ALBUM REVIEW — Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next”
By: Patrick Coyle - Simmons
Tags: Art, Music, Review, Opinion, Entertainment

Gif from the 7 rings Music Video

For the first part of this review I am going to take a look at some of the standout tracks on the album. nasa was immediately one of these for me upon my first listen and has continued to be a personal favorite ever since. The upbeat production and catchy hook are both wonderful, and Grande also sounds exceptional throughout the track’s runtime (especially with the self harmonies). This is definitely one of the best songs on the album and the wordplay regarding space is pretty fun.

Gif from break up with your boyfriend, i’m bored Music Video

The song fake smile was surprising if not solely for the fact that we now live in a world where Ariana Grande has a song that samples the Wu-Tang Clan. Welcome to 2019! The actual song itself is very good too. I think it would have ran the risk of being bad had Grande attempted to just flip Wu-Tang’s Tearz by straight up rapping the whole time. Thankfully she did not do that and left the rapping (for the most part) to the legends. Like the other standout tracks on the album, her charisma and voice are both exquisite, but the lyrics here are also poignant with this continuing the theme of the album of being an exercise of therapy for the singer.

My personal favorite song on the album was ghostin. It is the most introspective and emotional song on the entire album, something reflected in the tone of the music. The production is more ethereal with an orchestral background behind Grande’s angelic vocals. The song itself feels like a reflection from Grande following the death of former partner Mac Miller, and the emotional aspects of the song really hit hard. This song really steals the show on an album full of truly impressive and memorable songs. The only thing I think this song could have benefited from was being placed as the closing song on the album rather than as the eighth track, though that seems more of an structural issue on whoever ordered the songs that way. In my opinion this has to be one of Ariana Grande’s best songs to date.

Gif from 7 rings Music Video

Just to rapidly hit on a few songs, bad idea works as a song. As a whole it’s good, but where it shines is its outro. The production on the entire song is great, but it is truly wonderful on the slowed down outro of the track. Honestly, it keeps growing on me and had this review came out a week or two later, it might be considered a standout. needy was also really good. Grande sounds great and the more restrained production (compared the the rest of the album) feels very welcome here. Also I am a sucker for a good outro with some nice sounded strings, something this song does indeed feature. Then there is make up, a song that would have been a standout track if it had not been so short. Seriously, I found myself wanting more as the song ended and still continue to want that every time it plays. As for bloodline, this is a song where the production outshines the singer. Grande still sounds great, but the instrumentals sound grand and ambitious whereas she really is not doing anything too unique for herself on this track. In my mind, that holds this song back from being anything special.