- 2024-03-11
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Ariana Grande Releases New Album “eternal sunshine”
American singer-songwriter Ariana Grande released her seventh studio album “eternal sunshine” on March 8, 2024.
It is her first album in four years since the 2020 album “Positions”.
The album comprises a 13-track, featuring a guest appearance from Nonna.
On the album, she worked with producers from Max Martin, Ilya, Davidior, Aaron Paris, Shintaro Yasuda, Nick Lee, Will Loftis, Luka Kloser, and Oscar Görres.
The slightly deluxe edition of the album was released on March 10 and comprises a 17-track, including additional 4 tracks, featuring Australian singer Troye Sivan and American singer Mariah Carey.
The album is inspiration from the 2004 film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” directed by Michel Gondry, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. In the film, people can unwanted memories erased as a form of therapy.
Ariana Grande is known as a lifelong fan of Jim Carrey.
She describes the film as another “lovely costume” to wear. Ariana Grande told Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 about the album, “It doesn't have to be an everlasting love story. Love is complicated. Showcasing both sides of it is what I tried to do.”- Ariana Grande explained track-by-track for the album via Amazon Music.
“intro (end of the world)”
“It asks a question that is sort of, takes accountability and is self aware. And then, going in to 'bye', is like prefacing it.
I think there are a few of 'bye'. I think 'bye', I wrote on a day when I was very upset and emotional, so it was a little but more reactive, and it just wasn't representative of how I actually feel. So, I filtered it through and I combed through a bunch of times and it was important to me to make sure it wasn't just like that for that exact reason because it's important to me.” - “bye”
“Hardest [song to write], I think “bye”.Honestly, it's a very simple and silly lyric, but it was hard for the reason that I desperately didn't want it to sound like a 'fuck you.' I wanted it to sound like 'I need to leave, so, bye.' I wanted it to be rooted in self awareness and not :fuck you, you go', but with love emigrating from the situation. That's why I put it after the intro. Because I think my biggest fear when it comes to songwriting in general is just, kind of, even if the concept is strong, and even if empowerment is important, and I want to empower people, making sure that it is kind and that it leads with empathy and that it has that. It's still fun, but, it's like, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any sort of harshness. That isn't in my DNA. The reason why I felt like it was okay to go there was my mom, honestly. I think growing up you want what you don't have, like, my parents got divorced for all the right reasons, they weren't supposed to be together. And you kinda crave, when you grow up, the happily ever after, the one is the one is the one, so, you ignore all these issues and you cling on to that fairytale, you get self abandoned. And I think my mom is a fierce example of not doing that, and I massive thing that I learned in my year of Saturn return is that my fears of replicating a certain cycle was actually the opposite. I was like 'Oh, wow, I want to be like her so much more than I am.' I want to have the strength to say bye kindly when something isn't fucking right. It's as simple as that. And she's the strongest and most brilliant person I know. And it's also a disco track, which is my mom's favorite thing in the world, so, it kind of feels like my mom's song or something that I wrote from my mom's perspective almost, because that's something I watched her do a few times specially when you do have so much love.
That's kind of a patern that I realized I don't need to be afraid of because it means doing the right thing, it means listening to your soul and not be afraid to be uncomfortable.”
“don't wanna break up again”
“'don't wanna break up again' is kinda like the hangover of 'bye' in a way, like 'this has happened but I'm reflecting.' There are so many polarizing feelings that we experience as human beings with regards to one's situation, and that's what I like about these two being back to back, because in 'bye' I say, 'at least we know we tried, didn't we? The two of us, we did good', and then in 'don't wanna break up again' it's like, 'you didn't even try 'til the end.' Both feelings exist at different, and I like the humaness of that. I like that they are layered and complicated, and all of the different emotions that come with loving and leaving, are kinda showcased, I guess.”
“Saturn Returns Interlude”
“eternal sunshine feels like a wake up moment, sort of like a pivotal moment in the story, and Saturn Returns coming right before it, it tells you to wake up. It just felt like setting up the rest of the album in a way. Diana Garland [is speaking], she's an astrologist, and my dear friend Will Loft sent me that vocal, that he chopped and put together and he was like, 'This made me think of you,' and then ILYA put orchestration under it and I was like, 'I hope it's okay that this is going in my album.'”
“eternal sunshine”
“I've always loved that movie since I was a little girl. I'm a huge Jim Carrey fan and I always have been and I was always sort of attracted to the idea of writing a song around that but once I realized that the rest of the songs were kind of forming a story that, well, kinda similar to 'Eternal Sunshine' where's this cycle that everyone's trying to break, it just fell into place.”
“true story”
“It's an untrue story based on all untrue events. I actually had that hook from the batch of songs Max [Martin] were working on for the Seth MacFarlane TV show that never happened, so that was like a sister song to 'Fantasize', a couple of these little seedlings existed before this album and I was actually, in the moment, like, 'We might have to save some of these for when we do an album.' Even though there is a version of it already on TikTok I was like 'it feels so important, I love it that much that I kinda wanna reclaim it and make out of it what I wanted to originally,' I didn't wanna let them win in that way, I guess. Everything, the production, the vocals, the lyrics, everything [are the biggest changes] it was just like a shell, it was a seedling back then, it was a song about something completely entirely different, I even don't remember that one anymore.”
“the boy is mine”
“That's gonna be everyone's favorite, unfortunately. I think it's naughty, it's the version of 'Fantasize' that they wanted to have. It's like a sexier, naughtier one, and I think it's more provocative than the rest, but it's not about what you think it was about and it's also a song that I've always wanted to interpolate, is that what the kids are calling it now? I have like many different versions of it from many years ago but this is not that, honestly. Just the title [is an interpolation]. I'm such a 90s baby, I have so many 90s interpolation ideas, samples, in my brain but this one finally found a home. I wanted it to come after 'true story' on the tracklist because that song plainly says, 'I'll play the bad girl if you need me to.'”
“we can't be friends (wait for your love)”
“They make me really emotional, those strings. I love those strings. I wanted it to be something that everyone could relate to. It can be whoever you want it to be about, but I know for me what it's about. I have a hard time going into specifics because I feel like that's not the point of it. The point is to leave it up for people to make of it what they will.”
“i wish i hated you”
“Probably was [crying in a part of the song]. It's one of those that I'm so glad that feeling is captured on this album, but it's one that I won't listen to, probably, or sing live, probably. But I think it's a very important color to exist within the album because it's just an important piece of the puzzle for me. But I'm happy to aknowledge the goodnes, I really am, and the efforts, and that it just was not correct and I don't need to pretend that you're a monster to make peace with this ending. That's what that song is. And it would be easier if you were, but it can have not been right and that person can still be a good person and I think that's a really important song to write. I think it completed the family of break up songs where I wrote from a more hurt or upset place and it's from a more aware and grieved place where it's like, 'I can give credit and make peace with this and not carry that version of you that I had when I was upset, I don't need to carry that version.' Grieving would be much easier if we hated a person, it's good riddance, but no, it's capturing the complexity of 'What happens if I don't?' is imperative, I think. It's protective as well.”
“imperfect for you”
“'imperfect for you' [was the last song finished for the album] which is my favorite. I love it so much, I love it so much. I don't know why it's my favorite, I think sonically it is my favorite, it's very different for me, it's very trippy, Rubber Soul vibes, and that is my favorite music to listen to and I don't think I ever explored it for myself, but it just felt really fun to lean in to it and make something super trippy, 60s, organic feeling, just capturing that kind of thing.”
“ordinary things” featuring Nonna
“I didn't play the whole album for her [Marjore Grande], but I did play the song that she's on. She was very excited to be on the album and she was very moved by it, and she loved that she was there and she told any stories about all the different times she's been on my albums, she was like, 'It's not the first time, there's been many more. I was on the first one.' It's interesting 'cause the album starts with a question and ends with an answer from a person that I love and trust so implicitly. I cherish what my family has to share with me. The funniest thing about that voice memo is that, some times when I'm with Nonna, I will just record her for like hours because she's the funniest fucking person on the planet and that tiny thing is in the dead middle of an hour of her and Shirley bitching about men and about feminism. It's the funniest. Someday there'll be an extended cut of the song and you'll hear Shirley, her best friend, and Nonna talking about all their crazy. There was, in my head, a version of the album where I was gonna interview Nonna and all of her friends, and my mom and Lani [Crane] and everyone and showcase, as interludes, stories about love and learning and relationships from just women that I love so much, but I didn't have time to do it. But that existed in my head for a while.” - source : Apple Music
