(Republic)
Post-divorce, the American pop star returns with a sumptuous collection that has just the right amount of bite
It’s getting on for four years since Ariana Grande released the loved-up Positions, a soft-focus celebration of her future husband, Dalton Gomez. On this loosely conceptual follow-up she unpicks that relationship’s speedy demise, while also contending with new love and the tabloid fallout from it. Lead single Yes, And? neatly sums up Grande’s attitude towards rumours and parasocial probing: “Your business is yours and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose dick I ride?”
The line is delivered with such restraint that its impact goes unnoticed at first. It’s a technique that Grande, who possesses a voice that could strip wallpaper, uses throughout, be it alluding to cheating on the fluttering title track, or asking for clemency on the excellent, Robyn-esque We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love). The latter’s juddering synths and perkier BPM are an outlier on an album that favours midtempo R&B, offering up space for Grande to experiment with sumptuous vocal layering (The Boy Is Mine) and melodies as sharp as cut glass (Supernatural). Refined and subtle, but with the right amount of bite (see the darkly hued True Story), Eternal Sunshine feels like a clearing of the emotional decks.