Credit: Jillian Mele

Join WSPN’s Chloe Zilembo and Jillian Mele as the review Ariana Grande’s latest album “eternal sunshine.”

On March 8, pop star Ariana Grande released her seventh studio album “eternal sunshine.” Grande’s lead single of the record “yes, and?” debuted back in January, making some of her fans ecstatic for the following songs to come. There are 13 tracks on the album, with four more on the deluxe version, or as Grande calls it, slightly deluxe.

Grande’s albums throughout the years have revolved around themes of women empowerment, hardships and breakups, and “eternal sunshine” is no different. She continues to share a powerful and emotional message to her listeners with this record. Some fans think this album is about Grande’s ex-husband of three years, Dalton Gomez, and others believe it to be about being hopeful of new relationships.

The name of the album “eternal sunshine” was inspired by Michel Gondry’s film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” a romantic comedy about a form of therapy that erases peoples’ bad memories. The premise of the movie serves as a good outline for Grande’s album. In the  “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” music video, Grande is featured going through memory erasing therapy, inspired by the film.

The album opens with “Intro (end of the world),” which isn’t a normal full length song, but still packs an emotional punch and sets the tone for the rest of the album. It leaves the listener wishing that the song was longer.

Grande includes other shortened songs throughout the album including “Saturn Returns interlude.” Although it is considered a song on the track list, it’s more like a connection of the themes present in the album. It doesn’t feature any singing, but instead features a woman talking about Saturn in this hazy tone that makes the listener feel as if they are floating off into the vast emptiness of space.

The second song on the tracklist is “bye,” a full length song about leaving a toxic relationship. This song is catchy and influential, making it clear that Grande’s maturity and view on relationships have changed throughout her years of growing up as a celebrity.

After the track “bye,” the next song is “don’t want to break up again,” which has a more upbeat tone compared to the rest of the songs on the album. Despite the upbeat tone, like much of the album, the song features heartbreaking lyrics about Grande’s troublesome love life.

The succeeding song is the title track, “eternal sunshine.” This song has a strong beat which draws similarities to “7 rings,” a song from her fifth studio album “thank u, next.” Although there are similarities in the beat of “eternal sunshine” and “7 rings,” that is where the similarities stop. The song is not a self appreciation hype song like “7 rings,” but is a song detailing a messy relationship instead.

Track No. 6, “supernatural,” has a very upbeat pop tone. This song also seems to be more positive than the rest of the tunes on the album, not only in tone, but also in its lyrics. The lyrics are about falling in love and less about heartbreak, unlike a large portion of the album.

Next up, Grande presented us with “true story,” the only song that showcases her powerful chest voice, a prominent aspect of her earlier albums, particularly in her third studio album “Dangerous Woman.” The other songs on “eternal sunshine” are head voice heavy and do not showcase Grande’s powerful belting that some fans have grown to love. Even with the belting on “true story,” much of the song is still sung in a high head voice register like the rest of the album.

Following “true story” is “the boy is mine,” showcasing a similar sound to early 2000’s R&B music with influences from modern day pop music. Fans have compared the song to Grande’s unreleased song “Fantasize,” which went viral on TikTok. “Fantasize” was meant to be a parody of an early 2000’s group, but fans loved it. Instead of releasing the song which had already been bootlegged, Grande put “the boy is mine” on “eternal sunshine” which has a similar vibe and sound.

Track No. 9 “yes, and,” showcased a happy and energetic vibe. This track puts some listeners into a fun mood due to Grande’s sassy tone, making the song addicting. Grande uses repetition in this song with the line “say that sh-t with your chest,” referring to her late ex-boyfriend Mac Miller’s line in his song “Jet Fuel,” which says “Rather glow, I won’t stress. Better say that sh-t with your chest.”

After “i wish i hated you,” Grande seamlessly transitions to another somber song called “imperfect for you.” In this song, Grande details her anxiety and her emotional baggage, a common theme throughout her musical career, specifically in her more recent albums like “thank u, next” and “positions.” The line “I’ll love you like you need me to” proves her passion, love and dedication toward her relationships she has been in.

The last song on the album is “ordinary things,” which features Grande’s grandmother whom she calls Nonna. Nonna has played a significant role in Grande’s life and the end of the song seems to be a voicemail or phone call that Grande received from her, showing her impact on Grande’s life.

Overall “eternal sunshine” was an all-encompassing album that had much better enunciation than her past albums, along with superb song writing. “eternal sunshine” elevated Grande as an artist and showed that she could do more with music than just upbeat songs with generic lyrics. To us, the long awaited seventh studio album from Grande was well executed and lived up to our expectations.