Potentially her most mature project to date, Ariana Grande deals with the miasma of post-divorce, embarrassing social media gossip, and a rugged sense of self within a new relationship. While the sonic execution leaves the project staling out, Ariana’s writing has enough genuine weight to keep it afloat.
Going back to ‘Positions’ that was released back in 2020, the project places out an extension of healing that eventually reaches towards seeking out new relationships - something that Ariana Grande has tried to ensure that this newfound romance is that real happy ending for her due to the past relationships being met with abrupt endings or sudden tragedies. While the music itself might place her into more organic plucks and burbling trap with lukewarm results, the context of that album seems to imply a positive aura wish-washed within Ariana Grande’s own hesitation on reaching out towards this relationship. After all, is the relationship going to finally work for once in Ariana's favor? Is she going to finally have a sense of relief now that this person she’s intimate with is going to be one, where she will finally be able to have a sense of happiness?
Sadly, the answer for that is unveiled within ‘eternal sunshine’, the newest project dealing with Ariana’s recent divorce, an emotionally messy situation not helped out by the cheating gossip strewn around her. That divorce is the essential aspect that Ariana focuses on, bringing forth her mature writing rummaging around that messy reality that she had to deal with and how that situation lurks back into the sense of imperfect yearning, reflected even further with the reference of Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind through the album title, locking in the thematic centerpiece immediately. Because after the cycling back-and-forth arguments and forgivings that never seem to resolve past issues, there’s despairing exhaustion that Ariana carries through, spending way too much crying and going to therapy as she tries to keep the marriage together. After all, with Ariana’s history of her past relationships, no wonder that she does want to keep this love together, not wanting to feel pain again as she had experienced time and time again as well as the lingering reminder of the divorce of her parents that might still ring in her mind. Of course, she does side-step away from the ruptured divorce to deal with the circulating gossip that’s giving her even more headaches to the point that she plays in their game as she tries to encapture the “bad girl” narrative placed upon her, yet she eventually flips the script as she gets mature about that image placed upon her, doing it for the sake of making other people around her feel better rather than falling into their tumultuous trap. Yet despite all the hurt and anxiousness that she felt, there is that bounce back in a new relationship where even if her emotional and mental capacity still feels shaken as she embarks on her imperfect aspects in this relationship, there is a semblance of peace in spending time with this partner that she’s currently in. Not exactly a full exhale, but perhaps enough to make her feel calm after what has happened.
However, for all of that strong writing, the execution of this narrative is slopped out in the production and composition side of the album. Keeping in trust with Ariana’s past producers such as Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh with the songwriting endeavors mostly focused on Ariana, given the leaner focus on the production and songwriting side, the quality of the tracks might at least reach the striking moments of Ariana’s past albums, yet the landing of these songs end up become fleeting and lacking. Makes sense, as the increase of straightforward low-key tunes and decrease of punchy bangers shown through the restrained gauge of the production and the shift in Ariana’s vocal techniques overall emphasizes the messy narrative of the project, yet it does not always excuse the brief and stilted melodies and production from Ariana & co. The colder, less impacting dance cuts of ‘bye’ and ‘yes, and?’ may have a sense of groove, but the disco touches of the former song with its shuffling low-end do not exactly with the tangled narrative and the wonky mess of the latter song with its meager hook and checked-out spoken word bridge is such a tempered way to deal with the gossipmongers being confronted directly in the writing. Speaking of wonky, ‘the boy is mine’ and ‘imperfect with you’ are the worst cases of this, the melodies slithering on their hooks in an awkward way as the former’s melodic interpolation of the original ‘the boy is mine’ is flimsy and the staccato progressions that are played on the latter does not mix with the rest of that song’s melodies.
This creates a head-scratching dilemma within the other songs that carry more fulfilling tunes and production. Like the hushed coos amidst brittle beats on ‘don’t wanna break up again’, the bombastic and hazy synth backdrops on ‘true story’ and ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ that Ariana Grande’s performance carries well, and the softer embraces of ‘i wish i hated you’ with the quaint synth lines and ‘ordinary thing’ with the brass horns and textured trap beat might allow the end of the album to come off good, yet still creates frustration because if only they’re provided a bit more time or scale to break through, these songs would’ve stuck a lot more rather than fly away within brief spurts, especially with additional compositional ideas like the lilting chorus of ‘eternal sunshine’ and the wafting psychedelia of ‘supernatural’ that could have been expanded upon much further.
As much as the project carries forth Ariana Grande’s complex and emotionally tangled writing to date, the execution of that narrative through the melodies, performances, and production lets it down considerably. Even if there are still good moments of compositional and production choices that manage the messy narrative to stick, the rather safe direction on all of these tracks just makes these cuts sound less special and less memorable as a result despite the choice to go for lesser reliance of showstopping bombast is justified for what Ariana Grande is dealing through within this project. It might not exactly be a ray of sunshine all throughout, but for Ariana Grande, she needs it most for herself, allowing herself to heal further and find that eternal joy on the horizon.
Favorite Tracks: ‘don’t wanna break up again’, ‘true story’, ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love’, ‘i wish i hated you’, ‘ordinary things (feat. nonna)’
Least Favorite Track: ‘imperfect for you’