Sabrina Carpenter Says Her New Album Is 'Not For Any Pearl Clutchers'

American pop star Sabrina Carpenter has issued a warning to anyone who was hoping for a PG-13 collection of songs for her new album, Man’s Best Friend: it’s “not for pearl clutchers.”

On Thursday (28 August), CBS Mornings unveiled a clip of a new interview with the Espresso singer ahead of the album’s release today.

Carpenter dropped hints that the album is not for those who are sensitive to sexualised lyrics… unless they want to listen in private.

“The album is not for any pearl clutchers,” she told presenter Gayle King. “But I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.”

Responding to the description of her songs as sexual, but also “powerful” and “vulnerable,” Carpenter concurred, “I think that’s the thing, is sometimes people hear the lyrics that are really bold or they go, ‘I don’t want to sing this in front of other people.’”

She added, “It’s like it’s almost too TMI. But I think about being at a concert with however many young women I see in the front row that are screaming at the top of their lungs with their best friends, and you can go like, ‘Oh, we can all sigh [in] relief like, ‘This is just fun.’ And that’s all it has to be.”

Controversy has followed the rollout of Man’s Best Friend since Sabrina Carpenter made the album announcement in June, mainly directed towards the album cover.

The picture in question shows Carpenter in a black dress and stilettos, posing on her knees as a man in a black suit grips a fistful of her hair.

The album title itself could be ironic or satirical, but paired with the album cover and another image Carpenter posted of a dog wearing a collar with the tag “Man’s Best Friend,” she received criticism for an album rollout that could be demeaning towards women.

As Billboard notes, Carpenter has openly defended the sexualised nature of her lyrics in the past. In a June cover story with Rolling Stone, the singer began, “It’s always so funny to me when people complain … like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’”

She added, “But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly, you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.”

“This is just fun”: In an exclusive interview tomorrow, pop superstar @SabrinaAnnLynn tells @GayleKing how she embraces the provocative lyrics in her highly-anticipated next album, “Man’s Best Friend.” pic.twitter.com/DBWlGjXu2K

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) August 28, 2025