Album Review: Sweetener by Ariana Grande

Sweetener is a breath of fresh air in the pop landscape of late; rather than conforming to zeitgeist musical trends, Ariana Grande is in a lane all her own, experimenting earnestly with a plethora of sounds and producers, some of which congeal more than others.

Overall, I enjoyed the album, I thought it was full of well-constructed sounds. There was enough diversity within the songs that I didn’t feel she was being repetitive sonically. Thematically, it was refreshing to hear this straightforward pop sound, it made me feel like she was staying true to her nature and not being gimmicky. I appreciated the cohesiveness of the album; I didn’t feel, listening to the album both in and out of order, that I was just being given song after song after song. I felt, at least musically, there was a theme and that the motifs in the music served that theme well. 

Sweetener felt very low-key, but in a good way; the songs weren’t all bombastic pop hits, and I really felt that Grande was carefully measured in her vocal delivery and her accompaniment. I’d always been a casual fan of hers since Yours Truly. I try to always, even if I’m not a fan of the artist or genre, immerse myself in the knowledge of what kind of music musicians are making, and how that compares to their own contemporaries and the rest of their own catalogue, and with Sweetener, I was satisfied because it doesn’t exactly feel or sound like anything else that’s being or has been put out by her or her peers lately.

My favorite tracks overall are “breathin” and “successful”. The first because during promotion preceding the album’s release, she stated that had in mind to create the album sort of as a commemoration of or gift to her Manchester fans, and also just for anyone seeming to be struggling or going through it, as she described she was. I definitely identified with aspects of that, as it comes at a time in my life right now where I could particularly use and find comfort in something like this. “breathin,” was so opportune and relevant that I heard it for the first time and started crying. I’ve been so overwhelmed by and sensitive to everything lately that hearing her tell me to “just keep breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’” knocked me on my ass. This song is like a weighted blanket, gently reducing my anxiety. It surprised me how moved I was hearing her encouragements. 

“successful” is great because I think it’s cute and catchy, and the music is super fun; it carries a bit of funky guitar sound underneath a la Sheryl Crow, and it incorporates a little bit of the tropical sounds that have dominated lots of pop songs lately. Standout tracks among the album are “blazed” because of its interesting production, “goodnight n go” for its thoughtful interpolation of Imogen Heap, and of course “no tears left to cry” because it feels like a natural extension of something from Yours Truly. My least favorite track is “the light is coming (feat. Nicki Minaj)” because it just sounds campy, and except for the quirky production, I generally find it uninteresting.

I would say that Sweetener particularly stands out against the rest of Grande's discography. I’ve found that Yours Truly and My Everything have a lot of sonic similarity, and I felt that the takeaway from those albums is her obviously incredible vocal ability above anything else (lyrics, music, production). With Dangerous Woman, I felt a shift in that the music became as important as her vocals, and with Sweetener, those two have kind of switched positions in that the production and music are at the forefront compared to her vocals, which are decidedly subtler and a little more muted (“sweetener,” “successful,” “goodnight n go,” “God is a woman,” “everytime”). There’s a large absence of the belting and acrobatics she’s historically performed throughout her albums; that’s not to say she doesn’t do it at all, but these belts are relegated towards about the last third of the songs that they do appear in.

I think that if you’re coming into Sweetener an already established fan, there would be certain things from her previous albums you might look for her to repeat here (themes, melodies, what types of features if there are any features, etc.) rather than you having a more “clean slate” to work with if you haven’t listened to Grande's music before. I would say that anyone would have some sort of expectations going into Sweetener, seeing as though you’ve probably heard at least one Ariana Grande song in your life, so you might look for one of those things you heard in that song to be emulated in some way on this album. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is open to interpretation.

For production, she enlisted the help of Max Martin primarily, whom I tend to think is a bit too formulaic with his process, so I liked that there was production from Pharrell as well as ILYA and Hit-Boy; I felt I was able to get a wider-ranging scope of sounds and influences that way. I’m definitely more a fan of the Pharrell-hemmed tracks than the ones from Max Martin. Obviously, one cannot deny Martin’s prowess for churning out pop hit after pop hit, but that’s wherein the problem lies for me. It starts to really feel formulaic, like “oh, if I use a melody like this, and I construct each song in the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus way, and I use all these very similar types of anthemic, bombastic musical sounds then I’m guaranteed to have a hit each time,” and I’m not sure how much of that onus is on Martin for producing in an increasingly similar style each time or on consumers for just… consuming, and receiving, each and every one of these hits in the same way. I feel like at least Pharrell tries to switch things up. I will definitely concede “breathin” to Martin's merits, though.

With Sweetener, Grande is really coming into her own as an artist and a person. For a pop album, I think it shows a lot of finesse and care concerning the stage she’s entering into as an artist on her fourth album. She’s finding out what works and what doesn’t, and is adapting accordingly to each challenge. I wish it maybe had more or different features than the ones that are there (Nicki Minaj, Pharrell, Missy Elliott).

I’m all for the Pharrell collab because I really think he’s great, but I felt that Nicki’s verse on “the light is coming” was honestly a little corny and kind of weak, and I felt I wasn’t given nearly enough time to even absorb Missy Elliott’s verse before it was over. I would have loved to see more features with artists in other genres besides hip-hop/rap, because I’ve noticed a trope that when (mostly white) pop stars want to implement a more “grown up” or mature image or sound, they will specifically invite rappers and hip-hop artists onto their tracks for a few bars. That’s always frustrated me, as a Black woman, because rap and hip-hop culture is not an outfit or accessory for these “innocent” or “wholesome” pop stars (not my particular words, just how they often are marketed to the general public) to try on when they want to play grown-up or when they’re showing us they’re transitioning into more adult content, or to try and retain relevance since rap/hip-hop is currently the most popular music genre in the country.

For examples, you can see Fifth Harmony (“Worth It” features Kid Ink; “Work From Home” features Ty Dolla $ign), Selena Gomez (“Fetish” features Gucci Mane), Miley Cyrus (“FU” features French Montana), Taylor Swift (“End Game” features Future), Maroon 5 (“Don’t Wanna Know” features Kendrick Lamar; “Girls Like You” features Cardi B), etc. It can come across as extremely disingenuous, so artists really need to be careful with how they approach the subject. It’s one thing to enlist a feature because you genuinely like and appreciate their sound, feel it would mesh well with the vision you have for your song, or lift up the featured artist to an audience they might not have previously been able to tap into; it’s wholly another to take advantage of the featured artist because you just want to sound harder or badder than you did before. On Sweetener, Grande lies somewhere within the former.

From start to finish, Grande delivers us a product that is subtly saccharine and dilutes deliciously into the current pop landscape without losing its flavor in the process.