thank u, next
What do you do when things fall apart? If you’re Ariana Grande, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and head for the studio. Her hopeful fourth album, *Sweetener*—written after the deadly attack at her concert in Manchester, England—encouraged fans to stay strong and open to love (at the time, the singer was newly engaged to Pete Davidson). Shortly after the album’s release in August 2018, things fell apart again: Grande’s ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died from an overdose in September, and she broke off her engagement a few weeks later. Again, Grande took solace from the intense, and intensely public, melodrama in songwriting, but this time things were different. *thank u, next*, mostly recorded over those tumultuous months, sees her turning inward in an effort to cope, grieve, heal, and let go. “Though I wish he were here instead/Don’t want that living in your head,” she confesses on “ghostin,” a gutting synth-and-strings ballad that hovers in your throat. “He just comes to visit me/When I’m dreaming every now and then.” Like many of the songs here, it was produced by Max Martin, who has a supernatural way of making pain and suffering sound like beams of light. The album doesn\'t arrive a minute too soon. As Grande wrestles with what she wants—distance (“NASA”) and affection (“needy”), anonymity (“fake smile\") and star power (“7 rings”), and sex without strings attached (“bloodline,” “make up”)—we learn more and more about the woman she’s becoming: complex, independent, tenacious, flawed. Surely embracing all of that is its own form of self-empowerment. But Grande also isn\'t in a rush to grow up. A week before the album’s release, she swapped out a particularly sentimental song called “Remember” with the provocative, NSYNC-sampling “break up with your girlfriend, i\'m bored.” As expected, it sent her fans into a frenzy. “I know it ain’t right/But I don’t care,” she sings. Maybe the ride is just starting.
Released five months after the catharsis of Sweetener, these songs of affirmation feel lighter, freer, and more fun, carried effortlessly by Grande’s undeniable voice.
Ariana Grande has had a rough few years, starting with the tragic 2017 Manchester Arena bombing after her concert there and concluding with the dissolution of her engagement to actor Pete Davidson in October of last year. In between, Grande also split from her long-term boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, who passed away…
One of pop's biggest stars deals with trauma and tragedy on her bold new album, a reminder that we can get through anything life throws at us
Singer's second album in six months is a glorious pop rush, going double-for-nothing after the success of 2018's 'Sweetener'
It lacks a centrepiece to match the arresting depth and space of Sweetener’s ‘God Is A Woman’, but Grande handles its shifting moods and cast of producers with engaging class and momentum
Discover thank u, next by Ariana Grande released in 2019. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Less than a year after releasing Sweetener, Ariana Grande has delivered on her promise to release music like a rapper, with singles aplenty...
In the wake of huge traumas, Ariana Grande has pumped out the hits, challenged the pop machine – and now releases an album she rustled up in two weeks
The pop princess comes off as a decidedly unsympathetic character throughout her fifth album.
Just six months after acclaimed album Sweetener, Grande further unpicks her recent emotional devastation – and finally finds her own voice
It’s no secret that the details of Ariana Grande’s personal life are central to thank u, next, a collection of songs that finds her coping with tragedy through reflection, self-care and time with friends.
In December, Ariana Grande pledged that she would no longer be held to the industry standards of the pop queens that have come before her, abandoning the release patterns, price points and US radio rules set in stone when she was barely a foetus.
This is the work of an artist rooted in their specific vision and unwilling to compromise
Princess of pop bares her soul on hastily-dropped breakup album. New music review by Lisa-Marie Ferla