Eternal Sunshine – Ariana Grande
By Kaitlin Shaw
It’s been a quiet three years for one of the music industry’s biggest artists, Ariana Grande. After her 2020 chart-topping album Positions, Grande announced her break from writing and recording music until she was finished with her production on the movie adaption of Wicked. However, this did not mean she was out of the spotlight. Since Positions, Ariana Grande married discreetly and divorced publically. During her return to the world of acting, she sparked a new romance with her co-star, Ethan Slater, who played Spongebob Squarepants on broadway. The relationship instantly sparked controversy with Grande being labelled as a ‘homewrecker’ for allegedly breaking apart Slater’s previous relationship. Despite everything, Grand re emerges on the music scene with a resounding impact.
Ariana Grande’s new album, eternal sunshine, is loosely billed as a ‘concept record’ about her divorce with Dalton Gomez as well as her personal relations following the heartbreak. The album draws inspiration from the 2004 Michel Fondry movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The movie is a surreal romantic comedy where people can elect to have unwanted memories erased as a form of therapy. Grande’s eternal sunshine pulls upon these ideas about residual feelings that linger long after a breakup.
The album’s lead single ‘yes, and?’ charted number one in the US after its release in January. The song showcases Grande’s Madonna-esque flare in a house music setting. However, this energy was lacking from the rest of the album, which resides in the genres of pop-soul and her familiar mid-tempo R&B roots.
The concept album sets the scene right away with the first tone, ‘intro (end of the world)’, introducing the record’s central theme by firing a series of blunt questions such as ‘how can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?/aren’t you really supposed to know that shit?’. The first song on the album doesn’t blow the listener away. The thin backing track and celestial feel sets a calming tone that is immediately juxtaposed with the next song ‘bye’. The second song on the album, ‘bye’ announces her breakup with a catchy strut-like beat and a simple chorus of ‘bye bye, boy bye’.
The first two songs are an extremely exciting introduction to the main themes of the album. They set the tone immediately for what the album is going to be. However, the catchy second track on the record is a misleading representation for a lot of the album, which can most accurately be described as repetitive, yet also incohesive. The repetitiveness stems from the album’s inability to push musical boundaries, It felt as if the record was chained to similar techno beats and heavy production the whole way through.
The interlude, ‘Saturn Return Interlude’, is the most notable point of cohesion on the album, moving the storyline on in a way that paints the picture of picking yourself back up after a breakup. Diana Garland, a Youtube Astronomer, is sampled on this track stating “it’s time for you to get real about life and sort out who you really are.” The interlude was an incredibly strong and necessary addition to the album as it is followed by the title track ‘eternal sunshine’, a love song about leaving a bad relationship for a healthy relationship. However, this level of storytelling seems forgotten in the rest of the album as it jumps between concepts.
After the leak and Tiktok virality of her song ‘Fantasize’, Ariana Grande released her own Y2K production with ‘the boy is mine’. The song features flashy synths and a tantalising nod toward the leaked instrumentals that inspired the album’s track. The song is one of the best on the album and one I definitely lean toward when picking which song to listen to. The beat is incredibly danceable and the lyrical sassiness is a refreshing addition to the record.
Ariana Grande released a music video for ‘don’t want to break up again (wait for your love)’ which moved fans to tears with its heartbreaking storyline inspired by the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In the video, she undergoes a treatment that removes her past relationship from her mind in a heartbreaking montage of a loving relationship gone wrong. The music video is sensational and worth every second of watching it.
Lasting only 35 minutes, I find myself gravitating toward four songs on the album: ‘bye’, ‘eternal sunshine’, ‘the boy is mine’ and ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ when listening to it. The other tracks sound very similar and previously-done and don’t stand out in a way that they should on Grande’s first album release since 2020. The album dances a tricky line between having some incredibly catchy and well written and produced songs while also having songs that fail to be noteworthy at all.
The album delves into every emotion of the experience of a divorce, falling in love and subsequently falling out of it. The lyrics are intimate enough to be relatable and strong while also distancing itself from the ‘sad divorce album’ pipeline, a necessity for the main concepts of the album.
While eternal sunshine may not revolutionise the musical landscape, Ariana Grande truly lets the listener into her heart. The album feels vulnerable and raw. Despite some repetitiveness in the production, the standout tracks demonstrate her triumph in conveying the complexities of love and heartbreak. Ultimately, Grande offers an introspective testament to artistic honesty, making it a noteworthy addition to her discography.