We’ve always lived in a world filled with funny pop songs, but funny pop singers are much harder to come by. Maybe that’s because going for laughs and being taken seriously as an artist don’t often square in our cultural imagination, and maybe that’s why Sabrina Carpenter seems to be inventing a new kind of stardom right now.

Has any singer occupying this stratum of fame ever committed themselves to being funny at all times? The framing matters here. We’re not talking about another Lonely Islander setting jokes to music. We’re talking about a one-woman Abba who’s more concerned with comedy than dancing. It’s the kind of work that requires brains, lungs and guts – something Carpenter proves throughout “Man’s Best Friend,” a new album so unrelenting in its pursuit of laughter, you might not

See Full Page