By Kristel Erguiza
Staff Writer
If you were pestered by fans about your every move, especially in regards to your love life, what would you have to say to that? Ariana’s Grande’s newest album “Eternal Sunshine” is the answer to that question.
“Eternal Sunshine” displays a sense of self love and determination, with tracks that emphasize it! Similar to her albums before, it has themes of love, a doomed relationship, and the self love that comes after. This album reminds me of “Thank U, Next” in that it includes these themes and pivots more into Grande learning to understand herself more and wanting better for herself.
As a mainly pop album, it includes elements of R&B and a lot of synths incorporated throughout, with many string instruments and spoken word parts from astrologist Diana Garland, and Grande’s grandmother, Marjorie Grande, known as Nonna on the track “ordinary things.”
Released on March 8 and getting its namesake from the 2004 movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” she creates a music video in homage to the movie, which is one of my favorite songs, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” with Evan Peters as the ex in the relationship, and Ariana as the main character.
The first track audiences heard was the electronic dance hit “yes, and,” giving audiences an answer to the rumors surrounding her love life. Coming from a divorce, she uses the lyrics, “Your business is yours and mine is mine.” I thought this was very clever of her to talk about how she perceives the media and how others feel about her romance with Broadway’s “Spongebob Squarepants” actor, Ethan Slater.
The second song, “bye” talks about her leaving a relationship that left her in tears. I found this very uplifting, giving me a sense of newfound self awareness within my personal relationships.
The fourth track, “saturn returns interlude,” is a 42-second clip from Garland talking about the meaning of a Saturn return. Combined with laughter from Grande toward the end, it shows a new beginning of her 30s.
My favorite part of this album is how cohesive it is. There are truly no songs I would skip because they’re just all so raw and real to the point where it had me watching reviews on TikTok about the album and many had praised Grande’s songwriting and professionalism throughout her releasing this album and the drama that surrounded it.
With honest lyrics such as, “Our shadow stands in a parallel plane, just two different endings you learn to repair,” (“i wish i hated you”) she paints a picture of a regretted failed relationship, wanting the audience to understand her point of view throughout the song, and that despite it ending, there can be reflection attached.
Another lyric I found interesting was, “It’s breaking my heart to keep breaking yours again, this situationship has to end,” which is very poignant and is very relevant to the dating scene in our generation.
In her seventh track, “true story,” she confronts what the media has been talking about - her alleged infidelity of her newest boyfriend, Ethan Slater, and how everyone had been beginning to see the cracks in her personal and private life. The lyric “This is a true story about all the lies you fantasize about you and I” alludes to what audiences had been thinking about her, she keeps this track sounding like early 2000’s R&B, with her humming in the song reflecting it.
This album proves to be one of her best, with the audience getting to hear about her heartbreaks and lessons learned along the way, as well as insight Grande gets to show the audience throughout her lyricism.
Rating: A-
This album will give me ‘Eternal Sunshine’