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Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is the latest from the pop mainstay, a career-best dissertation on love and loss.
Genre: Pop, R&B
Label: Republic
Release Date: March 8, 2024
Vibe: 😮💨
Breakup albums have a long history of striking a chord with mainstream audiences. From Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill to Adele’s 21, plenty of artists have attained new, inventive creative heights while working through heartbreak. You can add Ariana Grande’s name to that list with the ironically titled eternal sunshine. Her first studio release since 2020’s lush, languid Positions, this collection of songs works through the grief, anger, and confusion left after her divorce from Dalton Gomez in 2023.
Now in her thirties, Grande’s songwriting sounds far removed from the cocksureness of “thank u, next” or “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.” On this record, she’s less sure she’ll ever experience true, lasting love but, even in the face of that uncertainty, is more than happy to let go of her past. Sometimes, that disposition is presented quite literally, like on “Bye,” where she sings about how her girlfriend is waiting in the driveway to whisk her away to a safer (?) place. On the title track, a nod to the Michel Gondry film that shares its name, she talks of “wiping” her mind of memories that continue to haunt her: “I showed you all my demons all my lies/Yet you played me like Atari.”
Grande also toys with her public persona as a villain and rumored homewrecker. “True story” sees her stunting over top of a Timbaland-esque beat (“I’ll be the one you love to hate, can't relate/Too much on my plate”). At the same time “The Boy is Mine” offers a pettier (if that’s possible) interpolation of the 90s Brandy and Monica classic. However, Grande saves the best for last, as the closing half of sunshine is arguably the best work she’s ever done. “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” is a glittering dance-pop anthem with some outstanding vocals, and “I Wish I Hated You” is the most restrained, mature song she’s ever recorded—a measured look inwards at the aftershocks of a tumultuous relationship.
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