On Friday, March 8, Ariana Grande released “Eternal Sunshine,” her seventh studio album. The album is a smooth and soothing mix of melodies and pop beats that tells the story of Ariana Grande’s experience in a romantic relationship with two different men. It consists of 11 songs and an interlude that seems to follow a consistent pattern that allows the listener to know how Ariana felt while she was in a relationship with whomever inspired this body of work. Metaphorically, with her face towards the sun, she expresses confidence and her hope that she has found true love; her shadow behind her forecasts a sense of doubt in herself and her ability to move past another failure relationship.
On the first song on the album, creatively titled “intro (end of the world),” she wonders how to know if her partner really loves her. She asks, “if the sun refused to shine,” “if the moon when dark tonight,” and “if it all ended tomorrow, would I be the one on your mind?” Her equivalent to asking, “if I was a worm, would you still love me?” The next song called “bye” is throws all her doubts away and with passion and renounces the “boy.” The next song, “don’t wanna break up again” turns her 180 degrees with her back turned against the sun and her thoughts overcast by the shadow of her doubts once again.
This pattern continues throughout the entirety of the album, in a “he loves me, he loves me not” fashion. “Saturn Return Interlude” and “eternal sunshine” progress the listener forward narratively with a conversion with an astrologist/therapist helping her move on and the discovery that her partner cheated on her. In “eternal sunshine” even after finding a good boy to be by her side, she is still ruled by fear, afraid that history will repeat itself – as cyclical and inevitable as life and death.
Whoever Ariana’s new romantic partner is that she introduced in the song prior, has restored her faith in love, expressed in her song “supernatural.” A possessing love has apparently taken hold of her and showed her that the sun shines brighter on the other side. She refuses to “fight the fall,” head over heels in love with her new partner. But she has yet to move on from her last partner. “true story” is a passionate, but not quite vengeful, reflection of her last relationship. She has turned the other cheek but is unwilling to allow false accusations to martyr her reputation as a girl deserving of love.
The song, “the boy is mine” deserves special attention, because it is a clear allusion to the R&B song, “The Boy Is Mine” by Brandy and Monica. This song breaks the mold of her other songs, with more bass and beats that hit harder. With such a clear connection to an iconic R&B song, that thematically fits the narrative of her album, it’s unfortunate she chose not to sample the song. Unlike Brandy and Monica who are feuding over a boy, she has already won the battle – “the stars, they aligned/the boy is mine.” She mentions in the first lyrics of the song that she is “usually unproblematic” and that her status has changed, most likely related to her current ongoing relationship with Ethan Slater, famous for his role as SpongeBob in “The SpongeBob Musical”. His name and Ariana’s have circulated the internet with infamy recently for their individual roles in ending Slater’s marriage with his wife, Lilly Jay. This also assumes that tracks number 1through 5 are in reference to Ariana’s ex-husband, Dalton Gomez who she was married to for nearly 3 years.
As much love as “yes, and?” received when it was released as a single, it feels misplaced, especially because it falls close to the middle of the album. While a line does address her most recent controversy – “why do you care so much whose d**k I ride?” – it sounds much more like a pride anthem that perhaps should have been released closer to June with such lines as “Boy, come on, put your lipstick on” and “I won’t hide underneath your own projections.” Even the aforementioned line that might be a reference to her relationship with Slater, is more likely aligned with the theme of queer pride. The song is very similar to “You Need to Calm Down” by Taylor Swift and disrupts the flow of the album and is also narratively, only loosely connected to the previous songs. The song’s intro also wastes fifty seconds of a 3-minute song with an anticlimactic beat.
“we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” returns listeners to the pattern of the album. While “the boy is mine” and “yes, and?” sound entirely different than the other songs on the album, and one of those songs narratively falling short, Ariana again reflects on her past relationship and the same is true for “i wish i hated you.” It is a return to both softer beats and the expression of doubt that this chance at love might be over. In “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” she writes that she “likes to just pretend/you cling to your paper and pens/Wait until you like me again.” The next song, “i wish i hated you” is her final goodbye and a confession that romantic feelings still exist for her past lover.
The final two songs, “imperfect for you” and “ordinary things” which features her grandmother, Nonna in a very SZA fashion, is a final and brave turn to face the sun and believe that love shines down and smiles at her once again, blessing her with a new romantic relationship. The last words of her album are words of wisdom from her 98-year-old grandmother who answers the questions Ariana asks in the beginning, essentially saying if you can’t end your day with him, then “you’re in the wrong place, get out.”
Despite a small deviation from the norm with “yes, and?” this is a narratively sound work of art that fans can relate to. The overall theme centers around the uncertainty of such an abstract feeling and the dangerous temptation to gaslight and hold themselves back from whatever lies ahead. For better or for worse, it is better to move on and reflect than to stay and regret
