Approximately 10 years ago, the seminal web-inspired Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly came to my attention, and thus my subsequent teenage infatuation began for years thereafter. Ultimately, her cameo appearance as Cat Valentine, now-pop sensation Ariana Grande, was my first sighting of the multi-talented artist. Never would I have thought I’d be critiquing an LP of hers well into my 20s, let alone in a positive light. And yet, here we’ve arrived. On her 5th LP, Thank You, Next, released aptly near Valentine’s Day, Grande has evolved from the docile iCarly character to a prosperous yet emotionally vulnerable 25-year-old dealing with the after-effects of recent breakups, death, and ever-growing fame.
The not-too-distant release of her previous LP, Sweetener, seems like a lifetime ago - considering the recent events which occured in Grande’s personal life since then - from the death of her close friend Mac Miller, to the breakup with her fiance Pete Davidson. In spite of the album's production falling under the jurisdiction of master-collaborator Pharrell Williams - churning out appetising R&B-tinged pop hits including ‘God is a Woman’ and ‘Breathin’, the overall LP did not whet my appetite enough to give it further consideration. For this latest LP, Grande swapped out producers and caught my attention with the first single released in November, ‘thank u, next’. With its delicate, bending synth chords and signature soft-on-the-ears facade backed by an infectious chorus, Grande garnered serious attention from critics alike.
The LP starts in similar manner with ‘Imagine’ and ‘Needy’ - the former offering a slow-burner of an R&B track with its dulcet strings and synth sections, the latter inviting some absorbing acapella at the heart of its chorus. Exuding a more refined and soulful feel to the LP’s inception, this sufficiently whetted my appetite to further excavate Grande’s emotional rollercoaster laid bare. Whilst the following track ‘NASA’ continues Grande’s usual-served dish of R&B-tinged pop, it ultimately pales in comparison to its successor on the LP, ‘Bloodline’. Bursting at the seams with a distinct Latin-Pop exterior, featuring an exuberant horn section for the main refrain, this track brings Grande’s brash behaviour to the fore - banishing men, such as Davidson, from her lovelife and thus her ‘bloodline’. Launching the LP into life, Grande purely prolongs this delightful beginning as she continuously stamps her empowered authority.
‘Bad Idea’ forms a platform of catchy guitar refrains amongst buzzing bass lines brooding underneath Grande’s repeated chorus, “I got a bad idea, forget about it, forget about him, forget about me”. In comparison to her previous discography of much safer, middle-of-the-road R&B pop, this track typifies the evolution of Grande’s music now reminiscent of some early 2000s Teen Pop, namely Britney Spears and Beyonce. Much like her predecessors, Grande is clearly unafraid of the recent mishaps in her lovelife and decidedly confronts them head-on in an ebullient manner.
The mid-section reveals much in the way of Grande’s improved lyricism, with such tracks as ‘Make Up’ and ‘Ghostin’ - the former incorporating a play-on-words between making up with ex-boyfriends and wearing the secure facade of makeup, and the latter wallowing in the sombre tones of 80s ballad-pop reminiscing on the death Mac Miller. Offering an apt respite amongst the sea of bravado exuded by Grande, ‘Ghostin’ yet again includes some sumptuous backing acapella and heavy-laden synth chords to contribute to Grande’s atmospheric wall of emotions imbued by Miller.
In spite of these continuous triumphs in Grande’s repertoire, many of her downfalls occur in the latter half of the LP, with such tracks as ‘In My Head’ and ‘7 Rings’. The latter of these 2 formed one of Grande’s singles portraying an awkwardly-marred sampling of Julie Andrews’ ‘My Favourite Things’ dismally ‘updated’ for her trap-pop audience. My slight degree of intrigue for this section further wains in her attempt to rap - comparatively amateurish next to her contemporaries, namely Cardi B, Rihanna, and even Nicki Minaj.
These criticisms only further manifest in the LP’s conflicting culmination. With the infectious penultimate track, ‘Thank U, Next’, it’s successor and album-closer ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored’ leaves an unruly bittersweet taste. Although the track does much to signify the evolution of Grande’s character, from the post break-up ‘needy’ state to the instigator of breakups, sonically the track falls flat into the trap genre’s trap. Rather than playing to her strengths in the R&B-pop playing field, Grande signs off on a rather sour note blended within a course of tasteless trap beats and vacuous verses.
Nonetheless, Ariana Grande has serendipitously produced her most emotionally-volatile LP to date within the annual period of requited love. Featuring plentiful contagious hooks and intriguingly diverse backing instrumentation, Grande has emerged from the ashes of makeups and breakups with a full evolution. The downfalls, thankfully, fail to outweigh the heights of ‘Bloodline’s brightness or the ravishing R&B-pop hits of ‘Needy’, ‘Ghostin’, and ‘Thank U, Next’. In light of my concerning iCarly infatuation almost a decade ago, it feels peculiarly liberating to come full-circle in acclaiming her latest set of tracks in 2019 - one which signifies a triumph over the all-too-recent Manchester bombing and stamps her mark on the current pop scene.
7/10
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