Crystal Aura Gaze

Today, Ariana Grande released her new album, “eternal sunshine.”

This is actually the first Ariana Grande album that I’ve listened to from start to finish. She’s made about a handful of records at this point for over ten years now. She’s had a lot of radio hit singles, some of them I’ve really enjoyed, many of them bringing back nostalgia at this point.

This won’t be a super detailed or long review, but I wanted to share this, because I’m really enjoying her new music. Before album release, came “yes, and?” which is very EDM and house music genre. She tends to lean more into R&B but dabbles into EDM here and there. I’m not into R&B as much, so I like her EDM songs better.

I was hopeful that “eternal sunshine” would be a full-on EDM album after hearing “yes, and?” Spoiler alert: it’s not. There’s still an R&B influence, although perhaps not as heavy as previous works. Nevertheless, I still was very pleased listening to it.

Ariana Grande is one of those overexposed pop stars, so it’s easy to hate on her. Recently, she’s been in the news a lot about her messy love life. She got married and divorced. She got involved with a co-star who had just recently had a baby with another woman.

Now, who am I to judge? I don’t condone any of this mess. But I’ll admit, when celebrities have their dirty laundry aired, and the world realizes that they aren’t so perfect after all, I become more drawn to them. Because I am drawn to imperfect people. What bothers me most is when people, especially famous people with their prestigious awards and diehard fan base, claim to be perfect.

I was also curious to see what her strategy would be with this new album. She must be aware that there’s a lot of hate about her on the internet right now. How would this album tackle that and reframe her reputation into something nicer?

Ariana Grande really does have a sweet and talented singing voice. I found this album to be very dreamy. And I like how her voice sounds like a cloud that glides smoothly along with no road bumps.

The tracks bring a range of emotions, from happiness and enchantment, to grief and sorrow, to anger and standoffishness, to empathy and compassion, and so forth. There’s an interlude titled “Saturn Returns” which I appreciated as a fellow astrologist myself! My favorite track is “supernatural” — and “imperfect for you” comes in close second.

I found this album to be much less sexualized than her previous work. She’s had a lot of sex positive music, but there’s not really any lyrics in this album that go into that. There’s a lot of romance but heavily on the spiritual and emotional side rather than the physical. I do think that this is partially a PR tactic to get away from the “home wrecker” accusations she’s been facing. There could also be other reasons too, like getting older and no longer feeling like she has to prove herself, or use sex to sell herself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this album. Again, this is the first time that I was actually compelled to listen to her record all the way through. I’d love to see her lean completely into EDM, make an entire album of strictly house music. Regardless, it’s awesome work in my opinion.

Rating: 5/5 stars