BRINGING MUSIC BACK TO THE FUTURE?: ARIANA GRANDE 'SWEETENER' REVIEW

Photo Credit: Ariana Grande, Republic Records

Sweetener is Ariana Grande's 4th studio album that was released on the 17th August and the first since the tragedy at her Manchester concert in 2017. It's been very highly anticipated by her fans and by the music industry in general. Whether you like Ariana or not, it's a fact that voice is one of the most powerful in pop right now. Ever since the release of 'no tears left to cry', I've been intrigued as to the direction Ariana was going in. It seemed like she was going in a direction a bit further than pop, and into something else.

Now, I'm going to admit this straight away: something happened with my opinion of Sweetener. The first time I listened to it and in fact when I started writing this blog post originally, I thought the album was pretty 'meh'. I really wasn't blown away and I was trying to work out why I didn't think the album was that great. However, having had the album on repeat for a substantial amount of the past couple days, my opinion has changed. It is more than a 'meh' album, it is a special album, I just needed a few listens to appreciate the thought that has gone into it.

Sweetener has a very early 2000s sound, which is something that Grande has embraced through quite a lot of her career. This is not as much as a surprise as one might think, as the early 90s/2000s was prime time for powerful female voices in pop and R&B music and as Ariana has such a powerful voice herself, it's obvious that she wants to bring that to modern day.  It's no coincidence that Grande also brings in some stars of the 00s to work with her on Sweetener such as well-known artist and producer Pharrell on the track 'blazed', who also helped produce five other tracks on the album, and iconic rapper Missy Elliot featuring on track 'borderline' (as well as not-so-00s Nicki Minaj as part of 'the light is coming'). There is a clear sense of bringing the old, not just into the current, but into the future.

The main thing that I really appreciate about Sweetener is the risk-taking. It's a brave album for Grande to have released, as the mix of genres could have easily gone down badly had the album itself not been as well produced as it was. The album as a whole, despite having these old-school vibes, I believe is way ahead of the music game right now. She hasn't gone down the classic pop route that she was expected to take. Instead, she has gone in a direction that was almost completely unpredictable. She has taken on an extraordinary mix of genres including the early 2000s R&B I've already discussed, but also a combination of pop, dance, and almost hip-hop. With this kind of risk-taking there always comes some sort of issues, but luckily for Grande they are only very minor. There are some tracks on Sweetener that perhaps don't work as well as the others ('the light is coming' stands out in this sense), but if the only issue Ariana has after taking such a big risk with her music is that a couple of tracks that are good, just not as good as the rest of the album, then I'd say as a whole she's done pretty well.

A stand out track for me personally is one of the lead singles 'God is a woman'. When I saw the title of the track I expect the song to go a certain way but there seems to be a theme now of Grande completely going against everything that I expect. It's a song of female empowerment but in a completely different way than I predicted. The track really is produced incredibly and showcases Grande's incredible range of vocals. When listening to this track for the first time, I almost knew that when I listened to the whole album, this would remain my favourite. And it did. GIAW is the epitome of good pop music and is just a really stunning song in general. Also, the interlude to the album 'raindrops (an angle cried)' despite being so short, really stands out, as it is simply Grande singing acapella and showing off the power that her vocals really have. raindrops was a really great way for her to start the album off, as she's showing off her voice before getting into the more experimental tracks. Some other highlights of the album include; 'no tears left to cry' (which I'm sure you've heard if you're reading this as it's been on the radio constantly since it's release), 'breathin', 'goodnight' n go, R.E.M and 'everytime'.
I also really enjoyed the final track 'get well soon' which is a song about feeling disconnected and experiencing anxiety and trying to recover from that. It's a song that's clearly very personal to Grande, and shows her experience of dealing with this kind of mental struggle. As well as this being a song about Grande's own struggle to end the album, there is also 40 seconds of silence at the end of the track which people are suggesting may be a tribute to the victims of the Manchester attack, due to the fact that this extra 40 seconds makes the track 5 minutes 22 seconds long (5:22), which happens to correlate with the date of the attack the 22nd May. If this is intentional (as it seems to be too much of a coincidence not to be), then it's a really nice nod of respect, especially on a song that's about Grande's own mental struggle most likely following the tragedy.

Overall, I was definitely surprised by Sweetener. Is it a great album? Yes. Is this Ariana Grande's best album? I wouldn't say so. But her next one could be. If the risk-taking and brand new sound that has been found in Sweetener is combined with showing Grande's incredibly powerful voice (such as in 'God is a woman' and 'no tears left to cry') consistently through her next album, then that will be a really incredible work of musical artistry. I appreciate what Grande is doing, and Sweetener really is something for her to be proud of. Not just from a musical point of view, but it's done incredibly well regarding sales and streams in the couple days it's been out for, with her claiming the record for the biggest opening day for a female artist on US Spotify. More than anything, however, Sweetener makes me excited for her future music releases as it shows she's not afraid to step out the box, and the best kind of artists aren't.

LINKS TO BUY/STREAM THE ALBUM:

SPOTIFY
APPLE MUSIC
ARIANAGRANDE.COM


Written by Ruby Crowhurst