After I greeted Sabrina Carpenter at NPR HQ for her Tiny Desk debut, her allure was instantly disarming. Effervescent with pleasure, she prolonged her hand, launched herself and complimented my outfit with real heat. You’d suppose this was one in every of her first “huge time” gigs, not an everyday efficiency for a pop veteran, having bought out arenas throughout the nation touring her now six time Grammy-nominated sixth album, Quick n’ Candy. That humility made me love her much more.
However Carpenter delivers excess of simply allure on this efficiency. Backed by her band, complimented with pedal metal and a string quartet, she reimagines her greatest hits from Quick n’ Candy, whereas sharing the tales in between songs of how these tracks got here to life. Opening with “Style,” strings serve up some playful pizzicato, earlier than Carpenter and her band transfer right into a lush, soulful model of “Mattress Chem.” Then everybody swaps their electrical devices for acoustic to carry out “Please Please Please” and “Slim Pickins.” Lastly, Carpenter closes with the viral favourite “Juno,” cheekily asking the viewers, “Have you ever ever tried this one?” earlier than sweeping her rear finish throughout the windchimes, incomes amusing from the room.
“After I first began [writing songs] it was kinda in a room like this — a room with very dry partitions and there is no reverb,” Carpenter displays on the prime of her efficiency. “However there’s one thing so actual and particular.” That authenticity set the tone for a memorable session with one in every of 2024’s greatest breakout superstars.
SET LIST
- “Style”
- “Mattress Chem”
- “Please Please Please”
- “Slim Pickins”
- “Espresso”
- “Juno”
MUSICIANS
- Sabrina Carpenter: vocals
- Haeun “hani” You: piano, keyboards
- Caleb Nelson: guitar
- Matt Park: pedal metal guitar
- Chris Johnson: drums
- Alexandra Simpson: viola
- Sarena Hsu: violin
- Yasmeen “YAS” Al-Mazeedi: violin
- Bobby Wooten III: bass
- Marza Merophi Wilks: cello
- Christine Noel Smit: background vocals
- MIA MOR: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producers: Ashley Pointer, Bobby Carter
- Director/Editor: Kara Body
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel, Wendy Li
- Audio Engineer: David Greenburg
- Manufacturing Assistant: Elle Mannion
- Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
- Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins