Ariana Grande Bares Her Heart on ‘Eternal Sunshine’
In the glistening wake of her breezy 2019 breakup anthem “Thank U, Next,” Ariana Grande has unveiled a far more somber exploration of heartbreak with her seventh studio album, “Eternal Sunshine.” Named after the wistful Michel Gondry film, the pop luminary’s latest offering lays bare the profound melancholy of trying to erase a past love from memory. “I try to wipe my mind, just so I feel less insane,” the 30-year-old croons on the skittering title track, her potent vocals a testament to the anguish that seeps through these compositions.
A three-year hiatus separates “Eternal Sunshine” from Grande’s prolific run of annual releases, during which she navigated the dissolution of her marriage to Dalton Gomez and kindled a new romance with “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater. This narrative of heartbreak and renewal unfurls across the album’s 13 immaculately crafted tracks, though Grande resists explicit autobiographical details, favoring sweeping emotional candor over specific name-drops. one of which featured a song named for Pete Davidson, the comedian to whom she was then engaged — Grande stops short of explicit nods to autobiography and lets sweeping, wholehearted emotion tell the story.
Her most extensive collaboration yet with Swedish hit maker Max Martin, “Eternal Sunshine” is a lavish, texturally sumptuous affair awash in adventurous melodies and grande’s vocal acrobatics. From the disco delicacy of “Bye” to the retro-futuristic R&B grooves of “True Story” and “The Boy Is Mine,” the album sees the pop chameleon inhabiting a spectrum of stylistic terrains with both technical prowess and unbridled passion.
Eschewing celebrity cameos, “Eternal Sunshine” is a densely layered, multidimensional portrait of Grande’s virtuosic talents. Her vocals soar over Martin’s pristine ear candy, imbuing even the album’s sleeker moments with a fragile vulnerability. The housey lead single “Yes, And?” may nod to Madonna’s “Vogue,” but the defiant spoken-word bridge—”Your business is yours and mine is mine”—signals Grande’s refusal to divulge as transparently as on past works.
It’s on the hip-hop-tinged “Ordinary Things” that the emotional core of “Eternal Sunshine” emerges most vividly. As Grande’s grandmother offers relationship wisdom in the song’s closing moments, the burden seems to lift from the singer’s shoulders. “No matter what we do, there’s never going to be an ordinary thing,” she coos buoyantly, as if a certain lightness has returned. Though purging past love may be an impossible fantasy, “Eternal Sunshine” is a cathartic reminder that even pop’s darkest storms must eventually give way to light.
