Ariana Grande Gets Lost in the Stars on eternal sunshine: Review
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The post Ariana Grande Gets Lost in the Stars on eternal sunshine: Review appeared first on Consequence.
There’s something going on with the pop girls and astrology right now. Ariana Grande‘s eternal sunshine, out today, March 8th, is the third major release of the spring to embrace the theme of a Saturn Return, and with “Saturn Returns Interlude,” Grande joins Kacey Musgraves and SZA in expressing a fascination with the phenomenon that occurs about once every 29 years. In astrology, a Saturn Return can spur an individual into a time of profound change.
To be fair, the heavens are not new territory for Grande — just look at “NASA” off thank u, next, or the fact that her live shows have been known to feature an enormous moon. Now, Ariana Grande has unveiled her seventh studio album, a characteristically moody and often dreamy 13-track collection loosely tied to the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that allows her to unpack memories at her own pace.
Art, especially music, doesn’t have to be autobiographical, but Grande rarely has qualms about digging into her personal stories. After all, this is the same woman who released a song called “pete davidson” while dating Pete Davidson (a bop that should have been longer, for the record). In the aftermath of a divorce and amid messy rumors about her current personal life and the timeline that led to her involvement with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, eternal sunshine ping-pongs between ultra-confident and entirely self-deprecating.
After an intro, eternal sunshine kicks into gear with the shiny, disco-toned “bye,” this project’s thematic and sonic iteration of “no tears left to cry.” While it’s plenty of fun and perfectly suited to her trademark belt, it also feels like Grande re-treading familiar ground — but when someone is this great at crafting a catchy pop song, it’s hard to be mad about it. “bye” is followed by “don’t wanna break up again,” which features a strong beat akin to a Positions b-side like “west side,” but the song is hampered by its melodically aimless chorus.
Like all great theater kids, Grande experiences every single emotion to the very fullest. She loves with abandon and confesses deep-seated doubts about her character in equal measure. eternal sunshine is a place for her to process and reflect; she might not be fully in her healing era, but she’s picking herself up and preparing for whatever’s next. The project’s clear and immediate standout is “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” which begins with a thrumming beat reminiscent of Grande’s own “Into You” before taking off into a glittering, Robyn-adjacent dance floor breakdown. It’s sadness wrapped in abandon, the sort of cathartic release that signals the warmth of morning waiting just around the corner from rock bottom.
The song also forces even the most dismissive detractors to confront the reality that Grande is a deeply talented arranger and producer in her own right. The harmonies — all of which are built from her own voice — are airtight. She knows her craft inside and out, and the song serves as a crystal-clear encapsulation of her partnership with Max Martin.
Don’t sleep on “true story,” where Grande unleashes her vocals into full powerhouse territory. The throbbing, demanding bass-synth is a bold choice that pays off and makes the song more interesting than her take on the Brandy and Monica classic “the boy is mine.” Elsewhere, “imperfect for you” is odd, uncomfortable, and dissonant (certainly by design), and it’s couched and overshadowed by the sparkling tragedy of “i wish i hated you” and reflective closer, “ordinary things.” The former is a tragic music box of a song, and perhaps the spot where Grande is the most raw and exposed on eternal sunshine. It’s notably the only place where she allows her vocals to be anything less than pristine; she keeps in a few of the gasps and cracks that convey the gravity of the story she’s telling here.
Even at 13 tracks, eternal sunshine breezes by in just 35 minutes, making it Grande’s shortest album to date. Over socials, Grande has dismissed the label of concept album for this project, and her assessment feels correct; there’s a lack of narrative focus throughout eternal sunshine, which refuses to revel in either its highs or lows. For all the extremes Grande hits, though, she seems perfectly content with the fact that she doesn’t know where she’s going to land. So while some listeners might be more focused on lyrical revelations, like implications that Grande may have been cheated on herself, setting the record straight doesn’t feel like Grande’s focus.
Instead, the album is more like an exercise in one of the themes expressed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “I’m always anxious thinking I’m not living my life to the fullest, you know? Taking advantage of every possibility,” Kate Winslet says as Clementine. According to Grande, this unscheduled album poured out of her between filming and promo for Wicked — consider the moment seized.
Essential Songs: “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” “i wish i hated you,” “true story”
Ariana Grande Gets Lost in the Stars on eternal sunshine: Review
Mary Siroky
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