One fan under Carpenter’s Instagram post labelled the image “embarrassing”, others calling it “disgusting” and “degrading”.
“Girl is this a humiliation ritual,” one person asked.
“This pic is so embarrassing, pick a new shtick,” another complained.
“I dont wanna see no man dragging you around by your hair mother please get up,” begged another.
Others even suggested to Carpenter that it wasn’t too late to change the cover, with one fan writing: “Hey can we get a new cover that doesn’t suck? Feels very against the powerful busy woman character that you built up …”
Carpenter’s certainly striking while the iron is hot, dropping her next album hot on the heels of breakthrough record Short n’ Sweet, which still sits at No 3 on the ARIA charts almost a year after its release.
Carpenter, 26, released her debut single way back in 2014, and while she achieved a few minor hits along the way, it wasn’t until last year’s world-conquering hit Espresso that she finally hit pop’s big leagues, a full decade into her career. That song is still charting inside the ARIA top 30, 60 weeks on from its debut.
Since then, she’s stacked up a slew of multi-platinum singles in a very short period: Please Please Please, Taste, Bed Chem and latest release Manchild, which is expected to debut at or near the top of the charts in most major markets later this week.
Carpenter opened up to her fans about the upcoming album release in an email sent to those on her mailing list.
“I didn’t plan on releasing a new record however when inspiration strikes, i go to the studio,” she wrote, saying she “tried not to overthink thr process this time” and was inspired by musical heroes like Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton and Donna Summer: “[I] was surprised to find so many of those artists i loved put out a new record every year for a long time,” she wrote.
“Can’t say that is or will be the norm for me but this time it really eased my mind about putting something out when it feels right!”
