‘Eternal Sunshine’ review: Ariana Grande rises again, for better or worse

As a former theater kid, you’d think Ariana Grande would be living the dream right now. She’s an acclaimed singer with accolades and adoring fans around the world. She’s making her movie-musical debut later this year with Wicked (as a “good witch,” of course.) Also, she’s got the drama baggage of a full-tilt diva. She tackled most of that drama head-on and came away from it looking as triumphant as a show-stopping solo. But with the latest wild turns in her personal life and others putting her dating history in a negative light, it might be getting harder for Grande to glide through the noise on the strength of her impressive vibrato alone.  Eternal Sunshine, her seventh LP, tries its hardest to replicate the empowering one-two strut of 2018’s Sweetener and 2019’s thank u, next.

Grande wants to sound free from a bad relationship. She’s excited about new love, regretful for her mistakes, and proud of the lessons she’s learned. That’s a lot to put on the plate of one album. It’s even worse how underwhelming all of those sentiments sound through the record’s 13 tracks. 

Despite production credits including Ilya Salmanzadeh (Jennifer Lopez, The Lonely Island) and pop wizard Max Martin (Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd), it’s strange how flat and understated most of Eternal Sunshine sounds. “Bye” should be the bright, disco-tinged album opener. However all of the instrumentation is mixed down to the point of it being practically elevator music. It also makes the decision to bury lead single “Yes, And?,” with its “I’m back, bitch” house music energy, down to the final third of the record all the more strange when it could’ve set the album off on the right bouncing beat.

That energy is sorely needed throughout the record, what with most of the songs being down tempo R&B-esque cuts. “Supernatural” and “True Story” only feature low keyboard chords and electronic drums propelling it forward. The only exciting parts about them are Grande’s light background melodies and continuously impressive vocals.

Sometimes that downplayed energy works in Grande’s favor, especially in the last third of the record. “I Wish I Hated You” has the dreamy synth keys and Grande’s whispered delivery to make the bittersweet notion of the song land. “Imperfect For You” is the album standout. Its faded acoustic guitar strumming into a heartfelt ballad that wouldn’t sound out of place on SZA’s SOS. The album closer, “Ordinary Things,” has the energy of Grande and her new love waving goodbye at their newly-earned baggage. It brings to mind the closing scene of an indie rom com with Grande’s lushious harmonies in the chorus carrying the album to a soft landing. 

But you have to get through a rather underwhelming slog of songs to reach that happy ending. That’s the other thing about Eternal Sunshine: it’s just no fun. Most of the songs like “Supernatural,” “True Story,” “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love),” and the title track don’t have music as light and dynamic as the star singing on them. Instead it sounds like generic filler you’d hear while scrolling through TikTok.

Even “Yes, And?” gets its energy and bounce from the spirit of Madonna’s “Vogue” and Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman.” This makes it sound out of place in the record’s low-key spirit. The closest Grande gets to something truly her own is “The Boy is Mine.” It thankfully doesn’t shame the name of Brandy and Monica’s all-time classic. Instead it sounds closer to the flirty frolic on 2020’s Positions. With the pulsating trap drums and West Coast funk synths, Grande’s angelic voice bounces through the song like a sprite flying through the air. 

Maybe it’s a risk for Grande to have fun at the moment. Her new relationship is still a sore subject in the public eye. She doesn’t have a problem letting her lust trump logic on “The Boy is Mine” (“​​And I know it’s simply meant to be/And I, I take full accountability for all these tears”), or brazenly ignoring any critique of said lust on “Yes, And?” (“Why do you care so much whose **** I ride?”).

Those are surprising sentiments to have when other parts of Eternal Sunshine seem to be Grande airing out her divorce. “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again” has the singer contemplating whether she wants to stay together for the sake of her partner or endure the messiness of ending another romance (“I made it so easy/Spent so much on therapy…Won’t abandon me again for you and I”), while “I Wish I Hated You” sends her ex up river with no more hard feelings (“I wish I hated you/I wish that weren’t true/Wish there was worse to you/I wish you were worse to me”). 

Grande tries to balance a newfound love and the bitter processing of a failing relationship. One minute she’s blushing on “Supernatural” (“This love’s possessin’ me, but I don’t mind at all…It’s takin’ over me, don’t wanna fight the fall”), the next she’s burning bridges on “True Story” (“I’ll play the bad girl if you need me to/If it makes you feel better”). It gives the overall album a push-pull feeling of Grande stuck between bitterness and bless when a simple rearranging of the tracklist could’ve made the album a journey of her climbing out of a hole and into a new light.

Maybe this is how it happened to Grande in real life, finding a new love while her marriage was falling apart. Not uncommon for someone with her gargantuan celebrity status. But Eternal Sunshine makes both major life events sound like boring footnotes. Probably because Grande has nothing new (or enlightening to say). She’s told this story before, she’s even had this ending before. She might as well have called the album Another One.

Does Grande need to air out all her dirty laundry on a record? No, but it would help if she had something else to replace it with. Eternal Sunshine is bland and unfinished. It’s missing the energy and brightness in its music that rose to the occasion of Grande’s singing style. It doesn’t have the poppy fun of her previous records and doesn’t have anything new to replace that with.

If this was supposed to be a more restrained record, it pulls back so much that it sounds basic. Grande’s lyrics don’t look as inward as she thinks they do. A showbiz veteran who knows how to play the fame game, Eternal Sunshine might be the first time she’s in a no-win situation. She can’t lean too much into the negative press because she has to be a family-friendly movie star later this year. But she also can’t play down her own drama in the age of social media. So what does a seasoned performer do? Carry on, play the hits, and wait for the next scene.

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Featured Image Courtesy of Republic Records