Album Review: Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine

Art is a bitch. Because if you are really serious about that life, your art will end up imitating it. Art can be both cruel and beautiful like that. But it’s what resonates with people, because it’s real. And in terms of what this means for Ariana Grande—for better or worse—she’s ended up with a discography where her life has been documented in some form with each album. Yours Truly featuring Mac Miller. My Everything featuring Big Sean. Sweetener featuring songs about her relationship with Pete Davidson and how she felt after the Manchester bombing. Thank U, Next being about her split from Pete Davidson. Positions being about her having good sex with that realtor man. And now Eternal Sunshine being about her falling out of love with that realtor man and right back into it with SpongeBob in the midst of homewrecking allegations.

Girl.

But Sweetener and Eternal Sunshine feel different to Thank U, Next and Positions, in that they feel far more earnest. Thank U, Next was all ‘Fuck you’ and Positions was all ‘Fuck me’. And whilst we got some fun songs out of this, the best moments on Thank U, Next and Positions were when Grande actually talked about herself and her feelings, as was the case throughout Sweetener. And this is what makes Eternal Sunshine work in ways I didn’t think Thank U, Next and Positions did. Every song on this album is from the perspective of how Grande feels and not her sitting purely in a reaction to something. Grande seems to have softened her delivery and made a conscious effort to do as such, which may be an insight to a lot of the mess around how Grande and SponegBob wound up together. And this is why I think it’s a shame that “Yes, And?” was the first single off of this album, because it doesn’t showcase this softened delivery or sense of reflection that the other songs on it do. And out of context of the album, “Yes, And?” is just Grande back in Thank U, Next mode, where she’s putting middle fingers up and being all ‘It’s not me, it’s you’. Also, “Yes, And?” barely even fits the album, but we’ll get to that.

But irregardless of whether Grande had released “Yes, And?” as a lead single or not, or if she took it off of the album outright, it wouldn’t change what Eternal Sunshine is about, and what everybody knows that it’s about. And it also wouldn’t fundamentally change the public opinion on how they feel about what the album is about. Grande has wound up creating a brand which consists of albums being about specific periods of her life which involve her partner at the time. And with previous albums this wasn’t that big of a deal. People were able to just say ‘whatever’ and chalk it up to folk being young, dumb and just wanting to be with somebody. Also, there was nothing THAT scandalous about how her relationships ended. At least not from what we knew at the time. But Eternal Sunshine is different, because of the tabloid stories of infidelity and the involvement of a child—which have really dented the public perception of Grande. So it’s harder for the Starbucks woman with the ponytail to just ‘Thank U, Next’ her way out of this one. No matter how good the beats and her vocals are.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Eternal Sunshine is messy and Grande knows it. This whole album is a pretty saccharine account of her love life over the past couple of years. But no matter how Grande tries to paint it, the brown on the palette will always be the doo-doo shade of the backdrop on the album cover. But the thing to note with the whole Grande and SpongeBob situation, is that we don’t actually know what happened and how. But the one thing we all know and can agree on, is that the optics are horrendous. Grande doesn’t delve into the specifics of what happened. So we can only speculate about her sliding Krabby patties under the hotel door and Ethan saving Grande in his phone as ‘Bikini Bottom’.

Every song on Eternal Sunshine sees Grande being selectively honest by omission, with the lines blurring between fact and fiction. I feel that this was not only the right move creatively, but a necessary one for her personally. Especially if she wants to tell her story without leaving in every detail and leaving enough space for the public to be sympathetic towards her. It shows (some) growth on Grande’s part, and that—if nothing else—she’s realising that some things are better left unsaid in a public forum. “Yes, And?” shows that perhaps she hasn’t grown enough. And previous songs like “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” don’t help Grande’s case here what-so-ever. But in terms of where Grande is right here and now, and with her approach to this album—I think she handled the topics of conversation as well as I think she was able.

“Yes, And?” seemed to paint a specific picture of the type of album this could potentially be, and I wasn’t looking forward to that. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is Eternal Sunshine not an attempt at a dance album, but that it is far more reflective and earnest than “Yes, And?” is. Honestly, “Yes, And?” feels like a song which Grande did because she needed a single that would hit right for the start of 2024, whilst cashing in on a house music trend. And as much as I prefer “Bye”—which gives everything “Yes, And?” didn’t—it wouldn’t have hit the same as a lead single. So, the creative in me doesn’t like the song. But me with my business hat on gets why it was a lead single.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Grande is business savvy if nothing else. And I think this is something to always consider when even trying to pick apart whether what she’s singing about is true or not, or whether she is playing a character. Grande has kinda mastered the art of controlling a narrative and managing to make it work in her favour. And she is also so big in terms of popularity, that for however many people attempt to tear her down, it will never be enough for her to fall, because her fans won’t allow it. And as inflammatory as “Yes, And?” was, it did the things it needed to do. It got people talking and fuelled the message of the song. It got the RGB (255, 255, 255) gays behind it. And that shit still went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The success of “Yes, And?” also highlights another thing. No matter the controversy and no matter the mess—Grande will always find a way to deliver music which is good enough to rope you in. I don’t particularly like “Yes, And?”, but I still listened to it, and went out of my way to make an extended mix of it.

Even if you don’t like Grande and whatever foolery she is involved in, you will play her shit. And Eternal Sunshine is an example of how you truly can’t separate the artist from the art, or consume this album in a vacuum. Because even if you detach yourself from the stories in the press, the album will push you right back to it.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Whilst I do think that it’s important that we don’t get too invested in tabloid stories, I do think that some of it should be kept in the periphery when it comes to albums such as this which are addressing it, because it provides a lot of context for the songs. But Grande shines as a songwriter here, because she really does paint a lot of the story—the good and the bad—in a way that you don’t really need to be aware of any of the mess that every pop Twitter account and website was running with when photos of Sandiana and SpongeBob were spotted at the Krabby shack looking like a couple, whilst Sandiana’s husband was at home on the Xbox and SpongeBob’s wife was at home with a new-born baby.

The optics are bad. And for better or worse, it colours the music. And you can’t really talk about this album without touching on the scandal in some way. But I do want to preface this by saying that none of us actually know what happened. We can speculate. And I’m not going to sit here and act holier than thou, as though I don’t have my own thoughts on the homes which were wrecked and who took a sledgehammer to them walls. But I’m also not going to act like Grande is not talented. Because for all of her potential fuckery and penchant for mess, her artistry and growth really do shine on this album in a way that you can’t disregard. So much of what I had wanted from Grande is given to me on this album. And it wouldn’t surprise me if fans ranked this as their favourite Grande album, because she does deliver everything that I think her fans have wanted from her for a while now.

The music video for “Yes, And?” featured sculptures which were in reference to past albums of Grande’s, and I figured that the one of her with her hands over her face would be in reference to the album cover of what would eventually be revealed to us as Eternal Sunshine. I was correct. But the call backs to previous albums were more than just Easter eggs in a music video, but a nice reference to what Eternal Sunshine is—a consolidation of all of Grande’s albums to date.

Grande’s albums are each so different, that those who listen to her music will have a strong opinion on which they feel is her best and her worst, and Grande’s fanbase is somewhat fractured as a result of this. This shit is like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Each album is its own nation who doesn’t fuck with the others. But Eternal Sunshine is the Avatar that may bring the nations together. Because even if you don’t deem this as Grande’s best album or your personal favourite, you will have something favourable to say about it. Grande’s music has always been a bit all over the place, but Eternal Sunshine finally sees her landing in a sweet spot, where there is balance and an awareness of what works for her. Is Grande being pushed artistically? Not really. But I’ll take this tight, thought out and well packaged offering.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

For how much that you’d think Grande would have to say on this album, Eternal Sunshine is very brief. And this would be fine, if it weren’t for some of the songs sounding so undercooked. This seems to be an issue in pop right now. We’re not only getting these short-as-hell songs, but undercooked albums—which is part of why Chappell Roan has become such a hot commodity. She’s bringing big pop songs with structures back. Grande sounds lovely on each of the songs. The production and mixing across the whole album is tight. But there are too many instances of songs being cut short, not having the best structures and not having enough moments to truly elevate them and make them soar. And it’s surprising to me that this ended up being the case, when Max Martin was involved across this entire album as both a producer and an executive producer. He’s usually particular about these sorts of things.

Speaking of Max Martin…

Martin is credited as a producer on 11 out of the 13 tracks on this album. And his production is good. It’s really clear that Martin and Grande have a close relationship and deep respect for each others’ crafts. They’ve both played a part in each other’s growth over the past decade. Grande allowed Martin a space to really diversify his sound at a point where he was being boxed in by his work with Dr. Puke. And Martin has created spaces where Ariana where she is able to just…play around with things..

Given the subject matter of this album and the bubble Grande put herself in whilst working on Wicked, dealing with public scrutiny over her appearance, her divorce, and then the scandal of infidelity between her and Spongebob—it makes sense that she would make an album in the midst of this storm with a small team and one primary producer who she not only trusts, but feels safe enough with to be vulnerable and a bit messy, without judgement. And there is a sense of intimacy with Eternal Sunshine as a result of this, which I really like—which also reminds me of Sweetener and the safe space Grande found with Pharrell Williams. BUT. With all this said, I do feel that there are songs on here that would have been better off in the hands of other producers.

For as brief as Eternal Sunshine is, it runs a gamut of sounds. Some which are very specific to a genre, a time period and even a producer. “True Story” is one such example. It sounds so much like it is trying to be a Timbaland song of the early 2000s, that it would’ve made sense to just have Timbaland produce it. Although given his problematic comments about his feelings for Aaliyah when he first started working with her (when she was still a teen) and how Justin should put a muzzle on Britney, I get why any woman would refuse to hand him money for a beat. So, it’s just as well there’s his former protégé, Danja—who would have done a great job of the dark and ominous sound of “True Story” (Danja’s speciality), whilst being able to tap into the Timbo vibe of the drums, without it sounding like a copy of them. Martin and his partner in crime—Ilya Salmanzadeh—do a fine job of the production. But there is a sense of them not really feeling confident enough in the sound to really play with it and push it in the ways it needed to be. The same goes for “The Boy Is Mine”. Having Jermaine Dupri or Rodney Jerkins produce this and having them tap into their late 90s sounds would have worked far better for the song than having Martin, Davidior and Shintaro Yasuda imitate it. Jerkins may be a bit too on the nose, given that he co-wrote and produced Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine”, which Grande’s song of the same name is inspired by. But Dupri would have been a great choice. As would Babyface and Antonio Dixon, both of whom Grande has worked with before on what are still two of my favourite Grande cuts, “Baby I” and “You’ll Never Know”.

But the execution of “The Boy Is Mine” is a little bizarre to me every-which-way anyway, and I’mma tell you why.

“The Boy Is Mine” was made in response to Grande’s fans being very vocal about how much they liked her leaked song “Fantasize”, which was a tongue-in-cheek song made to sound like something from a girl group in the early 2000s. But “The Boy Is Mine” doesn’t give that same energy as clearly as “Fantasize” did. Also, it’s weird to me that Martin—the king of this type of sound back in his days as a producer for Backstreet Boys, *NSync and Britney—didn’t tap into his work from his Cheiron days for “The Boy Is Mine”. This was a real chance to have Grande fully and faithfully live her early 2000s pop girl fantasy, as somebody who clearly has an adoration for that time period—between “Fantasize”, a bunch of her songs over the course of her career, and performing with *NSYNC, in addition to interpolating one of their songs on Thank U, Next.

Martin being able to do it all and be a jukebox for Grande means that she doesn’t have to have this large roster of producers to craft an album with variation. But I do feel the limitations of this on Eternal Sunshine. It also highlights how much Martin no longer has an identifiable sound. You could have played any song off of Eternal Sunshine to me and asked me to guess who produced it, and I would only have said Martin purely off of knowing there is a high probability of his involvement, because it’s Grande. Not because I think a song sounds like a production of his. I’m about to go on a slight tangent here, but walk with me.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Producers no longer have identifiable sounds these days. At one point in time producers were the trends. But now the sound is a trend. And as a result of this and the rise of bedroom producers, every producer is prioritising chasing a sound, over originality and creating their own brand of sound. Martin has managed to pivot, stay booked and crank out chart topping hits with far more success and frequency than many of his peers. But I do think it’s a shame that he doesn’t have a sound any more, as he did during the Cheiron days and the Kelly Clarkson “Since U Been Gone” days. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

I do wish Grande had brought in other producers to really sell some of the sounds on this album and enrich them further. Because there is this general sense across the album that there’s a threshold that Martin and Salmanzadeh have both hit, and they seem unable to really go beyond it. And Grande is not an artist who makes bold musical choices which would force Martin or Salmanzadeh to really think outside of the box. “Bye” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” are the only songs on this album where I feel Martin and Salmanzadeh hit every mark with the sound. And Salmanzadeh is responsible for what is an album highlight, “I Wish I Hated You”. But even these songs are still undercooked and have boundaries. Eternal Sunshine does feature additional producers who make contributions, but even they aren’t able to provide enough to lift a lot of the material in the way I feel it should have been.

As Grande continues to become bolder and more confident as a songwriter, I feel the production of her songs is becoming a little bit stale and one note, and it’s creating an imbalance. With Grande being credited as a producer across every song on this album, I think her evolution as a producer is developing her ear to know when a song needs more and when to hand it over to somebody else—things that the likes of Kelela and Beyoncé have become great at. And as much as it may seem like I’m suddenly dragging the album after saying that I think it’s good, Eternal Sunshine is a great new baseline from which Grande can build her sound and her skills as a songwriter and producer. She’s on the right track with this album. And I respect that Grande is becoming more hands on with her music, between writing her own material without a team, engineering herself and producing. Even when the results aren’t always on the mark, I can tell she enjoys the process and has a love for the craft of making music, which is something I don’t think she gets enough credit for. And even with Eternal Sunshine not reaching the heights I felt that it could have, her passion for what she does and her commitment to it still shines through.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Back to the undercooked chicken of this album though, it really impacts the listening experience for me. Whilst I can acknowledge the production is good, that Grande knows how to pen a good song, that she sounds good and knows how to put together a body of work—there is still this sense of Grande and Martin not bringing everything to the table for a song to make it feel whole, and this was a HUGE problem with Positions. So few of the songs on that album felt fully realised. It’s like Grande hit a point with each song where she said ‘Yeah, I’m done with that now’ and said ‘Thank you, next’ when there was still more work to be done. When each song on Eternal Sunshine ends, I’m like ‘Bitch, that’s it!?’. “Bye” is so easy breezy and lavish, but it doesn’t allow you to sit in its lavishness for long enough to revel in it the way I feel the production wants you to. “Yes, And?” has a terrible bridge section with no real pay off, and the song isn’t really structured in a way that allows you to fully let loose and dance, because its structure is approached as a pop record and not a dance record, despite the sound—something I attempted to address with my extended mix.

One thing I will give the Starbucks woman with the ponytail, is that Eternal Sunshine is very well sequenced and well packaged. I actually think it’s her best album in terms of sequencing and how it holds together. As much as I adore Sweetener, the sequencing was a fucking mess. Not having “No Tears Left to Cry” follow “Raindrops (An Angel Cried)” will never make sense to me. But Eternal Sunshine does lose me a little in the middle. “The Boy Is Mine” and “Yes, And?” just do not work for me. If you take these three songs out, the album flows far better sonically and narratively. I also think that they throw the energy of the album off by essentially being kiss-off songs.

From the top of the album Grande seems earnest and shows some level of awareness of the situation she’s found herself in. Then you have these two songs where Grande is kinda like ‘Fuck it’. And then it’s back into “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”. It just doesn’t make sense. “True Story” alone would have been a nice bridge between “Supernatural” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”. No matter how much Grande or her fans try to play off “The Boy Is Mine” as pastiche or ‘a bit of fun’, it plays too much into the narrative of Grande being a homewrecker that it’s hard to take the song as anything but an account of what actually happened and how Grande approached SpongeBob. I just feel that the song is unnecessarily messy and poking a fire that didn’t need to be poked, as was the case with “Yes, And?”. I guess that’s the whole point of the song. But even just sonically, I don’t think this song really works on this album. But as with “Yes, And?”, from a business perspective in terms of what could be a hit and what will get the Internet talking, it works. So I get it. The remix of “The Boy Is Mine” course corrects the narrative to a degree, which makes the song far less incendiary and with it feature Brandy and Monica, it gives the song more of the girl group vibe that the song was supposed to have from the start. So, it’s a shame it’s not on the regular edition of the album.

Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine | Republic Records

Eternal Sunshine is a well put together album. But it is a little too fleeting, and for many of the wrong reasons. Too many of the songs on this album end just as you’ve settled into them. And every song on this album feels like it could have gone somewhere else before it ends. And it’s really unfortunate, because the production on these songs is generally tight. And we get some really nice middle eights and bridge sections. But then once all that is said and done, the songs just…end. And before you know, the entire album is done. It doesn’t help that even the album closer “Ordinary Things” doesn’t quite feel like it closes the album as well as it should, despite sonically and thematically ticking all of the right boxes—all because the song feels cut short. It’s like Grande and co. are just speedrunning through every single song. Each song on this album feels like its own story and its own little world. So it’s a shame that rather than allowing Grande and listeners to live in them a little more, that you’re kinda just pushed from one song to the next.

As much as I do like Eternal Sunshine, I’ve not played it a great deal, because of how little there is to really pore over—in large part because of how brief it is. But also, musically, this album isn’t a huge leap from what we’ve heard Grande do before. The music here for the most part is good. But compared to some of Grande’s previous albums, Eternal Sunshine just isn’t an album with a great deal of replay value. Or even a handful of songs that you can pluck from it and just play. This doesn’t make it a bad album. But after Sweetener and Positions, Eternal Sunshine does highlight that Grande needs to hone her writing and production ear to catch when a song isn’t fully realised—to ensure that her songs feel like full songs and not just these short vignettes which make up an album. And if short vignettes is what she wants her songs to be, then she needs to find ways that they can form an album which feels fully rounded and completely whole. But I get the sense that Grande is somebody with an extremely short attention span, who likes to move on from things quickly, and that she treats her songs and her albums the same way. Just look at the stretch of Sweetener, Thank U, Next and Positions. And on Eternal Sunshine there is an ‘I’ve said all I need to say, NEXT SONG PLEASE’ air about these songs. And I get it. Some of the shit Grande is singing about on this album isn’t the most comfortable for her, e.g “I Wish That I Hated You”. And I’m sure that the swiftness at moving through this album and how quickly she moved from Sweetener, to Thank U, Next to Positions is because she wants to move on from each of the situations that each album was defined by. But I do think it’s affecting the music.

It’s a tough thing to critique or suggest a solution to, because as aforementioned, this is a case of art imitating life. I could just say that Grande should create music on some of these moments in her life at a point when she’s processed her feelings and fully made peace with it—similar to Beyoncé and Lemonade. Choosing to air Jay-Z’s drawers out and let everybody in on a rough point in her life from a point where she had healed from it, and not from when she was in the midst of it. This allowed her to look at the whole thing objectively and almost remove herself from it to a degree. I wonder if Grande’s albums would fare better if she took a similar approach. But this is easier said than done, because we all process things differently. And we also channel our lives into art in different ways. What works for Beyoncé, may not work for Grande. And how Grande works may not be how Beyoncé would be able to work. And I guess this is a really notable thing to consider with Grande. That perhaps this is just her thing. But also that she has a point of view and approach to her art which is enough for somebody to even ponder these questions and thoughts. Because back in 2013 when Yours Truly had released, I never figured Grande would release an album like Sweetener, Thank U, Next or Eternal Sunshine – where she has such a sense of self, her own approaches and her own points of view of her own artistry.

I don’t know if I could say that I think Eternal Sunshine is a great album, but I do think it’s a good one. I truly do think that conceptual albums are where Grande shines creatively. But she needs to curb her instinct to release things quickly, and allow herself time to go back to songs and fine tune them to be as great as they have the potential to be. Sweetener, Positions and Eternal Sunshine would have been so much better if she’d taken this approach. But I respect Grande’s boldness—for better or worse. And much like Sweetener, Eternal Sunshine has me committed to seeing what Grande will deliver further down the road. And whilst she hasn’t quite figured out albums yet, I like that with each release I am seeing her artistry flourish. And I definitely see an evolution of it on Eternal Sunshine.

Highlights:
▪ Bye 🥈
▪ Don’t Wanna Break Up Again
▪ Supernatural
▪ We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)
▪ I Wish I Hated You 🥇