Eternal Sunshine – Ariana Grande

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2024	Eternal Sunshine	Ariana Grande	★★★½	74	Pop	R&B

It’s been four years since Ariana Grande’s last record, but it doesn’t feel like she’s missed a beat. Eternal Sunshine is another “white girl making sexy dance poppy and dreamy R&B” record. Conceptually, Eternal Sunshine (like the movie) is about forgetting an ex, in this case, after a divorce. Lyrically, Grande tackles more personal issues, with songs about heartbreak, moving on and falling into old, flirtatious habits. 

Musically, the record touches on pop styles spanning from the early 90s to modern hip-hop. “yes, and?” is a house-influenced dance track that’s really reminiscent of Madonna’s “Vogue.” “true story” sounds very Timbaland influenced, with a “Cry Me A River” vibe. “bye” brings a taste of modern disco to the mix, and “we can’t be friends” is a cute, driving europop song, channeling her inner Robyn. Then the title track — which is probably my favorite song on the record other than  “yes, and?” — has the album’s best vocal and  lyrical performance over a spacy, emotional beat with trap drums that seems tailor-made for SZA to be on the eventual remix.

Some of the tracks feel short, which will happen when you compile 13 songs for a brisk 35 minute runtime, but overall, as is expected with Ariana Grande at this point, I appreciate the diversity in dance music and hip-hop influences here.