Ariana Grande is saying it with her chest: a review of ‘eternal sunshine’
eternal sunshine’s album cover. Photo courtesy of Ariana Grande and Republic Records
Ariana Grande thought she had it all figured out. In her smash hit ‘thank u, next’, she hopes that when she walks down the aisle, she’ll make it last. But after a discreet wedding and a public divorce, and a controversial relationship with her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, Grande’s world is once again turned upside down. After years of public breakups and media scrutiny, Grande goes back to square one. She opens her seventh studio album eternal sunshine with the age-old question: “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?”, which she spends the rest of the album trying to answer.
On the Zach Sang Show, Grande described the project as a concept album based on the 2004 romantic film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where two people undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories after their breakup. Grande takes this concept and applies it to her lingering heartbreak and torturous thoughts on the title track, wishing that she could just forget it ever happened: “So I try to wipe my mind / Just so I feel less insane / Rather feel painless”. The level of vulnerability and honesty is not something new from Grande, but it does feel like she is honing in on her storytelling more than anything on this album.
One would expect eternal sunshine to be a divorce album in the same vein as Adele’s 30, but rather than wallowing in the tragedy of it all, Grande tries to do what she does best: making light of dark situations and putting an optimistic spin on an otherwise miserable story. On the impeccably produced but slightly repetitive ‘bye’, she packs her stuff and drives off with her best friend: “This ain’t the first time I’ve been hostage to these tears / I can’t believe I’m finally moving through my fears”.
Grande even manages to give us sarcastic and funny lines throughout the album. She refers to her marriage as a “situationship” in ‘don’t wanna break up again’, mocks her partner for cheating on the title track (“Hope you feel alright when you’re in her”), and offers to “play the villain” in ‘true story’. Grande builds it to a climax with the genius couplet in the house-inspired lead single ‘yes, and?’: “Your business is yours and mine is mine / Why do you care so much whose **** I ride?” It’s Grande’s signature cheekiness and humour that balances the heaviness of grief and sorrow that comes with a divorce album.
What’s most impressive about eternal sunshine, however, is its overall musical palette. Grande is a co-writer and co-producer on every track with Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin and his regular collaborator Ilya Salmanzadeh, who together crafted a spacey soundscape for this album. Grande’s last album, 2020’s Positions, was a collection of sensual R&B hits, but it occasionally felt monotonous and dull. Thankfully, eternal sunshine expands Grande’s sound beyond the constraints of her past music. ‘true story’ draws inspiration from late 90s R&B stars like Destiny’s Child and Aaliyah, while the following track ‘the boy is mine’ is her own interpolation of the 1998 Brandy and Monica song of the same name.
But Grande goes beyond the R&B-pop beats we’ve come to expect of her. ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ is reminiscent of Robyn’s influential ‘Dancing on My Own’ with its throbbing bass and four-on-the-floor kick. ‘imperfect for you’ starts with a shaky strumming guitar line before gliding into the chorus that sounds like SZA’s ballad ‘Nobody Gets Me’.
Even Grande’s vocals sound different. While Positions was characterised by whistle notes and extravagant runs, Grande opted for a softer, restrained delivery on eternal sunshine. Grande’s beautifully bruised performance on ‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ turns the dance beat into a heartrending and captivating song, one of the best pop ballads in her discography. On ‘i wish i hated you’, Grande’s delicate vocals make the otherwise simple track even more aching. It’s refreshing to see Grande show more subtle textures and shades in her voice to convey the story that she’s telling, rather than doing vocal acrobatics we’re used to seeing her do.
So, does Grande find the answer to her initial question from the start of the album? Not quite. But even if she doesn’t have the answer herself, her Nonna offers the closest thing to closure anyone could give on the closing track “ordinary things”: “If you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you’re in the wrong place, get out”. That is advice that no one, Grande included, should ever erase from their memory.