[1][2] She announced that she was working on her sixth studio album in March 2024, exploring new genres and expecting that it would herald a new chapter in her life.
[8] Preceding an official announcement, billboards bearing tweets about Carpenter's height began appearing throughout New York City.
[9] On June 3, 2024, she announced that the album, titled Short n' Sweet, would be released by Island Records on August 23, 2024, and revealed its cover artwork.
Mikey Freedom Hart, David Hart, Jack Manning, Laura Sisk, and Oli Jacobs engineered "Slim Pickins" with assistance from Joey Miller and Jozef Caldwell; Serban Ghenea mixed the song at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach with engineering from Bryce Bordone; and Ruairi O'Flaherty mastered it.
In the chorus, the narrator resigns herself to settling for someone less ideal to satisfy her needs, lamenting that good suitors are either unavailable or already taken, vowing to continue voicing her dissatisfaction.
"[16] American Songwriter's Alex Hopper believed that with "Slim Pickins", Carpenter created the ideal song for the dilemma of searching for the right partner amidst a crowd of wrong ones, encapsulating a feeling that many people experience.
"[29] Teen Vogue considered the performance "intimate", and Capital described "Slim Pickins" as a "gorgeous, bittersweet country inspired ballad" based on it.