Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open was released on April 14, 2015, on Hollywood Records, marking Sabrina Carpenter's formal debut as a recording artist. Carpenter was fifteen at the time of release, already balancing a starring role on Disney Channel's Girl Meets World with a growing music career. The album, recorded primarily in Los Angeles between 2013 and 2015, spans 12 tracks in a style critics described as folk-pop and teen pop with acoustic and country-influenced touches.^[1]

The album debuted at number 43 on the US Billboard 200 and number 31 on the Top Album Sales chart. Its two singles were "We'll Be the Stars" (January 2015) and the title track "Eyes Wide Open" (April 2015), the latter winning the 2016 Radio Disney Music Award for Best Anthem.^[1]

Critical reception was divided. Headline Planet praised it as "decidedly loose in construct but rich in personality," calling Carpenter one of "the most promising and emotionally authentic young artists in mainstream pop."^[2] AllMusic described it as a "confident, peppy debut" with "sweetly tart" vocals, noting her strongest moments came when she allowed glimpses of her "old soul."^[3] More dismissive reviews compared her sound to a derivative early Taylor Swift.^[4]

The album closes with "Best Thing I Got," a piano-driven song with jazz influences recorded at Gordon Studio DK in Denmark. It was the only track on the album recorded outside of Los Angeles, and had appeared earlier on Carpenter's debut EP Can't Blame a Girl for Trying (March 2014).^[5]

Despite its modest chart success, the album received minimal physical investment from Hollywood Records. In a 2025 interview with music journalist Nardwuar, Carpenter learned that only 200 vinyl copies of the album had ever been pressed. Her response was unvarnished: the label, she said, had not really cared about her.^[6] That moment recontextualized the album for many listeners, highlighting how the songs had found their audience despite, rather than because of, the promotional apparatus around them.