1. Background and recording

2. Composition and lyrical interpretation

3. Music video

4. Critical reception

5. Live performances

6. Track listing

7. Credits and personnel

8. Charts

9. Certifications

10. Release history

11. References

12. External links

"Thumbs" is a song recorded by American singer Sabrina Carpenter from her second studio album Evolution (2016), served as the third track of the album. The track was written by Priscilla Renea and its producer Steve Mac. The song was originally released by Hollywood Records as the third promotional single from Evolution on October 7, 2016, a week before the album's release. It was later released as the album's second single on January 3, 2017. "Thumbs" is an up-tempo electropop song with house and pop elements. Lyrically, the song talks about embracing individuality and rising above mediocrity.

It was accompanied by a music video directed by Hayley Young premiered on her Vevo channel on February 10, 2017. The music video was made in one take and it featured Carpenter and a lot of people in a subway. Carpenter promoted "Thumbs" with several live performances, including on Radio Disney Music Awards 2017, on The TODAY Show and on The Late Late Show. It was the first song by Carpenter with a chart impact and it peaked at number one on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. It was certified Gold by United States (RIAA) and Platinum by Norway (IFPI).

Background and recording

It was released initially as a promotional single and later released as a single. The song was written by Steve Mac and Priscilla Renea and was the only song in the album without Carpenter's writing credit. The song was the last recorded for the album, Carpenter says. "We'd finish the album, I then heard "Thumbs" which gave me these vibes of fame and black and gold and just like some of my favorite soulful songs."^[1] The song talks about embracing individuality and escaping mediocrity. She says that if people are falling into the same mistakes they are going to continue twiddling them thumbs, so they are going to live in the mediocrity. Carpenter describes the other songs on the album as "children" of "Thumbs".

Composition and lyrical interpretation

Musically, "Thumbs" is a three minutes and thirty-six seconds electropop song with pop and house elements. In terms of music notation, "Thumbs" was composed using {{Time signature|4|4}} common time in the key of C minor, with a moderately fast tempo of 135 beats per minute.^[2] The song follows the chord progression of Cm-Csus-C5-Csus-Cm–A{{music|flat}}-Fm/A{{music|flat}}-A{{music|flat}}-Fm/A{{music|flat}}-A{{music|flat}}-Fsus7-F7-B{{music|flat}}sus-B{{music|flat}}. Carpenter's vocal range spans from the low note F3 to the high note of G5, giving the song two octave and one note of range.^[2] The tempo has a Swing feel.^[2]

Lyrically, the song talks about embracing individuality and rising above mediocrity. The lyric “They gonna keep on twiddling them thumbs” is a metaphor that means wasting your time doing pointless things and never making any real progress.

Music video

The music video, which was directed by Hayley Young,^[3] was uploaded on her Vevo account on YouTube on February 10, 2017.^[4] The set of the music video is downstairs in a subway car and it was made in one take. The music video features Carpenter singing the song with several people inside the subway doing their daily tasks. When the idea of the video was being processed, Carpenter thought of a subway because it's where you find different people, the line "Somewhere in the world" represents that people.

Critical reception

Brittany Goldfield Rodrigues of ANDPOP said "the jazzy vibe of this song sold us, and the scatting just made us play it on repeat. With this tune Sabrina really makes us fall for her unique jazz vibes she sprinkles into her pop sound."^[5]

Live performances

Carpenter first performed the song on the Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles on August 25, 2016, along with other new music before the release of Evolution.^[6] She performed the song on Today on November 22, 2016.^[7] On April 17, 2017, she made her late night talk show debut by performing the song on The Late Late Show with James Corden.^[8] On April 29, 2017, she performed the song at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

• Recorded at Rokstone Studios (London, United Kingdom)
• Lead vocals recorded in North Hollywood, California
• Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City)
• BMG Gold Songs/Rokstone Music (ASCAP), All Rights Administered by BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)

• Sabrina Carpenter – lead vocals
• Steve Mac – songwriting, production
• Priscilla Renea – songwriting, backgorund vocals
• Chris Laws – engineering
• Dan Pursey – engineering
• Mitch Allan – lead vocals recording
• Phil Tan – mixing
• Chris Gehringer – mastering

Credits adapted from Evolution liner notes.^[10]

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

• {{MetroLyrics song|sabrina-carpenter|thumbs}}

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