Carpenter, who wrote Espresso with its producer Julian Bunetta and songwriters Amy Allen and Steph Jones, told Vogue that she “saw a beach atmosphere” as soon as she heard it. For this reason, the playful video shows Carpenter picking up a credit card belonging to a man who has just fallen out of a speed boat, then enjoying an indulgent day at the beach as she is fanned by men holding palm fronds. Though the clip really captures what Stern describes as Carpenter’s “cheeky wink-wink persona”, he doesn’t necessarily believe it has been pivotal to Espresso’s success. “I think the song is what culturally took over, not the video,” he says.
What makes it sound so seasonal
It’s a song precision-tooled to sound “summery”. Music journalist and songwriter-producer Charlie Harding, who co-hosts a podcast about the making and meaning of pop music, Switched on Pop, says Carpenter’s vocals are “mixed to emphasise the breathiness that feels like a refreshing summer breeze”. Dr Joe Bennett, a musicologist at Berklee College of Music, notes that Carpenter’s “breathy delivery” is “offset with stacked [vocal] harmonies on every chorus,” including some that highlight particular phrases such as “this one boy”. He says this combines with “the handclap doubling the snare drum” to turn Espresso into “a song that invites the listener to join in”, which makes it even more infectious.
Harding also believes that Espresso’s cleverly layered production evokes a “nostalgia for summers past” that will chime with several generations of listeners. “Its sampled organic drums are reminiscent of 2000s hip-hop; the synth bass is straight out of 1990s R&B, the synth leads send you all the way back to the 1980s and the Nile Rodgers-style guitar parts are as shimmery as a 1970s disco ball,” he says. On a less forensic level, he suggests that “you can find the same midtempo summery production” in a more recent song of the summer contender: Miley Cyrus’s 2009 smash Party in the USA.
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Bennett classifies Espresso as part of the ongoing “disco revival” sparked by Daft Punk’s 2013 chart-topper Get Lucky and continued in more recent hits such as Dua Lipa’s Levitating (2020) and Lizzo’s About Damn Time (2022). He notes that Espresso’s “relaxed” tempo of 104 BPM is “pretty slow for a disco-influenced song”, but still “close” to several classics of the genre including Abba’s Take a Chance on Me and Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive. Meanwhile, Stern says the song’s “chilled disco groove” has “certain similarities” to Doja Cat’s 2020 smash Say So, which weaves strands of funk and disco into a frothy pop-rap banger.
Still, like all songs of the summer, Espresso is somehow more than the sum of its parts. As Harding points out, “every songwriter is looking to create the catchiest song with a compelling concept, memorable melody, unique production and some magical ‘it’ factor that sends it directly into the hearts of millions”. In Espresso’s case, this ‘it’ factor could be the fact that Carpenter feels like the right artist at the right time. Though she is still only 25, the Pennsylvania-born star has been releasing music for more than a decade, slowly growing a loyal and clued-up fanbase along the way.
