music video for her single Please, Please, Please (pictured)
The pair were said to have split in December however it was reported in the August that they were on and off.
Barry was hit by claims he cheated on the hitmaker.
However, a source told Us Weekly the actor was ‘very devoted to her happiness’, but that they are ‘at different places in their lives.’
The insider further divulged that it’s been ‘challenging for their relationship since she started going on tour and has been gone a lot’ and that ‘their schedules were not aligning.’
‘All the time spent apart it was hard to maintain a relationship amid her career exploding.’
Another insider told the publication that the breakup happened within ‘the last month’ because of their busy schedules.
It was noted that there’s no bad blood between the ‘cordial’ pair and their split was ‘not contentious.’
When previously asked by Rolling Stone if she refers to Barry as her boyfriend she said: ‘How do I skirt around this question?’.
‘The [dating] pool is the pool, and when you meet people that feel authentic and are so brilliant and amazing in every way, that’s what you do. Obviously, I write songs about exactly how I feel, so I guess I can’t be so surprised that people are interested in who and what those songs are about.’
She concluded: ‘That’s something that comes with the territory.’
