This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Ariana Grande has the number one album in the country: The set launches with the biggest week for a pop album in over a year and garners Grande her fourth No. 1 — and second in less than six months. Of Thank U, Next’s starting unit sum, 116,000 were in album sales. Expand - View Original
Sweetner was her only cohesive artistic statement, this "album" feels too much like mixtape that's half baked and rushed. Hopefully she takes her time with her next release.
I could not disagree more. Ariana has hit the trifecta...Dangerous Woman, Sweetener, Thank U Next...Ariana has gotten better with each album. Thank U Next is focused, fresh, and a perfect bookend to Sweetener. Perhaps give the album another try (or three)?
great album imo. a lot of fun to listen to with some amazing one-liners / lyrics. felt it got better as it went on and gets better with each listen.
Sorry, just wasn't feeling it. Sweetener just felt more realized. She released Thank U, Next before the album was tracked and it shows. There's no overarching thematic or stylistic element tying these songs together, it sounds like 7 different producers got together and submitted tracks for the project, which is probably what happened ha. As an aging pop fan I just have to accept that the days of singular artistic visions like Ray of Light, The Fame, and Rhythm Nation are just not where the genre is currently at...and thats ok.
Hanging out on pop music corners, I see comments like these very often and I don't get it. :/ It's such a good time to be a pop fan, as there is never a shortage of great music coming out or of new singers popping off out of nowhere and simply killing it. Janelle Monae, Tinashe, MNEK, Hayley Kiyoko, Charli XCX, Allie X, MO, Kimbra, Rae Morris, Dua Lipa, Rihanna, Jojo's recent releases were excellent. I could go on and on if I start including the artists that have mostly been putting out EPs or regular singles like Rina Sawayama, LIZ, Mabel, Raye, and don't even get me started on non-English or non-Western ones. As for veterans, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, All Saints, Mya, Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue and Christina Aguilera all released impressive albums as of late. I don't quite understand what you're describing as "artistic statement". Those albums you mentioned are very different to each others, and all (well, maybe not The Fame, but more accurately its following EP) considered as classics, so the comparison isn't fair, and only time will tell how Sweetener and Thank u, next will be looked on further down the line. When you look at the context surrounding each one of Ariana's newest albums, and the main sounds (Sweetener has Pharrell's DNA all over it, which puts a lot of people off for example) and moods they distinctly carry, they feel perfectly cohesive. I don't know... I'm confused.