Album Review: Ariana Grande's 'eternal sunshine'

Grande steps into the light and shines bright on her 7th LP

Ariana Grande has a lot to think about, and perhaps a good amount she’d like to not think about. Since her last album, 2020’s stagnant positions, she’s gotten engaged, married, and divorced, entered into a new relationship that’s become classic tabloid fodder, and filmed her first starring role in a feature film. Her fantastic, yet brief, new album eternal sunshine draws its name from the 2004 feature film starring her favorite actor Jim Carrey. On the album she navigates the ends, beginnings, in-betweens, and aftermaths of relationships, with some commentary on life in the spotlight sprinkled in for good measure. 

“How can you tell if you’re in the right relationship?” are the first words Grande sings on the concise, R&B-fueled pop LP that is eternal sunshine, which clocks in at just 36 minutes. Like the house-inspired lead single “yes, and?” urges, “say that shit with your chest.” And with an opening line like that, she’s clearly got a few things to get off hers. 

From one vantage point, eternal sunshine is neither an outright falling-in-love nor breakup album. It meets at the midpoint of those two experiences, chronicling the breakup, new romance, and inevitable public commentary. From the too-readily-available tabloid timelines of Grande’s 2023, she endured both of those events during the year, and in close proximity to one another. One minute she’s taking what’s hers as her BFF Courtney arrives to retrieve her amidst the glittering disco of “bye,” and the next she’s enjoying the fall as she’s possessed by love on the fantastic “supernatural” with its earworm of a hook. 

From another vantage point though, she’s fusing her experiences into a narrative reminiscent of the film which inspired the album’s title. Hell, the music video for the album’s driving electro-pop second single, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love),” is a loose recreation of the album’s namesake. In the film, the main characters, who are former lovers, have their memories of each other zapped only to find each other and fall in love all over again. While that doesn’t happen in Grande’s music video, the two do unknowingly pass by each other in the closing scene. 

Whichever way you interpret the album, one thing is clear: Grande is more in the driver’s seat than she’s ever been before. She’s the sole lyricist on more than half of eternal sunshine, a first for her. Her only co-lyricist on the rest (save for writing credits to the two spoken inclusions) is the unstoppable Max Martin (who’s hits stretch from late 90’s classics “...Baby One More Time,” “I Want It That Way,” and “It’s My Life,” all the way to “I Kissed A Girl,” “Shake It Off,” and “Can’t Feel My Face”). Martin not only produced the bulk of eternal sunshine, but earned his first executive producer credit on a Grande album (which he shares with her). Their decade-long working relationship dates back to her 2014 sophomore album, My Everything, and has continued on all her albums since, except 2020’s positions. 

A cascade of leaks prefaced the album, which naturally dismayed Grande. One in particular, “Fantasize,” which was actually created for a show about 90’s girl groups, was so resonant with fans that she took note. She drew on that idea and birthed the early-2000’s-ATL-R&B-meets-synth-pop dream world of “the boy is mine.” Though there’s no Brandy/Monica sample here, it is inspired by the 90’s classic, and is instead sung from the perspective of the girl who gets the boy. “I can’t wait to try him,” she anticipates of this “divine” boy, while taking accountability for “all these tears,” and promising that this isn’t her usual demeanor. It’s the closest she gets to commenting on the perceived messiness that has surrounded her current relationship to actor Ethan Slater. 

Elsewhere, she masterfully explores the imperfections that alone can be a challenge, but in a relationship can form a “happy disaster” on “imperfect for you,” She also brilliant encapsulates the challenges of heartbreak in the face of someone that isn’t, and can’t, be painted in a negative light on “i wish i hated you.” Her delivery is devastatingly poignant, culminating in an imperfect, but tremendously affecting break in her voice on the penultimate “hated.” 

One thing the album could stand to boast more of though, is Grande’s voice. Despite standing at just 5’1”, her voice is one of the biggest of her generation. Listening to this album though, that fact isn’t entirely apparent. She’s quite subdued throughout the record, though she does flex her belting chops at moments, such as in the final moments of “true story.” Even watching her performances on Saturday Night Live the night after the album dropped, her vocal power is effortlessly more apparent than it is on the album versions of both the songs she performed. She’s got the pipes, but she doesn’t use them to their capacity as often as this big-voiced diva fan would like. I mean, this is a woman who can sing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” with ease. More vocals like that, please and thank you.

In fact, the biggest vocals to be found on eternal sunshine can be found on the slightly deluxe, which was surprise-released the night after the album was released. The four additional tracks include acapella and acoustic versions of two cuts and two collaborations. First, a scene-stealing cameo from Troye Sivan on the standout “supernatural,” in which he sings “you said you want it in and on me, boy you read my mind.”

The second is where the big vocals burst through. Closing out the slightly deluxe is the knockout remix of lead single “yes, and?” featuring Mariah Carey. Harkening back to Carey’s history of incredible, re-sung vocals on house and dance records (which began in 1993, the year Grande was born), Carey holds nothing back, doubling whistle notes, belting through the pre-chorus and her own verse, and blending immaculately with Grande on the hook. It’s nothing short of a revelation witnessing these generations unite. 

Deluxe aside, eternal sunshine comes full circle. Though the final track, “ordinary things,” is about the love she has for her friends, but it ends on a different note. A recording of Grande’s grandmother reflecting on her relationship with Grande’s grandfather ends the album poignantly. Her grandmother recalls the magnitude of emotions seeing him come home each night after work, the challenges of relationships, and ends on a particularly notable thought: never go to bed without kissing your partner goodnight. “If you can’t, and you don’t feel comfortable doing it,” she says, “you’re in the wrong place, get out.” And that’s how to tell if you’re in the right relationship.

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