I know this came out almost three weeks ago, but it’s going to be 82 degrees in New York today and it’s fair to say that Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is currently in pole position to be this year’s song of the summer. The luxury nu-disco tune’s got its hooks in me, and if you have a peripheral awareness of the phrases “That’s that me espresso” or “I’m working late/’Cause I’m a singer,” you’ll realize it has also wormed into the brains of thousands of others.That’s part of what makes “Espresso” such a deliriously good pop song: It’s so unselfconsciously weird. What do you mean That’s that me espresso? Why are you saying I Mountain Dew it for ya? Oh, you’re working late because you’re a singer? That line is sung so matter-of-factly she turns it into some ancient cosmic truth about singers and the hours they keep. In this way “Espresso” recalls the ESL lingo of so many ’80s Italo-disco records, whose words evoke feeling more than denote meaning. But Carpenter also has a perfect turn of phrase with “Walked in and dream-came-trued it for ya,” the kind of line that most pop writers will spend their careers trying to come up with.The music—produced by Julian Bunetta, who helmed many One Direction songs—makes me think of a beefed up, sunny inverse of Carly Simon’s 1982 club hit “Why,” which featured disco legends Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic on the track. “Espresso” moves with that same sense of reggae uplift, and we already know Carpenter knows her way around a Carly Simon tune. Pop’s disco revival is wearing a bit thin, but if you can do it with this much élan, this kind of cleverness, this singularly fizzy and bizarre vibe, maybe it can last just one more summer.
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