Revisiting ‘Eternal Sunshine’: 2024 has been the year for pop music
By Amelia Buck
Nearly half a year on from its initial release, we retrospectively delve into the eternal sunshine tracklist – how Ariana changed her career trajectory with 13 songs.
It is no secret that Ariana Grande is a woman who hustles. She finished filming for Wicked in January, dropped her seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine two months later, performed at the Met Gala in May and a string of music videos for her latest project. Since its release, Eternal Sunshine has surpassed 3 billion streams on Spotify, singles such as ‘yes, and?’ and ‘We can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 and Grande released a slightly deluxe version, with features from Mariah Carey and Troye Sivan. No small feat.
People have been quick to name Eternal Sunshine as their favourite Grande album and rightfully so. As her shortest album, just under 36 minutes long, Eternal Sunshine takes the listener on a journey through heartbreak, bad bitch energy and love. Not only is this album drastically different from her other albums in terms of length, but her vocality and clarity is something else entirely.
The album begins with ‘intro (end of the world)’ where we are immediately introduced to Grande’s soft tone that dominates this album. There’s a sense of guilt not just in the lyrics, but in the music as well. We also see a Grande specialist: vocal layering. Grande knows how to immerse you into a song and make you feel like you’re right there with her. An alluring start to the album.
We move into ‘bye’ and ‘don’t wanna break up again,’, two songs that are generally ranked at the bottom of people’s lists. Whilst I can agree with putting ‘don’t wanna break up again’ at the bottom, I cannot agree that ‘bye’ deserves that place. It’s a song brimming with, you just can’t help but dance everytime it comes on. Grande is making a point with this song and I think it would bang in a club if given the chance. The clarity of her voice in both bye and don't wanna break up again is insane compared to some of her old music. It’s easy to tell that Grande has worked hard with her vocal coach to perfect her voice for Glinda – and it pays off in this album too. Contrasting with ‘bye’, ‘don’t wanna break up again’ is very cathartic and there’s a beautiful connection between Grande’s lyrics and voice. The problem with the latter is that there are so many better songs on the album. Sorry (but a good problem to have)!
I’ve never really understood the point of interludes, especially non-singing ones. No one listens to them and they get skipped when the album is on shuffle. I feel the exact same way about ‘saturn’s interlude’. The only thing I like about it is its transition into the title track.
After listening to the track ‘eternal sunshine’, it becomes very clear why Grande named the album after it. It’s a hard hitting song, with its lyrics and Grande’s inclusion of laughter between her and, fans are speculating, Mac Miller. Fans believe that she says “you’re supposed to be here with me” before sighing. So, before anyone tries to tell you it’s a song about a man who played Spongebob Squarepants… shut them down! It’s a song where we get a great contrast of her upper and lower range, perhaps reflecting grief: the highs and lows and how quickly we can go between them. The song in general feels like a big hug; like she wants the listener to feel understood and she wants the listener to understand her.
The placement of ‘supernatural after eternal sunshine’ was a great choice. After understanding the pain of grief, we learn about the joy of love. This is my personal favourite off the album because again we get to see her lower range, which I absolutely love and is one of the reasons why I love this album specifically so much. It’s almost like you can hear her smiling while recording this and you feel like you’re in outer space, floating amongst the stars, whilst listening to it. It has a transcendental quality to it, mirroring the feeling of pouring your heart and soul into someone.
We are hit with ‘true story’ and ‘the boy is mine’. Both are another two of my favourites, and I have watched ‘the boy is mine’ music video more times than I care to admit. ‘true story’ is a great “fuck you” anthem; a song that fans theorize is Grande’s clapback at the media and how they have treated her. ‘the boy is mine’ is another song I need to hear in the club and a song that has me strutting to the train station like I own it. Both are enticing, bold and sexy. Grande knew what she was doing by putting them together.
Grande continues this feeling in ‘yes, and?’. Since the release of the whole album, I feel that people have forgotten how good this song actually is. This might be because it is so different from the rest of the album, just like ‘Positions’ was compared to the other songs on the project. With ‘yes, and?’ Grande brought back Madonna’s Vogue and created a spectacular club anthem and party song. On top of that, it screams ‘I don’t give an f’, because Grande simply doesn’t.
The tone switches completely in we can’t be friends (wait for your love) and even more as the tracklist progresses. The track makes you feel like crying and then ‘i wish i hated you’ actually does make you cry – hook, line and sinker. Both songs are about embracing and accepting; learning to let go and seek something higher. I could totally see ‘we can’t be friends’ playing in an episode of Heartstopper, maybe after a fight between Nick and Charlie as they longingly look at each other across the playground, ready to make up. Grande gives us a cathartic feeling with the heartfelt and painful lyrics contrasted with the upbeat and joyous music. ‘i wish i hated you’ is downright sad, raw and truthful. You instantly think of someone you wish you hated when listening to it and Grande makes you feel heard. If you listen closely to the chorus, you can hear Grande being cut off by the music, almost as if she is too afraid to continue. This song reminds me of ‘ghostin’ from thank you, next, another song of Grande’s that is quite naked and open. You also hear her voice crack and break in the last chorus of ‘i wish i hated you’, which is what sent me over the edge when listening to it for the first time.
The album ends with ‘imperfect for you’ and ‘ordinary things’. Grande gives us a much calmer vibe at the end of the album: we move away from bad bitch energy to being in love. I personally think these two songs really suit each other and being at the end of the album. ‘imperfect for you’ honestly gives me country vibes, like Grande is sitting on a patio in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. ‘ordinary things’ is definitely one that stands out from the others in this album. We get a unique beat and hints of some sort of brass instrument, very different to the sharp drums and electronic keyboard-like sounds that dominate this album. It has a beautiful ending, with Grande’s question in ‘intro (end of the world)’ being answered by her Nonna. I see it as Grande’s final love letter, before sending the listener off to wherever they need to go next.
Grande has created an album that is less grittier and more delicate than her previous work. If you compare Eternal Sunshine with Dangerous Woman, it’s almost like there’s two different singers on the tracks. Grande is embracing a softer side to her singing and there’s a real undertone of her Glinda voice on this album. I think it’s extremely interesting how, despite ditching ‘Popstar Ari’, Grande has made this album extremely pop, compared to her last album Positions which was heavily R&B. I would have liked to see her R&B style come through more on this album, because I think it really suits Grande and helps to dissociate her with that rigid popstar persona. However, I really can’t complain too much, because the album we did receive was true beauty and I’m counting down the days until I get to hear more of her as Glinda in Wicked.
Grande is not the only artist changing the pop game. Sabrina Carpenter is becoming increasingly popular by the day. ‘Espresso’ has over 1.3 billion streams on Spotify and it’s follow-up ‘Please Please Please’ was not the fumbler Twitter users predicted (800 million streams and counting). Her sixth studio album Short n’ Sweet, although not been out for long has already ushered in a transformative era for the next big new star. Olivia Rodrigo is another female pop artist whose fame was catalysed by the release of her debut album SOUR. She’s spent most of 2024 on a sold-out tour, performing her second studio and newest album GUTS. And of course, the female pop artist who is taking the gays and girls by storm, Chappell Roan has been touring up a storm, basking in the success of ‘Good Luck Babe!’ and the delayed mega-success of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
I love that female artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve in 2024. Pop music is finally becoming socially acceptable, we’re finally admitting that pop music is not cringe! I’m excited to see what other artists emerge from this pop Renaissance or if pop music will revert to being unfairly hated on… only time will tell!