A Few Words on...Ariana Grandé - thank u, next

Confession time, I have never listened to an Ariana Grandé album prior to this one, quelle surprise, blahblahblah.

Of course, thanks to a combination of thank u, next being an unabashed earworm of fantastic pop, the constant media barrage of her personal life being dissipated into the public conscience and the fact that this album and the previous sweetener receiving more than the odd piece of critical adulation, meant the album suddenly became a must listen.

The good news is, despite my reservations, thank u, next is a decent album, definitely not a groundbreaking game changer, but filled with more substance than your average late-decade mainstream release, both lyrically and musically.

Quite early on with needy, I was pleasantly surprised by the stripped back sound, Grandé’s vocal performance and the backing harmony somehow making something that any other artist would probably transform into an overblown, generic piece, but instead kept it restricted and allowed herself to shine as an artist.

From there, the album unfortunately falls into the same unholy trinity of female popstars for lyrics (e.g. see my Lana Del Rey review for that gripe), but Grandé does have a touch more bite, there’s swearing but it’s delivered in a more stream of conscious and isn’t constant, allowing it make more impact on songs.

When thank u, next delivers, the album is a fantastic modern pop record with some great post-production and musical stylings that showcases pop, r&b and soul, vocally she still remains one of the more underrated amongst her peers. 

The only major issue I have is a lot of the album is quite middling, especially towards the centre with tracks like bloodline, fake smile and short filler like make up. There’s nothing outright groan inducing but it does feel padded, which is a shame as when the album is good, it’s very, very good, but the rest of the material drags it down.

As a jaded old hag who isn’t the core audience, I still can appreciate elements of thank u, next, but for me, much like many of the other mainstream releases, it’s an album of excellent singles, let down by it’s supporting material.

6/10

H

@Retcon_Nation