Photo: Kevin Mazur / 2020 MTV Movie & TV / Getty Images
It takes three for the love triangle, and we finally hear from the third in the course High School Musical: The Musical: The Series drama. A quick recap if you have somehow avoided this story so far: HSMTMTS star Olivia Rodrigo releases her debut single, “Carteira de Motorista”; seems to address his split from co-star Joshua Bassett, who is reportedly now dating his young adult star Sabrina Carpenter; Bassett releases his own song, “Lie Lie Lie”, the following week, less specific, but seen by fans as an answer; “Driver’s license” debuts first in the “Hot 100”. Now Carpenter has released his new song, “Skin”, giving us a third consecutive Friday of decoding lyrics.
Unlike his supposed boyfriend (they are not yet official), Carpenter gave us some clear references to work on his synth bop pop. “Maybe then we could pretend / There is no gravity in the words we write”, she sings in the first verse. “Maybe you didn’t mean it / Maybe ‘blonde’ was the only rhyme.” Carpenter comes up with a very clear answer to Rodrigo’s reference to “that blonde girl”, who was thought to be Carpenter, in “Driver’s license”. But that isn’t even Carpenter’s smoking gun. On the bridge, she sings, “Don’t go crazy / It won’t always be like this”, seeming to check the name of Rodrigo’s song and clarify that “Skin” is a direct answer.
The rest of the lyrics for “Skin” may be less clear references, but that doesn’t make them any less direct for Rodrigo. “You are saying how you see / How the truth is all you decide,” sings Carpenter in the second verse. “You’re putting me in the spotlight / But I’ve been under it my whole life,” she adds, referring to her much longer career, which includes a leading role in Girl Meets World and four studio albums. And then there’s the chorus, which sounds like a primordial flexion by Rodrigo: “You can try / Tuck it under mine, under mine, under my skin / While he’s in mine / Yes, everything in me, everything in my skin.” Carpenter did not comment directly on the subject “Skin” – leaving us, as the woman herself sings, “to read between the lines”.
Update, 17:10: there is still no confirmation of their relationship, but Bassett have expressed his support for Carpenter’s new song. “I’ve been stuck in my head since I heard that !!!” he wrote in his story on Instagram, posting the cover art under “Skin”. “Congratulations @sabrinacarpenter for the ‘skin’, the new label and everything to come !!!” As for Rodrigo? ANaccording to your Instagram story, she prefers to hear “… Ready For It?” Taylor Swift