Pop Personality Perfected 

Ariana Grande has had extensive time in the spotlight, from her days as a Nickelodeon child star to her current omnipresence in the tabloids. She has evolved before our eyes and ears, and her fourth album Sweetener is the most vivid illustration of her essence. Grande has always been a pop star that dips into the hip-hop vibe, and, much in thanks to extensive collaboration with Pharrell Williams, Sweetener delivers 15 tracks that define the blended genre. They’ve developed a sound that is distinctly Ariana Grande, layering her vocals in harmony throughout the album and pairing them with trap beats and pop music arrangements. The lyrics (which feature Grande’s input significantly more than on her past albums) cover the very real things we’ve witnessed Grande encounter over the past couple of years. Sweetener speaks to the traumatic experience of the terror attack at her Manchester concert last year, the anxiety that followed, her choice and effort to maintain a positive outlook, her breakup with long-term boyfriend Mac Miller and, of course, her whirlwind romance with Pete Davidson.

The album opens with an a cappella rendition of “An Angel Cried” by The Four Seasons. Grande’s voice is incredible, and while it sounds fantastic in all her other tracks, there’s something especially powerful about hearing it in its unassisted glory. The next song, “blazed” prominently features Pharrell, and with these first two songs, we are fully briefed on the album to come. Next comes one of the lead singles from the album, “the light is coming,” which features a recurring sample of a snippet from CNN footage of a man shouting “You wouldn’t let anybody speak!” at a senator during a town hall meeting in 2009. An interesting and unusual choice of sample to be sure, but it provides a brilliant piece of commentary on the ridiculous media culture that surrounds a star such as Grande—surely she’s felt like having a similar outburst herself when she’s being bombarded with an avalanche of ignorant, inflammatory commentary on every aspect of her life. Things get a lot smoother with the next song “R.E.M” which was originally a Beyoncé demo track, but fits perfectly into Sweetener nonetheless and is honestly one of the standouts of the whole album. 

“God is a woman” comes next, another lead single which was delivered with an epic and slightly confusing (can anyone explain the screaming gophers?!) music video. An empowering and sexy track that features that on-trend trap percussion and plenty of Grande’s signature melisma. The title track “sweetener” follows, an undeniably catchy pop tune that has Grande explaining the attitude that has shown her to be so resilient in the face of her recent experience with tragedy: “When life deals its cards / Makes everything taste like it is salt / Then you come through like the sweetener you are / To bring the bitter taste to a halt.” Sweetener is relatively light on features so it’s quite a treat when Missy Elliot graces the album with a verse at the end of “borderline”—though an otherwise unremarkable song compared to the rest of the album. A fun surprise comes on “goodnight n go,” a reimagining of Imogen Heap’s “Goodnight and Go.” The following interlude dedicated to her fiancé, “pete davidson” is way too cute, with Grande repeating how “happy” he makes her over and over as it fades out. Grande has made no effort to hide her affection for Davidson, and it would be painfully sappy if it didn’t feel so authentic. The final song, “get well soon” is a fittingly soulful way to close out the album, with the busyness of the instruments stripped down and plenty of beautiful Grande vocals. Ending with a single chime, there are 40 seconds of absolute silence at the end of the song, bringing the run time to 5:22, symbolic for the May 22nd date of the Manchester attack. 

With Sweetener, Ariana Grande proves she’s on top of the pop game. The lead up to the album was excellent, with exquisite big-budget music videos and well-timed teaser snippets of recording sessions. Further, her choice to team up with Pharrell proves to be one of her best artistic decisions yet, and together they craft her best album to date. All eyes are on Grande, and fortunately for her (and us), the spotlight is exactly where she’s at her best.