Ariana Grande’s latest release hits the shelves
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Rating: 4/5
Despite the fact that a doughnut almost ended Ariana Grande’s career very prematurely, the 22-year-old singer has just released a new album that a lot of people will be talking about. Originally titled Moonlight, the name of the album was changed to Dangerous Woman. The album involves similar themes to Ariana’s previous release, My Everything.
The songs on the album are varied in style, and show that Grande can do different types of music. The first song, “Moonlight,” showcases her singing abilities with its dreamy 1960s sound. “Be Alright” is a song that you could hear in a dance club.
In “Let Me Love You,” Ariana sings about her breakup with Big Sean, which happened five days after she performed in Rogers Arena last year. Lil Wayne is also featured in the song, and he gets a bit too personal about the breakup. Some of the other famous singers featured in the album are Nicki Minaj in “Side to Side” and Future in “Everyday.” Macy Gray is also in “Leave Me Lonely,” although she does not sing a lot because her lyrics are looped.
The album ends with “Thinking ’Bout You,” which hints that Ariana might get back together with Big Sean. The Target Exclusive and Deluxe versions of the album also have two bonus tracks including “Step on Up” and “Jason’s Song,” both of which take inspiration from jazz songs. Grande wrote most of the lyrics for the latter.
Fans will be disappointed that “Focus” is not in the album, even though Grande said in a ‘making of’ interview on the music video that it would be. It would be nice if the song was in the album, or even included as a bonus track in the Deluxe Version because it is a great song. Most of the songs in the album are a combination of R&B sound and experimental stylings inspired by the music of Imogen Heap. Just like her music videos, some of the songs in the album are similar to her earlier songs. For example, “Let Me Love You” sounds similar to “Love Me Harder.”
Ariana’s younger fans might be offended by some of the songs in the album due to the explicit language. However, if you read Ariana’s tweets and Instagram posts, you probably know that she swears and hopefully not be offended by that. If you are a big fan of Ariana Grande, you will enjoy Dangerous Woman.
