On “Vicious,” Sabrina sings in an angry way about this vicious person who manipulated her saying that he loved her. Carpenter emphasizes in each line how this person is different from how everyone believes and how he deceived her by saying that he loved her and left without remorse.

Prior to its release, Carpenter teased the song by posting a pre-save link and sharing a snippet of the song on TikTok. She revealed the track title and release date via a Spotify playlist.