In the midst of Ariana Grande’s promotion for her starring role in the movie version of “Wicked,” she took to Instagram to announce her new single: “yes, and?” The release of this song was quickly followed by an album announcement: “eternal sunshine” on March 8. I am not a huge listener of Ariana Grande’s music, but I decided to give the album a listen after hearing rave reviews from many friends.
The album is an easily danceable yet sad pop album with the themes of ending love following her divorce and, in some songs, gaining maturity as she enters her 30s. The album uses celestial wording and interludes in order to build a cohesive feeling throughout the duration of the songs.
The first song, “intro (end of the world),” starts the album by immediately supporting the theme found throughout the whole album and asking a question, “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?” I thought this was a really good move by Grande, given that, later, she ties the whole album together by ending it with a clip of her grandmother, who is featured as Nonna, answering that exact question. The intro isn’t really a full song, but I thought it did a really spectacular job setting up the album.
The next two songs, “bye” and “don’t wanna break up again,” weren’t the most standout. However, “bye” was a fun pop track, and “don’t wanna break up again” was a song with a lot more of a story behind it. Both were still very good, but they weren’t the songs I would immediately recommend to people on the first listen.
After that comes “Saturn Returns Interlude” and “eternal sunshine.” These two work hand in hand to improve the cohesiveness of the album and make each other better. “Saturn Returns Interlude” is a clip of an author named Diana Garland speaking. The last seconds of the interlude are actually the first couple seconds of “eternal sunshine.” That helps feed into why “eternal sunshine” was one of my favorite tracks off of the album. Not only did it have a good start, but the song has a big contrast between the choruses and verses through the beat and pitch that it’s sung at.
The next two songs, “supernatural” and “true story,” were fun, upbeat pop songs. Out of the two, “true story” was the better song. “true story” has a good story behind it, as she tells what she describes as a “true story,” about lies she was told. On the other hand, “supernatural” was another one of the similar songs on the album that, while still a good song, kind of blended in the background behind other songs.
Two of the most popular songs, “the boy is mine” and the lead single “…yes, and?” were next. Similar to “supernatural,” “the boy is mine” seemed to get hidden behind the other songs that stood out better after the first listen. While it has a good beat, it is just a little too upbeat to just throw on as background music. “…yes, and?” had the advantage of being the only song I’d heard before listening to the full album. It’s a bubbly pop track with a theme of self-confidence that I still think is very fun to listen to. I didn’t think the overall sound of “…yes, and?” matched up with the rest of the album as well as the other songs, but the more you listen to it, the more you find that the lyrics really did do a good job setting up what the album would be about.
My favorite song on “eternal sunshine,” “we can’t be friends…(wait for your love),” is the next track. This song is a pop song that has a bright sound. In the background of the song is what could be described as the disco beat found in older songs that adds really well to the song. Given this, it makes a lot of sense that this song was the second of the album to get a music video and to be a single.
The third and second to last songs on the album, “i wish i hated you” and “imperfect for you,” are both slower, sad pop songs that help to wind down the album. It can be assumed that these songs were inspired by Grande’s recent divorce with her husband, as they both talk about her looking back on the end of her relationship. These two songs are definitely part of the album I would recommend listening to.
The last song that wraps up the whole album, “ordinary things (feat. Nonna),” is a more upbeat song that, as previously mentioned, ends the album answering the exact question it started with: “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?”
Overall, the whole album has several spectacular songs that build a cohesive theme and meaning. I said I had chosen the tenth track on the album “we can’t be friends” as my favorite, but, truthfully, “eternal sunshine” is an amazing album full of tons of spectacular songs. I would highly recommend that anyone who wants to go listen to the album fully.
