‘There is so much magic in art’- Ariana Grande

After a 3-year drought, Grande is back in our ears with a new sound, a new look, and a new sense of self. She sounds mature, more comfortable with where she is by spotlighting the sadness that she has been tormented by. With the album out last week, 8th March,we thought we would take the time to do a quick stop at each track.

There is strength in vulnerability. We can make ourselves weak as a consequence of our own actions or be made to feel small by external emotional earthquakes we have no hand in. Each comes with pain, shame, and sorrow but can become a new sheen to our shield, a new tip to our sword. Grande’s latest album ‘Eternal Sunshine’ showcases both this power and vulnerability, ushering in a new season for the singer… finally the light is here.

Track 1- intro (end of the world)

Self-aware and honest, this song instantly captures the entirety of the album with its dreamy feel, its layered harmonies, and ethereal edge. And after her hiatus, she is quick to get going, transporting us right into the next track.

Track 2- bye

Upbeat and life-affirming, this song sees the positive in letting go, finding closure, and moving on. You can feel the radiance shining through the rain clouds. You are dancing yourself out of a dark room and into the sunrise, making the streets outside golden. You have been patient, you have been placid, you have sacrificed your peace in an attempt to create positivity, but now it is time to take your power back and leave.

Track 3 -don’t wanna break up again

Find a situation and settle within it. Today’s culture is all about hustle, competition, rushing into change without realizing that some parts of our lives are better preserved, as long as they are progressive, harmonious, and forward-thinking. Why not settle? Allow yourself to be loved even if you have been made to feel unlovable.

Track 4- – Saturn Returns Interlude

Astrologist Diana Garland delivers a beautifully poetic bite of science delivered in a philosophical basket. There will come a time in your life when it is right for you to turn around, take a look, and learn through reflection, appreciate where you are and where you have been, kiss your cuts and bruises for healing, and look into the future to see where you want to be.

Track 5-eternal sunshine

To heal, we must forget? Our memories, both golden and broken, are who we are, all the sadness, all the smiles, they are who we are. Pain and positivity make a person. I want to remember all the loves I have had, both good and bad, I am who I am because of all of them.

But this track spotlights that pain, putting them under the microscope to tear them apart is they don’t hurt anymore, giving the mic to the most painful of places. When we look back on our lives what do we look for, the light or the darkness?

She is her own sunshine, she has healed from the pain and when it rains she becomes her own light. Inspired by the 2004 film directed by Michael Gondry in which the two main progtaginsits ‘clementine’ (portrayed by Kate Winslet) and Joel (portrayed by Jim Carrey) choose to erase painful memories of thier relationship in order to move on without relaising that memoires are our life lessons, we should cherish each experience, understanding that despite the excrucation to erase an exeprience is to remove a crucial part of your identity.

Track 6- Supernatural

Love is magical, it’s a blooming bruise, it’s a bouquet filled with wilting roses, it’s a month of sunshine, it is eyes full of tears and a face full of smiles.

It has an ethereal edge to it, the emotional connection you can create with something, it feels almost otherworldly as though some larger energy forged a path for you to find each other. It is unstoppable, something you willingly succumb to you letting go of fear and falling in love, knowing your loved one will catch you.

It is a very sensual track with Ariana herself describing it as the ‘horniest’. There is definietley a visceral power to the song wiht palpable pleasure s demand for desire to be dlievered , touch is all that is needed, it is all feverish, it is all delicious, and overpowering; it is supernatural.

Track 7-True story

Spotlights exagerate the flaws of its victims, the critics see this success as a magnifier an opportunity to direct the light to the parts we try to hide, amplyyfing lose whispers and spooling them into delicous lies.

Grande reclaiming her narrative, throwing the spotlight on the critics; this is her playing the bad girl and the boy is mine is the bad girl’s anthem. It is Grande taking back her power. Her voice was taken away by the critics and now she’s using it to reclaim her story, refusing to be silenced; you can’t control what people say, but you can control how you react to it, and if you can laugh in the face of adversity, then you win.

Track 8-The boy is mine

A follow on from the aforemntioned track that boasts nostalgic 90s hip-hop and layered harmonies. A reimagination of the iconic 1998 track The Boy Is Mine by Brandy and Monica this song is empowering if not a bit of fun, a play by the singer to assume the narrative she has been given and run with it.

Described as a bad girl anthem by Grande it is about taking ownership of your love and despite what passers-by may perceive if this is love then it’s yours and that is okay.

The tabloids love a bad woman because it does not fit into our societally normalized idea that for a woman to be good she must be pure, selfless, and passive, which just isn’t the case. Remember her relationship with wicked co-star Ethan Slater is only rumored and it is also umored ithat if they are togetehr they got together when they were btoh single, and if they really are together, no matter the situation, who are we to involve ourselves in that narrative? Why do we feel we have a right to comment on someone else’s business? So ,to a similar tune, I introduce the next track-

Track 9-Yes, and?

Yes and is a nod to Grande’s acting routes being a rule of thumb ithat states you should accept what the improviser has said; this is exactly what Grande does. You think that about me, you do that about me; who cares if she has done the stuff you say? She is happy; it is about accepting others’ ideas and adding to them.

As the lead single it offers a more bouncy, raunchy vibewith a music video that honours a bouncy pop Paula Abdul’s cold-hearted music video. She is living her most authentic life whilst the rumour mill keeps churning out its lies, made indominatble by her happiness and authetncnity buttressed by her biting bridge;

My tongue is sacred, I speak upon what I like
Protected, sexy, discerning with my time, my time
Your energy is yours and mine is mine
What’s mine is mine

“My face is sitting, I don’t need no disguise
Don’t comment on my body, do not reply
Your business is yours and mine is mine
Why do you care so much whose – I ride?
Why?”

Ariana Grande Yes and?

People without pedastals are going to see you stood on yours and try to tear you off it just because the do not have one themselves. Just because Grande grew up in the public eye does not mean she has no right to privacy; her relationships are not a performance for us, it is personal to her, and her partner is

Admittedly, yes and was not initially on my playlist but now it is a power anthem. Own it, own it, own it. Yes and?

Track 10-We can’t be friends

We have all had those relationships that come to an end in which both parties swear that someday they will be friends again, in some cases this may be true, perhaps they were right person just wrong time but sadly in most you are left to realize that this is just a sweetener to settle the separation.

Your dreams may try to convince you that on some parallel plane you are in fact still together, but after those brief moments of fuzz in the morning, you remember how far off this fantasy is.

Sometimes you have feelings for someone you can’t really be friends with anymore but that does not mean there isn’t still love for them. All of the memories, all of the fights, the love, the forgotten nights, and dizziness of the days in their arms; sometimes it’s nice to pretend that you could go back there.

Find a space where you can be yourself and if that space is big enough to share then be yourself with everyone else, but if they try to narrow that space and shut it out, then run before it swallows you whole. Ultimately this song is all about being patient, waiting for the right person to fall in love with, waiting until you have recovered from painful memories, when they feel like they belong to somebody else.

Track 11-I wish I hated you

Sometimes things end because they have to, not because you want them to. Dragged along by distance or knowing you both need a space is a sad but understandable end to a relationship. When things end softly and silently, between sobs and lingering hugs it can be difficult to let go.

You are left longing for hurt, wishing that one was a villain who was easy to hate but this is not always the case and although you know the love is gone it is always difficult to say goodbye to those held heart memories and the future you were going to make.

‘Our shadows dance in a parallel plane
Just two different endings, you learn to repair
And I learn to keep me in one place’

Ariana Grande ‘i wish i hated you’

Devastation and desperation, but knowing this is for the best and in time you will feel happier.

Track 12-Imperfect for you

To be loved is to be known, authentically and completely. I will show you all of the good, all of the bad, and everything in between, and I will hope you will love me unconditionally. There is so much pressure to be perfect, to live life on that narrow tightrope and navigate it expertly with a genuine smile on your face.

It is nice to know that if we do fall from that narrow margin there will be others at the bottom ready to hoist us up to a more realistic level, leaving room for both our strengths and weaknesses and seeing us for the person we are throughout it all. The song title also offers witty wordplay sounding very similar to ‘I am perfect for you,’ alluding to the fact we all have different expectations for perfection and whoever we are there is someone for us.

With its hopeful harmonies and self effacing edge it is clear to see why Grande herself as said this is one of her favoruites from the album.

Track 13-Ordinary things

This is by far my favourite track on the album

Diamond rings and shiny things mean nothing when your heart isn’t held by a loving hand, your head isn’t kissed by caring lips. Supermarket flowers and a handwritten note, a homemade cake and a shoulder to cry on, dancing to music in the kitchen, it is the little things we overlook that are the bedrock of a genuine relationship, love is so ordinary, it is so essential, why do we put it on such a pedestal, apply pressure to it and expect it to flourish, it is about coaching, about patience and appreciation.

“No matter what we do
There’s never gonna be an ordinary thing
No ordinary things with you
It’s funny, but it’s true
There’s never gonna be an ordinary thing
As long as I’m with you“

Ariana Grande ‘Ordinary Things‘

To be with the person you love should feel like ‘seeing daylight,” as Grande’s Nonna, Marjorie Grande says.

But with daylight comes darkness, reflecting that she “could’ve packed up and left a million times, you know? It’s not that we never fought. Never go to bed without kissing goodnight. That’s the worst thing to do, don’t ever, ever do that. And if you can’t, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you’re in the wrong place. Get out”

No matter how much time you have invested, no matter where you are in a relationship, if you are not happy, if you are not here, you need to leave. No matter how scary, no matter how brave a situation where you are not yourself is worse than anything else

Eternal Sunshine is a smorgsboard offering slices of the self, smiles and suffering, a true allegory for the human experience going from heartbreak to finding new love and living for it, with healed hurt and a huger heart. Overall the Arianators are applauding her comeback, ushering in her return with pride and elation at her new found happiness.

Best believe we are still belting out that chorus just as loud as we did in 2004

With January coming to a steady close we have had almost a month to reflect on the stories that have propped us up, been our mattress once we have fallen down, and given us the fighting words to stand up on our own again.Reinvention through reflection , forgiveness and healing are all semantics in Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 track ‘Unwritten’ which reached no.6 during its initial release.

20 years later it’s back in the UKs top 20 in part due to Will Gluck’s Romcom starring Sydney Sweeny and Glen Powell. It is becoming the trend of new movies sharing a light on nougthies tracks, as seen with Sophie Ellis-Bextors- Murder on the Dancefloor featured in the final scene of Emerald Fennells disturbingly delicious ‘Saltburn’. Unwritten is not only poignant and insightful it is catchy and upbeat lending it a timeless nature that is still relevant today.

Used as the soundtrack to popular American TV series The Hills in 2006 Unwritten has seen frequent pop culture attention, I refrain from using the word reveal as it seems the song never lost is significance, with Bedingfield releasing a remix for a rerun of the show in 2019.

It’s R&B influences and its uptempo pop feel boast a nostalgic edge with a contemporary vibe, this song is the sound of summer, it is the sound of things to come, be them good or bad you can prepare and stay composed whatever happens it can be ‘unwritten’, you can always try again tomorrow. With will and positivity, empathy and education you can go forward, knowing you can change your circumstance or your mindset to it.

Originally associated with graduations due to its inspiring message for the future, reminding us that one day does not have to define the rest, Bedingfield wrote the song for her brother whilst on tour, considering everything she wished she had been told at his age.

We are only defined by the pen we hold and the words we write, propelled by the actions we take, the choices we make, the mistakes we learn from, the mistakes we make again. Our failiabilty, our optimism so innately human.Her lyrics and energy are empowering, reassuring and restorative, the audible equivieleint to the perfect tea and a kiss on the forehead before a deep, restful sleep.

Unwritten is full of hope, unity and independence, a mantra about taking each moment in our stride as we go through the rest of 2024.