Beth Ray Writes

Ariana Grande has released her seventh album ‘Eternal Sunshine’ with it going straight to number 1 on the UK album charts and it remains there for a second week.
I wouldn’t have called myself an Ariana fan, I like her music but to class myself as a fan I would have to be familiar with lots of her album tracks, which is currently not the case. However this week I have made sure to give Ariana my attention and listen to her latest offering.

This album is filled with lots of personal songs which becomes evident at the very beginning with the song ‘intro (end of the world)’ opening the album with the question “How can I tell if i’m in the right relationship?”. She moves on to describe the pain of going through a breakup which can be found in the tracks ‘bye’ and ‘don’t wanna break up again;. Then we have the pivotal moment in the interlude song “Saturn Return Interlude” where we hear that after 29 years it’s time to “get real about life and sort out who you really are“. This is the moment we move on from break up to divorce. I LOVE this as an interlude as it transitions beautifully into the title track ‘eternal sunshine’. This song provide lots of beautiful layered harmonised vocals and great beats. In fact all of the songs on this album make catchy pop songs and you can feel the importance of each track as it tells you another story.

We see Ariana dissect her breakup and divorce in the following tracks before moving into the ‘moving on’ era of the album. Tracks such as ‘supernatural’ and ‘true story’ share about falling for someone else. The vocals on ‘true story’ are mesmerising on the final chorus and I love the lyrics “I’ll play the villain if you need me to”.

It’s hard to pick my favourite track, her first single ‘yes, and?’ is such a great pop hit to dance too. Filled with a catchy dance beat, lots of sassy lyrics which are giving ‘unapologetic woman’ and I am here for it. Instead of hiding away from past controversy regarding her love life (that’s for you to look up) she is just owning it as she sings “Now i’m so done with caring/ What you think, no, I won’t hide“.

The more I listen to this album, the more I discover with the combination of deeply personal lyrics, beautiful harmonies, sexy pop beats and how she tells a massive stage of her life from breaking up, divorce, to finding love again makes me realise the grand scale of artistry from Ariana. It’s definitely a non-skip album with this level of superb music production.

I will now be making sure to make time to listen to her back catalogue and can count myself as an Ariana fan from now on.

Beth x


My Top 3 Tracks
1. eternal sunshine
2. we can’t be friends (wait for your love)
3. yes, and?