Welcome to year two of my Stute music column, now named Put Your Records On! Last year, I reviewed several of the biggest pop albums, as well as some lesser-known efforts, and spoke my mind about some of my favorite new artists. This year, I hope to continue bringing forward my favorite new music from pop, R&B, alternative, and beyond, along with new tunes that aren’t exactly my favorites. This week, though, I’ll be shining the spotlight on Ariana Grande’s inescapable new album, Sweetener.
The release of Sweetener on the radio, streaming platforms, and iTunes seemed like one of the largest events in pop music in recent memory, as far back as the release of Adele’s 25. The New York Top 40 station Z100 advertised Grande’s album and played many of her tracks, not just her singles, on their station on the album’s release date. Sweetener garnered the most streams ever for a female pop album in its first week, with 126.7 million track streams. These numbers are huge for pop albums, as rap and hip-hop tend to dominate streaming services. And finally, the album entered the Billboard 200 albums chart, topping it with the largest sales figure Grande has ever boasted, 231,000 units. At this point, Ariana Grande has established herself as a household name revered for her voice and chart dominance.
Grande’s profile and public anticipation for her fourth album were higher than ever just before the release Sweetener, especially resulting from the Manchester Arena Bombing in May 2017, which occurred after a performance of her Dangerous Woman Tour. In fact, Grande herself stated that the tragic event changed expectations for the album, raising the stakes. The aftermath of the bombing can be clearly heard in Sweetener. Grande decided to fight the violence and hate with positivity, and the album largely centers around the idea of finding and spreading love after a tragedy. Manchester’s events permeate the record on the album’s opening track “raindrops,” which features lyrics, “The day you left me / An angel cried,” and the theme continues through the album. Despite the common theme, though, the songs on the album never feel trapped within one genre or idea; on Sweetener, Ariana Grande repurposes her early trials with ’90s-influenced R&B, fusing the genre with her later style of trap-pop to create an album that sometimes feels bipolar stylistically, but is genuinely enjoyable to listen to on repeat.
Most of the album’s upbeat tracks were produced by Pharrell Williams, and the direction in which he and Grande took this album is unlike anything many fans were expecting. When “the light is coming,” the album’s third track and second song to be released before Sweetener, was released ahead of the album, fans were confused by the 8-bit percussion, spoken chorus, and aggressive Nicki Minaj feature. While many fans had already lost hope after hearing the experimental track, the song proves much more successful within the context of the track listing, serving as a preview to the album’s thesis about finding the light after darkness. However, the track still manages to overstay its welcome, even in just its four-minute runtime, and has yet to grow on me completely. In all other songs Pharrell produced on the album, eight in total, his signature is apparent through his frenetic, busy, tempo-pushing arrangements. His work is successful here; it’s quite impressive how his production can be recognizable without slapping listeners in the face. Grande and Williams breathe life into the first half of the album, but made a misstep with the album’s final track, “get well soon,” which is an unfortunate mess of cliché, preachy lyrics, and an unfocused melody.
As with any Ariana Grande project, her vocals are the centerpiece, clearly the most powerful instrument at work. For the first time, though, Grande shows some serious restraint and maturity throughout the album with her vocals. She has mastered a range of vocal tonality from ethereal to heavy and explores her lower ranges extensively on Sweetener. Still, she can display a devastating amount of vocal power, like on “God is a woman,” or “everytime.” In addition, her vocal layering and ear for harmony have been greatly refined since previous efforts. Nearly every song possesses something to love about Grande’s vocals, without having to resort to her signature high notes, like many of her previous songs.
Although the album has some issues with staying cohesive, especially as songs like “blazed” and “better off” don’t seem to fit with the album stylistically or thematically – Sweetener is nothing if not sweet. The album shines when Grande best mixes her influences and styles to describe the feeling of new love and starting over. On standout “R.E.M,” Grande does just that, mixing trap and pop with the same doo-wop that influenced her first album, Yours Truly, which transforms an unreleased Beyoncé song into her own new style. Sweetener functions not as a departure from Grande’s earlier styles, but rather as a rough but brave step forward that merges her influences, and, with the help of Pharrell, delivers a sugar-coated message about love in the face of hate and a light at the end of the tunnel.
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