texturally "ghostin" is not something i thought the max martin camp was capable of producingTotally; it’s pretty remarkable.“In My Head” is the album’s sleeper, IMO... how do you even describe that feel? Woozy, psychedelic(?) I love the pair of lazy little drum fills coming out of the bridge; it’s such a great, unexpected musical choice.
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Thursday, 21 February 2019 14:21 (five years ago) link
There’s not a lot to recommend in this long roundtable discussion of music journos — the final section, where they’re rating/ranking pop starts like they’re baseball players or Pokemon, is downright bizarre (even depressing) — but this quote from one Jason Lipshutz does sum up nicely how I feel about the last 2 albums:https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8499235/ariana-grande-thank-u-next-five-questions
To me it's a matter of personal preference, and maybe even mood: the devastation at the center of Thank U, Next lands with a dazzling force, while Sweetener's 15 tracks arrive like a flurry of presents to unwrap, some imperfect but almost all sumptuous. Thank U, Next may very well be viewed as Ariana's crowning achievement when all is said and done, but the lighter moments of the six-months-older Sweetener are still difficult for me to overlook.
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Thursday, 21 February 2019 14:39 (five years ago) link
hey, I'm glad somebody's endorsing "Bloodline" as a single!
― a Stalin Stale Ale for me, please (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 February 2019 14:46 (five years ago) link
Talk about "converting haters left and right"(!):
thank u for some laughs and some v productive conversation ! it was nice bumping into u ! #FutureFeministPiers #FingersCrossed— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) February 20, 2019
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Thursday, 21 February 2019 19:05 (five years ago) link
I have just noticed that all the singles and almost all the tracks are around 3min long (the longest tracks on the album being "Ghostin" at 4.30).That's very short in today's standards. It's (almost) early Beatles'era singles length ("7 rings" is 2.58) !
Oh and another (silly) thought : I have no idea why but I was thinking there might be as much or more use of the word "fuck" than on... Use your Illusions I AND II combined !Is there a "parental advisory lyrics" on her cds (does these things still exist actually !?)
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 22 February 2019 13:49 (five years ago) link
in an interview in the Guardian today Mark Ronson says there's pressure to keep songs under 3:15 otherwise you're at risk of boosting your "heard - incomplete" stats in Spotify which is apparently the kiss of death
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 22 February 2019 13:57 (five years ago) link
Aw thanks I hadn't noticed that evolution !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 22 February 2019 14:45 (five years ago) link
So back to the spirit of the early 60s singles in terms of length...I like that !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 22 February 2019 14:46 (five years ago) link
The parental advisory label is indeed made a prominent part of the new album’s cover art design (the “explicit” version, anyway) — to the point that when fans were doing their own mock-ups of the cover, that label and its placement were a big part of the concept.
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Friday, 22 February 2019 15:22 (five years ago) link
(parody mock-ups, using other photos)
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Friday, 22 February 2019 15:24 (five years ago) link
I love these stats; the only artist in history to replace herself at number 1, twice in a row
https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/ariana-grande-replaces-herself-at-number-1-for-a-second-time-on-the-official-singles-chart__25630/
― piscesx, Friday, 22 February 2019 19:28 (five years ago) link
Also, after obliterating the first-week streaming record, the album still generated more U.S. audio streams in its second week of release than any other album has in its first week. (And yes, I know streaming stats can be gamed by some fans leaving Spotify running 24/7 or whatever.)
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Friday, 22 February 2019 20:51 (five years ago) link
this destroys sweetener on every level
― flopson, Thursday, 28 February 2019 17:52 (five years ago) link
This one lives up to what I expected from Sweetener after reading the breathless hype for that last fall.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 28 February 2019 17:57 (five years ago) link
A new collab w/ 2 Chainz (“Rule the World”) drops tonight.
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Thursday, 28 February 2019 18:51 (five years ago) link
flopson otm
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 28 February 2019 19:03 (five years ago) link
yep
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, 28 February 2019 19:04 (five years ago) link
*queues up "bad idea"*
I like this album a lot and have listened to it regularly lately but I think it lacks something to be a really GREAT album.Maybe one more big song instead of one of the 2-3 that I find meh (so that's roughly one quarter of fillers on the album...)
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 1 March 2019 09:11 (five years ago) link
if you swap out some of the worse tracks for best ones on sweet that’s pretty close to a classic. just skipped thru sweetener again and it’s crazy how bad the pharrel tracks are lol
― flopson, Friday, 1 March 2019 09:20 (five years ago) link
I'd keep REM, No Tears Left, Breathin and Succesful from Sweetener, i'd definitely ditch Make Up and 7 Rings from Thank You, Next but not much else. There's surely a good poll of all the tracks to be made, maybe in another coupla months or so tho.
― piscesx, Friday, 1 March 2019 10:56 (five years ago) link
With « breathin » and « better off » instead of « bad idea », « make up » or « in my head », it would be a classic album for me !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 1 March 2019 13:19 (five years ago) link
idk what people dislike about "make up", it's short but sweet and i love the syncopation
― ufo, Friday, 1 March 2019 13:27 (five years ago) link
"make up" is not bad but I just never feel like listening to it so it's one of the tracks I always skip.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 1 March 2019 15:09 (five years ago) link
UK garage remix of 'Bad Idea' as soon as possible please.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 2 March 2019 16:30 (five years ago) link
Rod Liddle in not a fan shock
Ariana Grande's album is vapid, talentless, derivative, oversexed crap, says Rod Liddle. Pre-teen pop was never much cop. But compare this to the Monkees — or even Vanilla Ice. It's far worse.https://t.co/3eDsPzoAro— The Spectator (@spectator) March 3, 2019
― groovypanda, Sunday, 3 March 2019 17:32 (five years ago) link
who?
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Sunday, 3 March 2019 17:39 (five years ago) link
Former editor of R4's Today programme and loveable racist, misogynist & assaulter of pregnant girlfriend half his age.
― groovypanda, Sunday, 3 March 2019 21:36 (five years ago) link
Best pop album since
Rachel Stevens - Come And Get It
― piscesx, Monday, 4 March 2019 03:35 (five years ago) link
Ahah Vanilla Ice
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 4 March 2019 08:01 (five years ago) link
"her fanbase is sub-teen" -- maybe when she was still on victorious
― theorizing your yells (katherine), Tuesday, 5 March 2019 15:44 (five years ago) link
Cool/interesting Tommy Brown interview: https://www.complex.com/music/2019/03/ariana-grande-producer-tommy-brown-thank-u-next-making-of
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Thursday, 7 March 2019 19:31 (five years ago) link
ooh
― piscesx, Friday, 8 March 2019 13:36 (five years ago) link
nice intw, thanks !I like that, by all acounts, champagne was pretty central in the process !
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 8 March 2019 14:44 (five years ago) link
that is matrix bullet time levels of dodging the "7 Rings" question
― theorizing your yells (katherine), Friday, 8 March 2019 15:05 (five years ago) link
haha, I noticed that too 😉
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Friday, 8 March 2019 15:10 (five years ago) link
this album is dope
― alpine static, Monday, 11 March 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
anyone else (but me) have tix for the tour?
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Monday, 11 March 2019 21:43 (five years ago) link
Nothing to do with this album but I watched Zoolander 2 yesterday (yeah, don't ask... I have no proper excuse or explanation for that... and it's even worse than I imagined it would be!) and she has a cameo in it : she plays a S&M chick in full leather/latex rabbit suit + mouth ball gag (and 1 line I think) !That was... unexpected !
― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 12 March 2019 08:47 (five years ago) link
i think i had given up on her making another album this good again
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 17 March 2019 16:22 (five years ago) link
"ghostin" is one of the best songs about relationship dynamics i've heard in a while & i can't believe they came up w it on the same protracted timeline as the rest of this album
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 17 March 2019 16:33 (five years ago) link
« Ghostin » is wonderful. I don’t know enough about her stuff before Dangerous Woman but it might be her richest song, both lyrically and musically. What a great album. The more I listen to it, the more I love it, except the 3 songs I pass and have actually removed from my edited version of the album (replaced with « Breathin » and « Better off » which share the same emotional/confessional core as the rest of the album).
― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 17 March 2019 20:30 (five years ago) link
Best songs:
Fake SmileBreak Up...BloodlinesGhostin'Thank U, Next
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 March 2019 20:44 (five years ago) link
No "NASA" ? It may be the one with the brightest melodies. Sometimes it's my favourite song of the album.
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 18 March 2019 09:44 (five years ago) link
The tour starts today, in Albany
― What's that Phish song that goes "Bag it, Tag it"? (morrisp), Monday, 18 March 2019 14:09 (five years ago) link
this is dope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGeH483gNOg
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 19 March 2019 02:32 (five years ago) link
she’s on one
― flopson, Tuesday, 19 March 2019 04:14 (five years ago) link
love the horns
They had a voting booth last night at the opening show, decked out in the Sweetener colours with "the future is voting" written on it. Couldn't love this woman more i'm sorry.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 19 March 2019 11:34 (five years ago) link
..or voting 'stand' i guess. Whatever you call it.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 19 March 2019 11:37 (five years ago) link