“How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?” Here’s the questions and answers through the album eternal sunshine (2024):
If the sun refuse to shine, baby would I still be your lover? Would you want me there?
– intro (end of the world)
Ariana Grande is embracing full surrealism by, almost intentionally, obscuring logical and emotional cohenrence within tracks. The song true story is almost nothing real
this is a true story about all the lies, you fantasized ‘bout you and i
– true story
Or, as in we can’t be friends (wait for your love)
we can’t be friends, but i’d like to just pretend
you cling to your papers and pens, wait until you like me again
And there is the break-up-with-your-girlfriend vibe as always. The eighth track the boy is mine used a tempo slow-down at the chorus, almost like a magical trap to trick a tickle in listener’s brain, and the intentional beat miss makes one’s heart almost lose a bit. Pitchfork termed this track to be “precision-engineered”. So does the house-styled yes, and, that despite some people criticize the overdued main entry before the tediously long prelude, the design actually elevates the song from the emotion mire into the–dancefloor.
Two last gorgeous tracks that answer the question posed at the beginning. In imperfect for you, she portraited a more nuanced and healthy pattern of friendship as “we’d make the bad stuff delightful”. The song articulates inharmonies, wracked guitar chords and an abrupt ascending 7th chord right in the way of a steady descending melody. At last, in ordinary things, the lightening production outlines the thesis of the song, despite being a little bit too obvious:
You hit just like the first sip of wine after a long day
You hit like my biggеst fan when I hear what the critiquеs say
You hit just like a green light when I’m stuck runnin’ real late
I don’t need no diamonds, just your time
It’s funny, but it’s true
There’s never gonna be an ordinary thing
As long as I’m with you
The album closes with the help of Nonna (Ariana’s grandmother), featuring a recorded monologue followed by Ariana’s iconic laughter at the end, “And when he’d come home and I’d see him, when he first gets off that train It was like God almighty arrived It was like seein’ daylight I mean, I could’ve packed up and left a million times You know? It’s not that we never fought You can overcome that You know? It-it’s very easy And as I told her, never go to bed without kissin’ goodnight That’s the worst thing to do, don’t ever, ever do that And if you can’t, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it You’re in the wrong place, get out.”