Sabrina Carpenter will support The Vamps at Manchester Arena during their UK and Ireland tour. The singer released her second album EVOLution in October 2016.
EVOLution is the follow-up to 2015’s debut Eyes Wide Open, released when Sabrina Carpenter was still just 15 years old. Eyes Wide Open was fueled by youthful exuberance and irresistibly buoyant singles such as Eyes Wide Open and We’ll Be the Stars, the album reflected Carpenter’s life over the previous three years, during which she rose to fame playing rebellious Maya Hart on the Disney Channel hit series Girl Meets World.
Now, EVOLution marks a natural evolution (as the name suggests) in sound and style – catchy pop with fierce electronics, strings, heavy bass and shrewd lyrics. Pop veteran Steve Mac (James Blunt, Shakira) and Priscilla Renea contributed to the deceptively snappy “Thumbs.” Carpenter explains “‘Thumbs’ gave me this incredible “Black and Gold” vibe, along with lyrics that were so original.” She adds “I would have never have thought to look at my hands and write a song that’s about taking in the world and seeing that we’re all in this same life pattern.”
For the aptly titled EVOLution, Carpenter, who has been singing “since I opened my mouth,” sought to “work with people who are young and hungry — people like me.” She enlisted Ido Zmishlany (Shawn Mendes, NEEDTOBREATHE), with whom she’d co-written last spring’s pulsing, lovelorn single Smoke And Fire to collaborate on a number of tracks, including the album’s first single On Purpose, which segues from eerie, piano-driven verses to twinkling, soaring choruses. “He has one of those genius minds that allowed us to always take something and make it better, to really pop it,” Carpenter says of Zmishlany, who also teamed with her for the sinuous, jazz-tinged Feels Like Loneliness and the slyly percolating No Words.
Carpenter joined forces with rising Nashville tunesmith Jimmy Robbins for Run And Hide, another favourite. “I love how raw and acoustic that one is. We wrote it in an hour and a half with a guitar and a microphone attached to a computer. It’s about communication: Even though we have social media, it’s gotten worse in ways, because there are so many filters and things that come between us that aren’t real. I’m basically saying here that I want to get away from the false, to find the real people and feelings and not be afraid of the world.”
Sabrina Carpenter plays at Manchester Arena on 6 May 2017, supporting The Vamps.
