In 2024, pop music listening might evoke a similar reaction. We are still overloaded with options in the era of streaming, which often makes even the simplest types of participation feel surrender-like. Perhaps this explains why super fans now call their favorite singers "mother" without hesitation while also picturing them.
as "mother" while at the same time seeing them as their queen, their hero, or even a god. This is the tricky bit that we should all be able to forget: Pop stars are ordinary individuals deserving of respect, but they are also wealthy people deserving of close examination. Brain damage begins to feel like the point as we continue to cheer our ultra-wealthy megastars into further higher tax brackets in a more unequal world where capitalism's bogus promise of limitless progress flows through today's pop like a filthy river.
Ariana Grande has returned with a lovely new album that aims to subtly crush your mind in ways you might not even be aware of. She gave it the moniker "Eternal Sunshine," which frames the entire thing as a kind of either-or dilemma while paying homage to Gondry's film. Yes, Grande's recent romantic upheaval has been extensively covered by clickbait piles of internet rumors. However, in contrast to her famous, names-naming 2019 breakup hit, "Thank U, Next," she has chosen to keep the lyrics of her new songs ambiguous, using her flawlessly plush voice to hide the specifics of a broken heart. Has our protagonist experienced the "memory wipe" she mentions in the title track? Is she performing the procedure on us, or what?
Fasten your seatbelt, and let's begin with the things Grande wants us to take note of. Brandy and Monica's 1998 rendition of the song "The Boy Is Mine" will come to mind when you hear her falsetto hydroplane across the beat. You may remember dancing alone to Robyn's "Dancing on My Own" in 2010 when you hear Grande sultrying to the disco gallop of "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)." The amiable pop-house beat of "Yes, And?" will transport you back to the irrevocably euphoric "Vogue" by Madonna in the early 1990s. Grande's music video will remind you of Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted," which was released a year earlier. If you watch the credits, Max Martin will continue to appear. which implies that you will be familiar with the multitude of millennial songs that Swedish songwriting giants like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears helped write.
All of those may be considered low-hanging fruit, but Grande sings over them in a way that makes time seem to stand still. On "Eternal Sunshine," the gentlest edges of her voice lend everything a comforting, bathtub-like warmth. With tunes that often follow the R&B mold, this music is incredibly enticing without causing any pain or requiring messy cleanup afterward. The musical device that merits the greatest attention is Grande's neat vocal staccato, which is a delightfully breathy phrasing technique that sounds like the tapping of brakes. Grande seems to be urging us to pause and take a moment to place ourselves in the in the moment, or better yet, to relish it. Listen to how she skillfully intersperses little pauses with the line, "Watch me take my time," during "The Boy Is Mine." She seems to be constructing time.
And "Eternal Sunshine" lives up to its pretense if Grande's wish is to forget the past by being here now. She has blurred the distinction between the listener and the music while strengthening the one between the individual and the persona. There's no headache here, unless you wish to whack your head against the latent paradox of this album: It's effortless to go into and out of music when it seems this way. Every melody is silky, every beat feels effortless, and every allusion feels intensely familiar, yet you may not recall anything of it once it's all done.