Can't Blame a Girl for Trying

Can't Blame a Girl for Trying is the debut extended play by American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was released by Hollywood Records on April 8, 2014. On music provider iTunes, it was later replaced by her 2015 studio album which included all four tracks. The EP was produced by Brian Malouf, Jim McGorman, Robb Vallier, Matt Squire, Steve Tippeconic, Scott Harris, John Gordon and Julie Frost.

Musically, the album has a folk sound with pop. Its production consists on guitars, piano, drums and keyboards. In general, the album talks about love and teenage problems.

Can't Blame a Girl for Trying produced two singles, "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying", released on March 14, 2014 and "The Middle of Starting Over", released on August 19, 2014.

Background and recording
Carpenter became heavily involved with the Disney Channel in 2013, making various appearances on soundtracks like "Smile" for the album Disney Fairies: Faith, Trust And Pixie Dust" and "All You Need", featured on the Sofia the First soundtrack. In that same year, Sabrina signed a record deal with Hollywood Records to release her own music. Sabrina was planning to launch an EP and then release a studio album, she released an EP with four tracks and then she released a complete version of the EP plus eight new tracks in the next year.

Sabrina start recording songs for the EP in 2013 when she was filming for Girl Meets World until 2014. She worked with various such as Brian Malouf, Jim McGorman, and Matt Squire. She recorded "White Flag" at SOMD Studio in Los Angeles, California with Larry Goetz making the engineering and Matt Squire making the audio mixing. "Best Thing I Got" was recorded at Gordon Studio DK and was mixed by John Gordon and Sune Haansbaek. The two singles of the EP, "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" and "The Middle of Starting Over" were both engineered by Chris Thompson and mixed by Malouf at Cookie Jar Recording in Sherman Oaks, California.

Music and lyrics
The final cut of Can't Blame a Girl for Trying contains four tracks. The album is a teen pop record full of acoustic and country vibes and it was compared to Taylor Swift's early albums. In all of the songs Sabrina talks about teenage love and issues. None of the songs were written by Sabrina.

Can't Blame a Girl for Trying begins with the title track "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" an acoustic guitar-pop folk song who talks about making mistakes and being foolish in love; Sabrina says that the song "perfectly described being a 13-year-old girl and being a teenage girl". The second song and single, "The Middle of Starting Over" has country and teen pop influences. The song talks about moving on, start all over again and forget the mistakes. "The Middle of Starting Over" was compared to Taylor Swift's work in her early albums.

A folk-pop guitar-driven ballad, "White Flag" talks about changes in our daily life and that none of the bad things we do will last forever. The last track of the EP, "Best Thing I Got" is a piano pop song with drums and guitar. Lyrically, the song talks about love and "being a non-perfect girl who wants life to be full of freedom and learning your own way of how to deal with problems".

Singles
"Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" is the lead single from the EP. It was released on March 14, 2014, onto iTunes and was premiered a day before exclusively on Radio Disney. The music video premiered on March 28. The song won a Radio Disney Music Award in the category "Best Crush Song."

"The Middle of Starting Over" is the second single. It was released on Radio Disney in July and it was available on August 19, 2014. The music video premiered on September 21.

Track listing

 * Notes
 * undefined signifies a co-producer
 * undefined signifies an additional producer
 * undefined signifies a vocal producer

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Can't Blame a Girl for Trying.

Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered at

 * Sherman Oaks, California (Cookie Jar Recording)
 * Los Angeles, California (SOMD Studio, The Lair)
 * Gordon Studio DK
 * Bernie Grundman Mastering

Performers and production

 * Sabrina Carpenter – vocals (all tracks)
 * Brian Gardner – mastering (all tracks)
 * Brian Malouf – drum programming (1); production, mixing, keyboards (1, 2)
 * Chris Thompson – engineering (1, 2)
 * Jim McGorman – glockenspiel, hand percurssion (1); acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass (1, 2); co-production, piano, keyboards (2)
 * Robb Valler – co-production, backing vocals (2)
 * Marc Slutsky – drums (2)
 * Daniel Kalisher – mandolin (2)
 * Michelle Moyer – backing vocals (2)
 * Matt Squire – production, mixing, all instruments (3)
 * Steve Tippeconic – additional production, all instruments (3)
 * Scott Harris – additional production (3)
 * Larry Goetz – all instruments, engineering (3)
 * John Gordon – production, mixing, programming, guitars, piano, additional instruments (4)
 * Sune Haansbaek – mixing, additional guitar (4)
 * Julie Frost – vocal production (4)
 * Kim Thomsen – drums (4)
 * Mikkel Riber – bass (4)

Design

 * Rebecca Miller – photography
 * Anabel Sinn – art direction, design
 * Enny Joo – art direction
 * Dave Snow - creative director