Fans shocked by Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘degrading’ new album cover

Sabrina Carpenter has revealed details of her new album overnight – but the striking cover photo has left many fans reeling.

Barely a week after she surprised fans with the release of a brand new single, Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter has delivered another bit of unexpected news: Her next studio album will be released in only a couple of months’ time.

But, according to some of her fanbase, the album cover is the real shocker.

Carpenter announced today that her seventh (!) studio album Man’s Best Friend will be released on August 29. She revealed the album cover on social media: A striking photo of Carpenter on her knees, in a short dress and heels, pawing at the leg of a man standing over her. He’s pulling on Carpenter’s blonde hair like a leash.

Sabrina Carpenter's ‘Man’s Best Friend’ album cover... I just hope she’s had her worming tablets.

Amid the fan excitement to be getting a new album from the star only 12 months after the release of her chart-topping record Short N’ Sweet, there’s also a discernible amount of shock: This is the album cover?

One fan under Carpenter’s Instagram post labelled the image “embarrassing,” others calling it “disgusting” and “degrading.”

“Girl is this a humiliation ritual,” one person asked.

“This pic is so embarrassing pick a new shtick,” another complained.

“I dont wanna see no man dragging you around by your hair mother please get up,” begged another.

Some fans even begged Carpenter to change the cover. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

The album will drop almost exactly a year after her breakthrough Short N’ Sweet. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Others even suggested to Carpenter that it wasn’t too late to change the cover, one fan writing: “Hey can we get a new cover that doesn’t suck? Feels very against the powerful busy woman character that you built up …”

Carpenter’s certainly striking while the iron is hot, dropping her next album hot on the heels of breakthrough record Short n’ Sweet, which still sits at number three on the ARIA charts almost a year after its release.

26-year-old Carpenter released her debut single way back in 2014, and while she achieved a few minor hits along the way, it wasn’t until last year’s world-conquering hit Espresso that she finally hit pop’s big leagues, a full decade into her career. That song is still charting inside the ARIA top 30, 60 weeks on from its debut.

Since then, she’s stacked up a slew of multi-platinum singles in a very short period: Please Please Please, Taste, Bed Chem and latest release Manchild, which is expected to debut at or near the top of the charts in most major markets later this week.

Carpenter opened up to her fans about the upcoming album release in an email sent out today to those on her mailing list.

“I didn’t plan on releasing a new record however when inspiration strikes, i go to the studio,” she wrote, saying she “tried not to overthink thr process this time” and was inspired by musical heroes like Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton and Donna Summer: “[I] was surprised to find so many of those artists i loved put out a new record every year for a long time,” she wrote.

“Can’t say that is or will be the norm for me but this time it really eased my mind about putting something out when it feels right!”

Originally published as Fans shocked by Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘degrading’ new album cover