POP/ROCK

Ariana Grande, "Eternal Sunshine" (Republic)

This is Grande's first album in over three years, which is a considerable pause after a prolific stretch where she put out a hit LP nearly annually. She followed the poised, polished "Sweetener" in 2018 with two quickly produced albums that felt more off-the-cuff and conversational: the intimate and revelatory "Thank U, Next" and the lovestruck but less consistent "Positions."

Since then, she got divorced from her husband of two years, Dalton Gomez, and started a romance with Ethan Slater, her co-star in the upcoming movie version of the hit musical "Wicked." An overall narrative arc of heartbreak and new love unfolds on "Eternal Sunshine." But, in a departure from her last several albums — one of which featured a song named for Pete Davidson, the comedian to whom she was then engaged — Grande stops short of explicit nods to autobiography and lets sweeping, wholehearted emotion tell the story.

"Eternal Sunshine" is Grande's most sustained collaboration with Swedish hitmaker Max Martin, with whom she wrote or produced 11 of its 13 tracks. Unsurprisingly, this is one of Grande's most meticulously crafted and texturally consistent releases, though it lacks the whispered asides, rough edges and irreverent humor that made those last two albums so much fun. Still, "Eternal Sunshine" is awash in lavish atmosphere, adventurous melodies and an emotional weight that brings a new sophistication to Grande's songcraft.

"Bye," a disco delicacy as richly layered as a five-tier cake, is one of the album's finest moments — a showcase for both the belt-it-out power and the stop-on-a-dime agility of Grande's voice. Martin's approach to pop structure is famously rigid, but throughout "Eternal Sunshine," Grande proves that she is a gifted and nimble enough singer to eke out considerable melodic freedom within his bounds.

"Eternal Sunshine" is strongest when it leans hardest into R&B, a genre Grande impressively embraced on her gorgeously sung if somewhat traditionally arranged 2013 debut, "Yours Truly." Here, and on a particularly strong stretch in the middle of the album, she and Martin coat the genre's liquid cadences in a retro-futuristic Y2K-era sheen.

"Eternal Sunshine" is a pop album so full of imaginative sonic details that there are even interesting moments on the weaker songs, like the celestial vocal ascent at the end of the relatively stiff "Supernatural" or the so-wrong-it's-right note Grande reaches for in the chorus of "Imperfect for You."

For once, there are no cameos from other artists here; even the backing vocals consist of densely layered, harmonizing Grandes. The album's sole feature comes in its final moments, from Grande's grandmother, who offers some sage relationship advice at the end of the sweet, hip-hop-inflected ballad "Ordinary Things": If you don't want to kiss your partner goodnight each evening, "you're in the wrong place — get out."

LINDSAY ZOLADZ, New York Times

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