It’s been 14 years since fans first saw Ariana Grande on “Victorious” and 11 years since the release of her debut album, “Yours Truly.” Now, in 2024, Grande is back with her seventh studio album, “eternal sunshine.”
Grande has earned millions of streams and recorded with some of the biggest artists in the world, like Lady Gaga, Mac Miller, Nicki Minaj, Pharrell Williams and many more. However, for “eternal sunshine,” Grande handles nearly all of the vocals herself, with just a few lines from her producer, Max Martin.
She did include features from Troye Sivan and Mariah Carey on the deluxe of the album, but the feature from Carey was a remix of the single “yes, and?”
The intro track leads listeners straight into the premise of this album, with Grande saying in the first line, “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?”
The song “bye” has Grande saying bye to her current relationship because of the lack of happiness she feels. That is followed up with the song “I don’t wanna break up again,” which is, ironically, a breakup song. Seems to be a pattern here.
The title track sees Grande reminiscing about a past relationship, perhaps regretting her past mistakes. It’s a very vibey song that I definitely return to often. While the tracks before have been about breaking up, “supernatural” seems to be the first real song showing Ariana Grande happy to be in a relationship. It is a phenomenal song, one of my favorites so far.
“True story” feels like a very basic pop, R&B love song you would hear nowadays. The production really carries Grande throughout the track and she doesn’t necessarily shine in any specific way.
“The boy is mine” gives off 2000’s pop vibes which make me feel nostalgic, and I really enjoy the song for that reason. It’s followed by “yes, and?” which is a very dancey club track that makes you, well, dance. Back-to-back solid tracks.
The tenth track, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” has been one of the more popular since the album’s release, but I personally don’t really like it. I can see where some people may enjoy it, but it’s not for me.
The final three tracks, “i wish i hated you,” “imperfect for you” and “ordinary things” are all very good in their own rights. Each one has a different vibe, but hits in its own way.
Looking at the deluxe, there are four songs added, but they are all just different versions of songs on the album. Troye Sivan added a very solid verse to “supernatural,” and though it was nice, I think I still prefer the original version.
There is an acoustic version of “imperfect for you,” which really adds a certain bit of pain to the song, making it feel more personal or hurtful, even. I love this version of the song.
Then, of course, we have the a cappella version of “true story,” which I feel was unnecessary, but is there. Finally, there was the Mariah Carey version of “yes, and?” that falls short of the original and doesn’t add anything special.
While this album is solid, I find myself wanting to return to Grande’s past music more. I replay songs like “Honeymoon Avenue” and “The Way” from her first album to this day. I can see myself listening to some of these tracks again, but overall, I feel like the album was not for me.
That being said, I give this album a 7/10. The production was solid across the entire project, capturing the vibe of the song perfectly most of the time. It was Grande’s performance that I wasn’t the biggest fan of, as I know what she is capable of and feel she didn’t stick the landing.
