Arianators, after this nearly four-year drought, our queen has finally returned from somewhere over the rainbow to deliver us a new album. Weaving her heartbreak, revelations and new beginnings into pop perfection, Ariana Grande has created yet another record-breaking album titled “Eternal Sunshine.”
Released on March 8, the album consists of 13 tracks and has been labeled as her shortest album to date, being 36 minutes in total.
After my first listen, I was overwhelmed with dissatisfaction. However, after giving it several listens, I was able to understand the vision, and I instantly became hooked.
With various tracks ranging from mellow beats to uptempo pop songs, the album speaks to grieving over the loss of her recent divorce while simultaneously having wistful hope for new love in the future. Additionally, it explores coming to revelations about one’s self as told in the “Saturn Returns Interlude.”
According to thecut.com, a Saturn Return is “your astrological coming of age. It’s the push you need to enter true adulthood. Saturn demands that you take full and complete accountability for your choices, propelling major — albeit challenging — transformation.”
In “imperfect for you,” Grande takes on that newfound maturity by recognizing her faults, while simultaneously embracing them, and hoping that her future lover can as well.
“And usually, I’m, f***** up, anxious, too much/but I’ll love you like you need me to, imperfect for you/messy, completely distressed/but I’m not like that since I met you/imperfect for you.”
Being her first conceptual album, it draws inspiration from the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The movie explores going to extreme lengths to have unwanted memories erased from one’s mind– specifically one’s deriving from a relationship. Many speculate that this was her way of paying homage to her late ex, Mac Miller, as it was his favorite movie.
This vision was fulfilled in the music video of the album’s second title track “we can’t be friends (wait for your love).”
The video is essentially a shortened version of the film with innuendos relating to Grande’s life. She gave insight into the thought process behind it in a behind-the-scenes clip.
“It’s kind of about erasing the pain and only wanting the best for someone, even if it means not each other,” she said. “It’s not like one person’s wrong, or the enemy.”
The genius of this album is that it begins with a question, and finishes with an answer.
She asks in the opening track “intro (end of the world),” (“how can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?/ aren’t you really supposed to know that s***?/feel it in your bones and own that s***?”).
The last track, “ordinary things,” answers the question proposed at the beginning of the album. There, she plays an audio from her Nonna (“And when he’d come home and I’d see him, when he first gets off that train, it was like God almighty arrived. It was like seeing daylight. I mean, I could’ve packed up and left a million times. You know? It’s not that we never fought; you can overcome that, you know? It’s very easy. And as I told her, never go to bed without kissing’ goodnight. That’s the worst thing to do, don’t ever, ever do that. And if you can’t, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you’re in the wrong place, get out”).
The songs in between help to fill in some gaps on Grande’s path to growth and personal awakenings.
In tunes like “true story,” a powerful and assertive song, and the first title track “yes, and?” (perhaps the most lackluster song on the album), Grande takes on that newfound maturity by confronting Hollywood’s negative perception of her, and inspires unapologetically being yourself.
“Now I’m so done with caring/what you think, no, I won’t hide/underneath your own projections/won’t change my most authentic life,” she sings in “yes, and?”
She drops jaws in raw ballad “i wish i hated you,” possibly the saddest song on the album. In this song, she searches for ways to move on from a person, and struggles to admit that the only way to achieve this is to resent them; a feeling I’m sure we all know too well.
Unfortunately, there is no planned tour at the moment for fans to look forward to, but Grande isn’t completely opposed to the idea, as she hasn’t toured since her Sweetener World Tour in 2019.
“I had a really hard time emotionally on my last tour, but I think that’s because of where I was at,” Grande said in an interview with Zach Sang. “I’m excited to redefine my relationship to shows, when I’m ready. I do have a very busy year with this and with Wicked.
“[The tour] would obviously be shorter,” she added. “If anything, it would be a littler something. But I definitely do have the itch. I’m not ready to announce any sort of thing or get people too excited because I don’t want to disappoint.”
As she didn’t tour her last album “Positions” due to the pandemic, I feel it’s been far too long since we’ve seen Grande on the stage. I’d love to see the new and improved Ari selling out stadiums soon. Retro pop tracks like “bye” deserve to be belted out live. Each song is just far too good not to be witnessed in real life; it would only enhance the listening experience.
The sheer vulnerability of the album speaks volumes, and Grande could not have made a better comeback. With a plethora of relatable and inspiring tracks, Grande has definitely held down her title of the pop princess.
