[Music Minute] Eternal Sunshine, by Ariana Grande

 Eternal Sunshine is the seventh album by Ariana Grande, which was released in March 2024 through Republic records.

The lead single [Yes, And?] had geat retro urban/pop music, a strong hook and was delivered with a strong & confident attitude, so I was excited for this album as (based on the single) it seems that we're getting a mash-up of the Dangerous Woman & Thank U Next eras.

Dangerous Woman and Thank U Next are my favourite Ariana Grande albums, so I pre-ordered a digital copy of Eternal Sunshine as soon as it became available on Amazon - would the wait & suspense pay off on release aday?

... The lead single Yes, And? is by far the strongest track on the album (although the lyrics weren't the best choice for smoothly correcting the rumour mill).  The second single We Can't Be Friends  and the track True Story (polished so smoothly that it must be a planned single) also stand out for the same reasons as Yes, And? with radios friendly music, catchy lyrics, and Ariana singing with emotion & strength - these tracks just feel more 'finished', whereas almost everything else on here honestly just feels like little more than leaked half-completed demos.

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Ordinary Things and Bye are honestly the only other tracks that I can remember five minutes after I listen to the album. Every other track just becomes one big jumble; the pace & lyrical content is too similar as they are all either about her divorce or her latest boyfriend, so it just feels like I'm Ariana's therapist listening to her talk through her codependancy issues - it's almost uncomfortable tbh. Other artists make these types of tracks feel like one on one conversations with a friend or partner, but the tracks on Eternal Sunshine feel detached to me. Maybe it's just me, but Ariana's more personal songs on her past albums aren't my favourites either because of her detached delivery for most of them.

The best thing that I can say is that nothing on Eternal Sunshine stands out for being bad. However I'll be honest and admit that whilst it is not as much of a disappointment as Positions was for me, the album isn't something that sticks with me too well - there are just many fillers that quickly become empty noise here for Eternal Sunshine to be a truly memorable album. All I take away from it is the opinion that Ariana should stay single for a bit, rather than jumping straight out of a divorce to a qnew father who was still legally married to someone else.

 

I keep on replaying the album, but I still can't remember anything worth of note for over half of the tracklist - Eternal Sunshine is in no danger of knocking Dangerous Woman or Thank U Next from my top spots.