Taste (Sabrina Carpenter song)

In January 2021, Sabrina Carpenter signed a recording contract with Island Records.^[1][2] She announced that she was working on her sixth studio album in March 2024, exploring new genres and expecting that it would herald a new chapter in her life.^[3][4] In anticipation of her performance at Coachella, Carpenter announced that a single called "Espresso" would be released on April 11, 2024.^[5] The song was a surprise success, becoming her first number one single on the Billboard Global 200 chart and her first song to enter the top five on the Billboard Hot 100.^[6][7] She followed this with "Please Please Please" on June 6, 2024, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.^[8]

Preceding an official announcement, billboards bearing tweets about Carpenter's height began appearing throughout New York City.^[9] On June 3, 2024, she announced that the album, titled Short n' Sweet, would be released by Island Records on August 23, 2024, and revealed its cover artwork.^[10] The tracklist was revealed on July 9, 2024.^[11]

Carpenter wrote the song "Taste" with songwriters Julia Michaels and Amy Allen and its producers John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick, with Julian Bunetta also contributing to production.^[12] The song served as a single alongside the album's release.^[13] According to Paper's Erica Campbell, it features Carpenter candidly addressing the complexities of relationship issues with the lyrics: "I've been known to share. You'll just have to taste me when he's kissing you". When asked about the song's bold topic in the interview, Carpenter said, "I will write any song. It doesn't mean I'll put it out, but I'll write it. I think the series of unfortunate events I've encountered in relationships are no secret to people who know me or think they know me."^[14]

"Taste"

A sample of "Taste", with timed text, a song combining various pop and rock subgenres and infusing disco melodies with country-tinged vocals.

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"Taste" is two minutes and 37 seconds long.^[15] Ryan and Bunetta programmed the song, and they produced it with Kirkpatrick. Ryan and Bunetta play guitar, bass, drums, and percussion, and Aaron Sterling plays drums. Ryan and Jeff Gunnell recorded the song at the Perch in Calabasas, California, Juicy Hill Studios in the Bahamas, and the Playpen in Calabasas, California; Serban Ghenea mixed it at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach with engineering from Bryce Bordone; and Nathan Dantzler mastered it with assistance from Harrison Tate.^[12] "Taste" has been labeled as a pop,^[16] glam-pop,^[17][18] country pop,^[19] pop rock,^[20] rock,^[21][22] indie rock,^[23] and slacker rock song.^[24] According to Billboard's Jason Lipshutz, it "fuses rock guitar, country-tinged vocals and disco melodies".^[16] Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times described the song as a mixture of "'80s pop gloss and '90s country sass".^[25]

This song is composed in the key of E♭ major, with a tempo of approximately 113 beats per minute (BPM).^[26]

Lipshutz believed that being a "deliriously likable potpourri of pop styles", "Taste" deserved to be chosen as the album's third single. He went on to describe the song as an "electrifying anthem" whose breakdown was perfectly designed for Carpenter to perform on an arena tour.^[16] Including it in The New York Times's list of the most notable tracks of its release week, Zoladz shared a similar opinion and believed it continued the "winning streak" established by its preceding singles.^[25] Tom Breihan of Stereogum felt that "Taste" was "about to be another hit".^[27] Jem Aswaf of Variety said that the song "could be an alt-rock anthem if the guitars were louder".^[28]

"Taste" debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 issued for September 7, 2024. The song was joined by "Please Please Please" at number three and "Espresso" at number four, making Carpenter the only act other than the Beatles to chart their first three top five hits in the region during the same week.^[29] The song charted at number two on the Billboard Global 200.^[30] In Canada, "Taste" entered at number four on the Canadian Hot 100 issued for the same date.^[31]

In the United Kingdom, "Taste" debuted as Carpenter's third number one on the UK Singles Chart, with "Please Please Please" and "Espresso" appearing at numbers two and three respectively, during the same chart week. This made her the first female and third overall artist to earn Britain's number one album and single simultaneously while also occupying the single chart's top three.^[32][33] All three songs held their positions the following week, making Carpenter the only act other than Ed Sheeran to occupy the top three for two consecutive weeks.^[34]

In Australia, "Taste" entered at number one, followed by "Please Please Please" and "Espresso" as Carpenter occupied the entire top three.^[35] In New Zealand, "Taste" debuted at number two on the New Zealand Singles Chart.^[36] It also reached the top fifteen on national record charts at number one in Ireland,^[37] number two in Norway,^[38] number three in The Netherlands, number four in Singapore,^[39] number five in Malaysia,^[40] number eight in South Africa,^[41] number nine in Sweden,^[42][43] number eleven in Denmark,^[44] and number twelve in Latvia.^[45] However, it was less successful in some European nations, otherwise to "Espresso" and "Please, Please, Please", including France, where the song debuted and peaked at number 58, becoming her third entry but also her lowest debut in the country until "Manchild", who would drop the next year. The song stayed 26 weeks and certified gold.^[46] Alongside with France, "Taste" entered lowly in Moldavia, Romania and Italy, failing to enter in the top 50 equally.

The music video features appearances from American actress Jenna Ortega (left) and Canadian actor Rohan Campbell (right).

Dave Meyers directed the music video, which features Jenna Ortega and Rohan Campbell. In a teaser that Carpenter posted online, she picks up a knife from a bed filled with weapons and walks into a house. She heads upstairs, where she finds Ortega in the shower with Campbell. Carpenter pulls back the shower curtain and goes to stab Ortega, who is visibly terrified. The screen cuts to black and Carpenter uses the knife as a mirror to fix her lipstick while singing, "Oh, I leave quite an impression."^[13][47]

The music video was inspired by Robert Zemeckis's 1992 film Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, which carries a similar premise. The murder sequences and costume choices also make explicit visual references to Psycho (1960), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), Addams Family Values (1993), Ginger Snaps (2000), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Scream 4 (2011).^[48]

The video starts with Carpenter singing a lullaby, preparing to kill her currently asleep target. She then breaks into the house of her ex-boyfriend (Campbell), planning to attack his new girlfriend (Ortega) with a machete. Ortega sets up a decoy in a bed and ambushes Carpenter, shooting her out of a window, where she is impaled on a fence. Carpenter then throws a knife at Ortega, which stabs her in the eye. This kicks off a gory battle between the two, featuring hospital defibrillators as weapons, voodoo dolls, and Ortega severing Carpenter's arm after the latter catches her in the shower with her boyfriend. Near the end of the video, while Ortega is kissing her boyfriend, the camera rotates around them and she finds herself hallucinating herself kissing Carpenter. Horrified, she promptly lashes out with her chainsaw, only to accidentally kill the boyfriend, failing to realize her mistake until Carpenter rushes out to watch him drown in the pool. At his funeral, the two women agree they are better off as friends than as rivals, and humorously discuss how insecure the victim was.^[49]

Carpenter performed a medley of "Taste", "Please Please Please", and "Espresso" at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on September 11, 2024.^[50][51] The performance began with an audio sample of Britney Spears's song "Oops!... I Did It Again" (2000).^[52][53] Perched on a massive diamond suspended high above the stage, Carpenter began performing "Please Please Please"^[54] as silver confetti cascaded around her. She touched down on a futuristic set where an astronaut and a blue-skinned alien performed a dance to "Taste". The provocative choreography included a moment where the alien playfully lifted a leg onto the astronaut's shoulder before Carpenter took centre-stage, pulling the astronaut aside and kissing the female alien. Stripping off the high collar of her silver-studded outfit, Carpenter strode down the catwalk while singing "Espresso", surrounded by helmeted dancers performing space-themed routines under neon signs and visuals of a giant Moon Person extending into the crowd. The performance concluded with Carpenter reclining into a group of dancers, inspired by Marilyn Monroe.^{[55][56][57][58]} Entertainment Weekly's Lester Fabian Brathwaite and Vogue's Hannah Jackson thought Carpenter channeled Spears, Monroe, and Madonna on the Blond Ambition World Tour.^[59][60] The song has also been included as the opening of Carpenter's sixth headlining tour, the Short n' Sweet Tour (2024–2025).^[61]

On February 6, 2025, American singer Poppy performed a cover version of "Taste" live at Like a Version, with interpolation from Divinyls' song "I Touch Myself".^[62] British singer Beabadoobee covered the song and performed it at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in October 2024.^[63]

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Short n' Sweet.^[12]

Recording and management

• Recorded at The Perch (Calabasas, California), Juicy Hill Studios (The Bahamas) and The Playpen (Calabasas, California)
• Mixed at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach)

Personnel