Come into the Light, Ariana: “Sweetener” Review
By Marcos Léon and Matt Ford
SCORE: 8
Prefer to listen? You can hear the review, or read it below:
Marcos: Ariana Grande is a singer from Boca Raton, Florida. This is her fourth studio album. It’s by far her most mature and interesting album.
Matt: Absolutely. She grew a lot. There’s a whole lot packed in here.
Marcos: Jumping straight into this first trick, it’s a very quick glimpse of where this album wants to go emotionally and vocally and at first, I thought it was kind of a bad thing. It seemed like, vocally, it was a warmup. She wasn’t really showing us anything but I do think, throughout the album, the focus is not so much on her vocals alone but how her vocals play with Pharrell’s production.
Matt: The way that she opened up this album with a cover of a ’50s song really, to me, just showed where her voice was going to go and her capabilities but also how soft the album was going to be, the kind of content that she was going to be singing about and it felt light and airy so I really loved the intro.
Marcos: And it doesn’t spare any time to get right into this really fun production — a lot of it because of Pharrell. Right away, you start to see the NOLA bounce inspiration that Pharrell’s been playing with recently, like on the track “Lemon” with Rihanna, and it’s not quite as strong here but it’s a really cute vibe that you get from this song with Ariana talking about love.
Matt: Seven of the tracks from Sweetener were produced by Pharrell and it’s evident throughout the sound of the album. It’s fluffy, it’s fun, it’s the perfect form of pop confection in 2018.
Marcos: I enjoyed every single song that Pharrell touched and, to me, the low points were when it transitioned very starkly into something that you could tell was not a Pharrell song. At first listen, I thought Ariana’s vocals were playing second string to Pharrell’s production and noted that as something I didn’t like but once I got more into the album, they play off each other so well. I don’t think Ariana really needs to show off her vocals or force any overly powerful moments with her voice because the way that she floats between the production is so much more beautiful than her trying to force the spotlight.
Matt: She seems way more confident in not only her vocal range but in the kind of music that she wants to make and, in some of her recent interviews, she said that when she and Pharrell got together, the first thing she told him was that she wanted to make the weirdest shit possible and have a lot of fun and I think it really came across — definitely in some of the earlier tracks like “Blazed.”
Marcos: I see this super clear meshing of [Ariana and Pharrell] in “R.E.M.” That song is so cute, so hushed but hurried. It feels like a crush, which is what Ariana is singing about, and it works so well when it comes together in this super-sweet song. “The Light is Coming” — the only part I didn’t like, I don’t think Nicki Minaj added anything to that song.
Matt: Out of all of the songs, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott’s verses don’t bring anything new. They feel extra and unneeded but without that, “The Light is Coming” is a fun and poppy song and a great club-banger and “R.E.M” sets the tone for the emotions that you go through with Ariana throughout the album.
Marcos: I feel like “God is a Woman” is a great single but it just doesn’t fit on this album for me, at least where it’s placed. Up until then, you have all Pharrell production [except “Raindrops (An Angel Cried)”] — it’s all very bouncy, fun and active and “God is a Woman” is the first time that it veers into a darker, moodier sound. The message is great but, in the flow of the album, it feels like a quick left turn.
Matt: Most of the songs that Max Martin is involved in, from “God is a Woman” to “No Tears Left to Cry,” are obviously the singles. The rest of the album flows a lot better and delves into each topic, each sonic instrumentation, much more naturally. But what I love about them is that, in the context of the album, they fit. Their thematic subjects — spirituality, selfhood and the mysteriousness of womanhood — feel much more evident. You get a sense of where Ariana was after the Manchester attack with her aesthetic showing this gray hair, she’s feeling ungrounded, she’s literally upside-down in the [“No Tears Left to Cry”] video, drifting through the universe and realizing her power. So even though these songs feel like left turns, they reveal what Ariana was going through at the time of the creation of this album.
Marcos: I really appreciate that you bring up Manchester because on first listen, “Breathin” and “Get Well Soon” felt a little strange when the rest of the album was so happy and bouncy and talking about love or sex. But you think about what Ariana has been through in the last year and a half with this massive attack at one of her shows that she seemed to take so personally and was so invested in her fans’ recovery and put on a separate show just to raise funds for the victims. On top of that, her breakup and anything else that’s happened in her life that we may be unaware of, these songs that have to deal with anxiety are so poignant and so necessary to ground these feelings of happiness.
Matt: She says in interviews with Elle and Time magazines that she felt upside-down for a few months following the attack and her lifelong anxiety suddenly became physical when she was having dizzy spells for the first time and she was crying all the time. She had first thought, Oh, I can never sing in public again, but she quickly realized that she has to be there for her fans — and herself — and that was very evident throughout the album. You’re definitely right, “Breathin’” and “Get Well Soon” felt like the heaviest songs on the album but they really shined through with bringing to the world who Ariana is at her core. Also, “Breathin’” is clearly going to be a single and I’m very excited for that.
Marcos: Both of those tracks are truly honest and I appreciate that she was willing to put that out there. The only other moment that seemed to be on the downside was “Everytime” which is the song about a breakup —
Matt: — Yes, likely about Mac Miller.
Marcos: It definitely sounds like it’s about him and she hasn’t really addressed this head-on in her music. On Twitter, she talked about how women shouldn’t be expected to fix their partners and that seems to be all she’s really said about this relationship.
Matt: Looking at Mac Miller and his appearance in public and his behavior lately, it seems that that relationship was very damaging. His inner demons were starting to become too apparent and were starting to wear on her. We don’t get much of the actual emotions and the hurt beyond “Everytime” and I think that’s something she’ll explore later because, after that and the Manchester attack in only the last year, that’s a lot to put into the album.
Marcos: This album as a whole feels like more of a response and a rebirth after those heavy losses in her life and there’s so much joy here. The tracks that we mentioned — being “Everytime,” “Get Well Soon,” “God is a Woman” and, to some extent, “No Tears Left to Cry” — talk about how she’s moving from this point of sorrow and sadness in her life.
Matt: “Sweetener” and “Successful” are two of my other favorites because of that joy. They’re such good pop songs — so incredibly well-crafted, her voice shines through and you can’t help but to feel free when listening to them. “Get Well Soon” feels a lot less like sorrow than it does rejoicing and finding a new beginning after a cloud for a long time, after feeling like you’ve been floating. Now you’re able to settle down and reach the ground and feel your feet. The song as well as “Pete Davidson” carry the weight of the album and feel like a strong conclusion. “Get Well Soon” is by far my favorite on the record. It’s been on repeat for the past few days.
Marcos: “Successful” is such a bop. I love that she’s so much about empowerment in her success but it doesn’t sound like the kind of boastfulness you get in hip-hop. It just sounds like, I’m doing well for myself and I’m happy to be doing well for myself.
Matt: And the girl is 25! She’s had some experiences that have brought her to this level of maturity through her music and lyrics and through her connection to her fans and the rest of the world.
Marcos: I tend to gage albums based on the lyrics because of my primary choice being hip-hop but with this, she didn’t say too much explicitly. But once you listen and take in the emotionality of the beats and give weight to the things she’s saying and let these things have space to breathe, you can hear that there is pain there but the focus of the album and what I see Ariana trying to move toward is joy and happiness in her life.
Matt: She is ready to move on. I agree that I was expecting a bit more layered emotions from her. It was still very much an album that erred on the light, romantic songs that you’re used to hearing in pop music but with all of the layers of instrumentation, especially with Pharrell’s production, it all came together as an album that talked about new love, old love and new beginnings. I’m also wondering if we have to expect Ariana to be extremely honest in all of her music. On one hand, she is a pop artist but on the other, I think that artists in general right now — we even see it with Nicki Minaj — are going through a lot of hurt currently and trying to put that into art, I remember that they’re people and I wonder how much we deserve of them after their heartbreaks.
Marcos: In music, I definitely want to see a sense of honesty and a cohesive message, which is why I tend to veer away from pop and its lightfulness. What made this album for me was Pharrell’s very detailed, careful production backing Ariana’s light lyrical message because they were able to build on each other and I appreciate that connection. I do hope for pop to move in a direction where either the instrumentation is very carefully crafted, such as Kelela’s last album [“Take Me Apart” — HIGHLY RECOMMENDED], or where the lyrical content is better, like with Rina Sawayama.
