I think “pov” is interesting in that I’m not sure she can totally “pull off” the vocal—but she goes for it anyway.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Saturday, 31 October 2020 00:02 (three years ago) link
there are a few other spots on the album where it also feels like she’s pushing past some of her natural limitations as a vocalist, and just doing what she loves and making the kind of songs she wants to make.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Saturday, 31 October 2020 00:03 (three years ago) link
Feature focusing on Tommy Brown, with some details on how the album came together: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ariana-grandes-new-album-positions-tommy-brown-interview-11604060104
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Saturday, 31 October 2020 00:16 (three years ago) link
this is my favourite of hers since her debut and I love how cohesive it feels. They're right that there's no "Break Free" or "thank u, next" but a forty-minute album of charming r&b is a great look for her
― boxedjoy, Saturday, 31 October 2020 10:40 (three years ago) link
I agree. This is a right place, right moment sort of album for her. A stay in home, or rather stay in bed vibe. Who even wants summer, party anthems from her in 2020? Have they not been paying attention?
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 31 October 2020 11:31 (three years ago) link
And I’m not even a fan of r&b ballads (or most ballads tbh) but I think it’s a very appropriate mood and a good look on her. She knows she wont be touring this album so it makes sense it has a smaller sound, this is meant for home-listening not for stadiums. And as noticed, this also allows her to push her limitations as a vocalist since she wont be risking singing these in an off-night.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 31 October 2020 11:39 (three years ago) link
only listened to this once so far (haven’t had the time, and there’s also a Wizkid album, priorities!), but it sounded very good and assured.think Moka raises a very interesting point (if I read her correctly) about the way the pandemic and all it entails might be playing into the album’s sound. interestingly, this might be the case with the Wizkid album as well.
― Welcome to Nonrock (breastcrawl), Sunday, 1 November 2020 17:38 (three years ago) link
I think "Shut Up" (the first song she recorded) dates from the beginning of the year, and "Nasty" was obviously well in the works by the time she posted the snippet in late March (around the time the shutdowns began here).
I have thought about how she said, when thank u, next came out, that she wanted to start releasing songs soon after recording them (like a rapper, etc.)... obviously, she didn't end up going that route, at least this time around. She saved them all up for an album -- which feels like the right move, under the circumstances.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Sunday, 1 November 2020 17:52 (three years ago) link
Xpost: yes! I haven’t read articles or interviews but I think the sound of the album is a very conscious decision based on the pandemic. Most of these sound like slow burners rather than stadium anthems to me, and I feel knowing there wouldn’t be a tour affected this decision.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 1 November 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link
There's also a practical point that flying to Sweden to record a few bangers may not have been an option (...but it could also be that this is the album she would have made even under normal circumstances!).
She did a long YouTube interview over the weekend that I'd like to listen to when I have a chance; I assume she touches on this topic.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Sunday, 1 November 2020 18:40 (three years ago) link
apparently scott storch said he first played the “my hair” beat for her in fall of 2018, i wouldn’t read so much into the pandemic aspect. the production doesn’t feel all that different from thank u next to me in terms of tone & tempo it’s just more of an R&B palette as opposed to a pop one. even the big hits on thank u next were pretty low key
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 1 November 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
Good point about the Storch beat (the reference is in that tweet I posted above).
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Sunday, 1 November 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
the fact that some tracks are of older provenance doesn’t invalidate Moka’s point about the overall mood of the album imo
― Welcome to Nonrock (breastcrawl), Sunday, 1 November 2020 19:54 (three years ago) link
correlation, causation etc
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 1 November 2020 20:00 (three years ago) link
The Zach Sang interview is cute... she seems more relaxed / “comfortable in her skin” than in the previous few. She says she wanted to focus a little more on “singing” for this album—as Thank U, Next was more about “narrative” and “bops.” Also, some of the tracks started with just strings; then lyrics, before anything else was added.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Monday, 2 November 2020 05:35 (three years ago) link
(Almost all the talk is about lyrical content; wish someone would ask her more about music & aesthetic choices.)
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Monday, 2 November 2020 05:56 (three years ago) link
She does reveal that for “Motive,” she sent Murda Beatz “a little playlist of diva music” as reference, leading with Madonna’s “Vogue”—and he sent back a beat called Vogue, which the track is built on.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Monday, 2 November 2020 06:14 (three years ago) link
thanks to this album I’m now listening to The Pharcyde. Ariana could definitely work with “Passin’ Me By”.
― Welcome to Nonrock (breastcrawl), Monday, 2 November 2020 12:26 (three years ago) link
the impression I'm picking up from the faint-praise reviews is that critics like her better when she's coming directly out of some obvious, well-publicized trauma. or at least that's my best guest since very few of the criticisms about production/songwriting make much sense to me. (like the AV Club person calling it "too cohesive" lol)
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Monday, 2 November 2020 20:35 (three years ago) link
If so, that confirms my suspicion about reviewers needing the "comeback" hook.
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Monday, 2 November 2020 20:41 (three years ago) link
hey didn't backread how do we feel about this record
― unashamed and trash (Unctious), Friday, 6 November 2020 01:23 (three years ago) link
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (107 of them)
― J0rdan S., Friday, 6 November 2020 01:31 (three years ago) link
It’s wonderful. Such a joy & pleasure
― Tim Simms (morrisp), Friday, 6 November 2020 02:01 (three years ago) link
first two spins suggest this is a classic
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 6 November 2020 16:11 (three years ago) link
just came back to say:
it good
― unashamed and trash (Unctious), Friday, 6 November 2020 16:13 (three years ago) link
it's tight
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 November 2020 16:14 (three years ago) link
This is probably the most outré song she’s ever performed on:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYZyzo8UJQM
― it's AG in your faaaace.... (morrisp), Saturday, 14 November 2020 04:54 (three years ago) link
She also covered it 2 years ago for BBC radio 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9wvtSgJ1YM
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 14 November 2020 05:08 (three years ago) link
Interesting, thanks! Didn’t know that
― it's AG in your faaaace.... (morrisp), Saturday, 14 November 2020 05:11 (three years ago) link
the only track on this i can't ride for is the weeknd one and it's mostly because i hate the fucking weeknd
― Four Seasons Total Manscaping (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 14 November 2020 05:18 (three years ago) link
That unintelligible chorus on positions is so addictive.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 14 November 2020 19:11 (three years ago) link
This album is fucked up
― surm, Sunday, 15 November 2020 00:15 (three years ago) link
.. in a good way!
As per usual the fan-made stuff accompanying the album is so sweet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ChTg8jtDqg
I think Shut Up might be Top 5 all-time Ariana.
― piscesx, Sunday, 15 November 2020 00:36 (three years ago) link
I think more than one of these tracks is top-five Ariana, she has officially claimed her place in the canon
― surm, Sunday, 15 November 2020 00:48 (three years ago) link
O sorry I misunderstood what top-five meant but yes you got it
― surm, Sunday, 15 November 2020 00:49 (three years ago) link
I feel like it’s one of those albums where you realize you’re witnessing something, and you re alive to witness it
― surm, Sunday, 15 November 2020 00:58 (three years ago) link
I think a case can be made that it’s her best album overall. It may lack the depth and ambition of Dangerous Woman; the endearing idiosyncrasies of Sweetener; and the atmosphere and spontaneity of Thank U, Next... but it has no real missteps, and retains the “personal” focus of her past few albums while stepping back into a comfortable, casual, “nothing-left-to-prove” mode.
― it's AG in your faaaace.... (morrisp), Sunday, 15 November 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
(and the songs, as always, are fantastic)
― it's AG in your faaaace.... (morrisp), Sunday, 15 November 2020 01:29 (three years ago) link
Definitely an argument to be made thereThe harmonies on this record tho
― surm, Sunday, 15 November 2020 16:55 (three years ago) link
i think Maura's excellent and only lightly coded coverage in Time on this album crystallized my thinking on just why it seems to be leaving reviewers nonplussed: it's a collection of songs by a woman clearly and severely impacted by trauma that is nonetheless firmly centered on her desire for pleasure and orgasm. That is a treatise and perspective that the pop market is clearly ready for but that many critics are not.
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 02:11 (three years ago) link
Love that perspective
― surm, Tuesday, 24 November 2020 03:28 (three years ago) link
Like a lot
Also applies to the reception of other sexually forward records in recent memory, thank you for articulating it
― surm, Tuesday, 24 November 2020 03:39 (three years ago) link
for the curious, like myself:https://time.com/5906180/ariana-grande-positions-review/
― Running up that hill but fleeting (a deal with Gop) (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 06:43 (three years ago) link
I don’t get your “only lightly coded” reference, forks. care to explain?
― Running up that hill but fleeting (a deal with Gop) (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 06:51 (three years ago) link
A few of the songs are fairly explicit, but the lyrics aren’t much different from what’s in Dangerous Woman. A difference, I think, is that these lyrics sound like a woman wrote them; whereas some of DW’s “sex lyrics” sound like a man wrote them for her to sing (...tho I don’t know if that’s actually the case).
― yes m!ch!gan - the feeling's forever (morrisp), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 07:23 (three years ago) link
At any rate, these lyrics are more “in her voice“; and she also no longer needs a male rapper in the middle of the song to drive the point home (much as I love Future’s verse on “Everyday”).
― yes m!ch!gan - the feeling's forever (morrisp), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 07:26 (three years ago) link
xp to bc: I don't want to speak to Maura's intentions (and I hope she'll swing by to discuss!), but "even when Grande is singing of self-doubt and uncertainty, she’s fully in her feelings, and knowing that pop can bring a release" seems about as close as Time was likely to let her get to saying that Grande is coming from a complex space but finds it easier to come, so to speak, in the less complex landscape of "pop."
I dunno that I really got into Dangerous Woman (sweetener was probably when i really started hearing Grande) and I'd need to give it another listen, but my memory of it was Grande predominantly playing to the male gaze, whereas four years later she seems to be owning who she is pretty fully. Or basically what you said while i was typing!
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 07:33 (three years ago) link
forks is talking about “Maura's excellent and only lightly coded coverage in Time” tho
― Running up that hill but fleeting (a deal with Gop) (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 07:34 (three years ago) link
yeah, that was the point i was making. Ariana's tongue-in-cheek lack of disinterest in coding at all ("means i wanna 69 with you / no shit" and basically all of Shut Up) is part of what makes the album sound so refreshing to me.
and thanks for the plaudits surm
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 24 November 2020 07:36 (three years ago) link