Sweetener: Ariana's career defining album

finding the light amidst the chaos

(Ariana Grande in a promotional shoot for sweetener)

Sweetener is the 4th studio album by pop star Ariana Grande released on August 17, 2018, the day I’m writing this it’s the 4th anniversary of its release. I will discuss its significance for her career and why this album means so much to me. Before getting into my love for Sweetener I want to discuss its importance for Ariana and her career. To talk about its significance we need to discuss what Ariana’s life and career were pre-Sweetener, before sweetener I feel like Ariana’s career while growing with every new project in one way or another i felt her career was very stunted, limited to a degree in some ways. Aside from Ariana’s remarkable vocals her songs Ariana’s music to me pre-Sweetener didn’t feel specific to her in my opinion. I do love/enjoy her first 3 albums but my main critique of those albums has always been that Ariana hadn’t found her “sound” yet and on Sweetener for the first time Ariana had discovered her sound and her footing in the music world. Let’s do a quick recap of Ariana’s career up until this point.

Yours Truly Era:

(The album cover for Ariana Grande’s 2013 album ‘Yours Truly’)

Yours Truly released in 2013 takes heavy inspiration from a few of Ariana’s artistic influences such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey with its powerhouse pop vocal ballads. The album’s genres incorporate Pop and R&B, with touches of 90’s hip-hop, doo-wop, and 1950s piano pop. This album stood out for me and many others in 2013 because of the direction Pop music was going in 2013 and it felt like Ariana wasn’t worried about following the current musical trends and was seeking to carve out her path with this sound.

My Everything Era:

(The album cover for Ariana Grande’s 2014 album ‘My Everything‘)

Now remember how I said with Yours Truly Ariana wasn’t worried about following the current trends of music and carving out her own path? She threw all of that out the window with My Everything and gave us essentially a 2014 greatest hits playlist. With My Everything, Ariana was literally just throwing shit at the wall to see what will stick. If it wasn’t clear this isn’t my favorite Ariana album, I do enjoy the songs on the album but with her following the musical trends of 2014 the album sounds very dated and “of its time”. Some of Ariana’s best songs and some of my favorite songs of hers are on this album but it just hasn’t aged the best to me. Despite these criticisms, My everything was a massive commercial success and beloved by fans.

Dangerous Woman Era:

(The album cover for Ariana Grande’s 2016 album ‘Dangerous Woman’)

With Dangerous Woman, I feel like Ariana had a clear vision of what she wanted this album to be and represent. This album served the purpose of shedding Ariana’s nickelodeon good girl image. While Ariana was more suggestive before she had become more explicit on Dangerous Woman. It’s no surprise this is the first album with explicit content, the topics of young love and romance are present in her past albums it’s the blatant themes and topic of sex that lend to the album’s sense of maturity. Personally, I love Dangerous Woman pre-Sweetener this was my favorite Ariana album and even now it’s still among my top 3 albums of hers.

(TW// Death and suicide// Now this next thing I’m going to discuss can be triggering for some so if you don’t want to read about the manchester bombing skip this section)

On May 22, 2017 while on tour promoting the Dangerous Woman album in Manchester a terrorist attack occurred, 22 people were killed and over 100 ppl were injured. This tragic event sent shockwaves through the world and had massive ramifications for Ariana and of course everyone there. Following this event, Ariana returned to Manchester in May of that year for her One Love Manchester benefit concert. This served Ariana and her fans to not let the darkness and nastiness of the world dim their love and light and I think this sentiment really accurately portrays what the sweetener album is and represents. I don’t want to give too much credit to this terrorist attack because i don’t want it to sound like this event was the catalyst for Sweetener’s success. So let’s get into the…

Sweetener Era:

(Ariana Grande for her single ‘No Tears Left To Cry”)

On April 20, 2018, she kicked off the Sweetener Era with her single ‘No Tears Left To Cry’ an anthemic and uplifting dance-pop track about inviting her partner to choose to be happy despite the hardship endured. I can’t even put into words how much I love this song it’s fun but the message has really resonated with me over the years and it was my favorite song for the longest time. THIS IS MY JAM!

(Ariana Grande for her single “God is a woman”)

The next single God is a woman was released on July 13, 2018 and this song on the surface sounds like Ariana is just hyping up her pussy so much that it’ll make her partner “believe god is a woman” but the true message of the song comes through the music video. This in my opinion is my favorite music video from Ariana, while throughout this whole era i think she really delivered with the visuals but God is a woman is something special. In the video the message shifts from just Ariana hyping her sex game up to a female empowerment anthem of resilience in the face of backlash. I love God is a woman as well the outro to this song is literally my favorite outro to a song possibly ever like go listen to the song rn and pay close attention to the outro and listen to how excellent it is for me.

(Ariana Grande in a music video for her song ‘Breathin’)

Breathin is the last single from the short-lived Sweetener era released on September 18, 2018. Breathin is a song about… well breathing but it’s Ariana talking about her anxiety and how suffocating having anxiety can be. i really like this song it’s not a favorite of mine but i really appreciate the message and sentiment of this song and it and other songs on the album resonated with me.

(The album cover for Ariana Grande’s 2018 album Sweetener)

Going into the Sweetener era all eyes were on Ariana due to the manchester bombing and her sudden relationship with P*te Dav*dson. So going into the Sweetener era everyone was wondering what Ariana was going to do and how she was going to respond to her recent public headlines. Sweetener at its core is about finding hope and perseverance, it’s about tryna stay positive in a world that’s tryna constantly dim your light. It’s no coincidence that this is Ariana’s first album cover in color it’s a representation that the light is coming (pun intended). The album has even more adult themes than her previous album Dangerous Woman, with themes of mental health, Toxic relationships, sex, and romance. Sweetener to me feels like the first album where we get a look at who Ariana Grande the person is and not her as an artist and a brand. This is evident by how involved and hands-on Ariana was with the production of this album, the experimental production done by none other than Pharrell Williams blends so well with Ariana’s voice surprisingly well. Most of the production done by Pharrell adds to the fun and lighthearted nature this album radiates at times for example Blazed, The light is coming, Sweetener, and successful. Many people didn’t like Pharrell’s contributions to the album but me oh I ate it up I never understood why people don’t enjoy fun music. While the other songs not produced by Pharrell add to the darkened and serious themes of the album for example God is a woman, everytime, better off, and breathin. The closing track Get well soon is what made the album really resonate with me and is my favorite song not just from Ariana but ever. This song gives me such hope and makes me feel like no matter what I’m going through I’ll get through it, It made me recontextualize the entire album and look at tracks differently through the lens of hope and healing. Over time I've grown to love every song on the album and every song means and represents something special to me and it makes me feel seen, safe, and comforted. I got the album the first time but over the past 4 years, its meaning has truly stuck with me in a way no other album has.

What Sweetener did for Ariana’s Career

Sweetener is the precursor for Ariana’s 2019 album ‘Thank U, Next’ While sweetener was seen as the ray of hope and is about pushing through the darkness, more unexpected events in Ariana’s life took another negative turn for her. Due to the passing of her ex Mac Miller and the split from her soon-to-be husband track 14 from sweetener Ariana was once again all over the headlines and many speculated what Ariana would do next. Many thought she would seclude herself and stay underground for a bit but her next move took everyone for a surprise. Ariana released her song and then eventual album ‘Thank U, Next’ and was met with critical acclaim and commercial success. The emotional vulnerability and trap beat sounds that were present in Sweetener were continued in this project, and her 2020 album ‘Positions’. Her three latest albums loosely tell a story of finding hope with Sweetener, The hope you had built up comes crashing down on Thank U, Next, and learning to live again and move forward with life on Positions. With every one of these albums, we see Ariana make the most of the cards she’s been dealt and come out stronger on the other side.