NYT: Ariana Grande Sails Above Sorrow on Sweetener

[TheAlpha 3,830]

“Sweetener” begins with the brief, mournful, a cappella “Raindrops (An Angel Cried)”: a verse of the Four Seasons song “An Angel Cried.” And it ends with vocal harmonies in “Get Well Soon,” a compendium of sympathy and 21st-century advice — “Unfollow fear and just say you are blocked” — that also promises, “I’ll be right there just to hug you.” The length of the track, including a long silence at the end, is 5:22, memorializing the day of the attack.

But Ms. Grande, 25, won’t let sorrow take over her pop-star narrative. Album by album, she has constructed a persona of cheerful female empowerment. She’s not a woman battling her way forward. She’s simply commandeering what she has always deserved and fully expects, including authority, devotion and pleasure.

Ms. Grande backs up her statements with song-and-dance mastery. Although she has learned plenty from Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Michael Jackson and many others, her own voice is immediately recognizable. It can be silky, breathy or cutting, swooping through long melismas or jabbing out short R&B phrases; it’s always supple and airborne, never forced. With “Sweetener,” she has reaffirmed that the lightness of her voice is best suited for bliss and satisfaction, not mourning.

Nearly everything else is Ms. Grande: lead and backup vocals, melodies and asides, teasing and yearning, motion and afterglow and togetherness. She’s her own choir, support group and posse. While a few guest vocalists (Mr. Williams, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott) provide a little grit for contrast, Ms. Grande sails above any fray, past or present. Her aplomb is her triumph.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/arts/music/ariana-grande-sweetener-review.html

Spoiler

with all the praise this album is getting, Ariana could easily snatch her first Album of the Year nomination next year..

 

[Othon 33,363]

What did I say? It's all about the narrative, with a couple of quick paragraphs devoted to the actual music near the end.

The narrative is 90% of what they care about.

[River 112,486]

I'm always amazed by how far the critics vs the listener opinion is in many albums, movies, tv show etc.. it's just unrealistic anymore..

The album was not so praised by the listeners, fans or not, so I'm really wondering how the hell it gets so much praised by critics, is it real?

It's not just Sweetener, it's many other things recently..

Please don't see as an attack or something, it's not..

[TheAlpha 3,830]

Just now, River said:

I'm always amazed by how far the critics vs the listener opinion is in many albums, movies, tv show etc.. it's just unrealistic anymore..

The album was not so praised by the listeners, fans or not, so I'm really wondering how the hell it gets so much praised by critics, is it real?

It's not just Sweetener, it's many other things recently..

True. I personally don’t like the album at all. But critics seem to love it.

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

14 minutes ago, OG Gaga Stan said:

What did I say? It's all about the narrative, with a couple of quick paragraphs devoted to the actual music near the end.

The narrative is 90% of what they care about.

Many of the reviews discuss the music in good detail, with only a slight mention to the "narrative", so  

[GagaMariaSpears 1,627]

I'm convinced that most singers teams have hired news outlets to give their new releases positive reviews. I can't remember the last time when a music critic have given a truly honest review of a album, where they focus on the music as a whole instead the image of the artist, or the album's intent. I remember even ten years ago, critics were seen as more brutal and hard to impress, which may have affected the artist's image with the general public.

[Hoeanne 1,061]

Y’all the themes, lyrics, and statements made by an album are PART OF THE MUSIC. Yes these reviews are taking into account the real world events surrounding the music because they’re what the music is about. Every paragraph of this review is about the music, usually individual songs, what it’s trying to say. They aren’t ignoring the music in favor of a predetermined narrative.

Also, this album isn’t hated by anyone outside of internet Stan circles. Everyone I’ve talked to irl about this album likes it. There is no disconnect between the public and the critics on this.

[KatieJudasGaga4 67,907]

I'm sorry but how did critics react kinda bad to Joanne, but not to Sweetener like ?? 

[Othon 33,363]

21 minutes ago, ItsTommyBitch said:

Many of the reviews discuss the music in good detail, with only a slight mention to the "narrative", so  

Why did you put quotes around the word narrative, as if narratives don't exist and celebrities don't push them? The narrative that the celebrity puts forth throughout their promotional tour influences the way the album is received. These writers aren't musical theory majors, so they do what they do in every other piece they write: they try to tell a story to hook readers. They're taught to do that in school. All I'm saying is that the narrative that musical artists cultivate and alter throughout their careers has a significant impact on what the critics ultimately say about an album, and that they focus on that when when discussing the music instead of talking about the music in a technical way (mostly because they don't have that kind of expertise). 

What a bizarre response... 

[Othon 33,363]

6 minutes ago, KatieJudasGaga4 said:

I'm sorry but how did critics react kinda bad to Joanne, but not to Sweetener like ?? 

They thought that Joanne was inauthentic and was an attempt to pander to the general public. I mean, I actually agreed with them on those points, but the fact that they focused on that more than anything else gets back to what I said above. They objected to the narrative that existed around her at that moment given the trajectory of her career.

[Thomas P 18,479]

I mean, I agree. Everyone I’ve talked to Off this site, and off stan twitter agrees. I understand why people don’t like the album, but I truly believe this album deserves the praise it’s getting. 

[Othon 33,363]

47 minutes ago, Hoeanne said:

Y’all the themes, lyrics, and statements made by an album are PART OF THE MUSIC. Yes these reviews are taking into account the real world events surrounding the music because they’re what the music is about. Every paragraph of this review is about the music, usually individual songs, what it’s trying to say. They aren’t ignoring the music in favor of a predetermined narrative.

Also, this album isn’t hated by anyone outside of internet Stan circles. Everyone I’ve talked to irl about this album likes it. There is no disconnect between the public and the critics on this.

That's true, obviously, but that's not what I'm talking about. Very little of this album is explicitly actually about what happened in Manchester: she barely references it at all (which, duh, I'm sure it would be awful to have to relive that) outside of one song and a couple of other moments people have intuited to be about Manchester. The idea of taking something negative and adding "sweetener" to it is certainly an overarching theme, but that doesn't dictate quality. I'm talking about the fact that the story these reviewers keep telling is exactly the same: she lived through something terrible and now she's happier, and that can only exist in relation to that one event in her life. The album represents something good and, therefore, it's a good album. They're projecting that narrative onto her, and, because music criticism is notorious for groupthink, they're all repeating each other. It's a shallow way to assess art. 

I'm not saying any of this because I dislike her, because I don't. I like her, and she's really talented. It's just frustrating seeing these narratives form and dictate how critics respond to the work they're supposed to be critiquing, especially considering the fact that they've projected things onto Gaga and egregiously misread her work in the past because they operate this way.

[Matangi 3,050]

perhaps its not a conspiracy and writers/critics who devote their careers to this know what theyre doing. sweetener deserves acclaim

[LordEnigma 11,313]

Idk - the only real hate I’ve seen is from stan culture. Otherwise, most of my friends like/enjoy it.

Its grown on me!

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

35 minutes ago, OG Gaga Stan said:

Why did you put quotes around the word narrative, as if narratives don't exist and celebrities don't push them? The narrative that the celebrity puts forth throughout their promotional tour influences the way the album is received. These writers aren't musical theory majors, so they do what they do in every other piece they write: they try to tell a story to hook readers. They're taught to do that in school. All I'm saying is that the narrative that musical artists cultivate and alter throughout their careers has a significant impact on what the critics ultimately say about an album, and that they focus on that when when discussing the music instead of talking about the music in a technical way (mostly because they don't have that kind of expertise). 

What a bizarre response... 

Do you really not know that your post reads like:

"This album is bad, but it is getting good reviews because of the circumstances that led to its creation instead of its actual musical merit" ? Because what you just replied seems like a huge neutral walk back from the original tone  

Note that my comment only pointed out that many of the reviews on aggregate hubs like Metacritic (in fact, most of the ones that I have read in detail If I'm remembering correctly) DO refer to some if not many technical musical aspects, reflecting on the way her voice, the production, lyrics, etc. all combine to form the entire project. People actually do like this record, and the narrative you are referring to is not the overarching reason for its positive reception. The album isn't being received well solely because it comes from a good place or has a good inspiration, people literally like the music and think it is well made as a whole and several reviews refer to what they like about the album and individual tracks specifically. It's fine if you don't like this record and think its "technically" bad, but you don't have to superimpose a grand conspiracy that everyone that likes it critically is faking it or engaging in group think  You might not be doing that - or perhaps not in that much detail, but your posts + history sure read like it  

~~~

Spoiler

I am fluent in music theory btw - if that means anything to you take my word; You don't have to have training in music theory or something of that nature to be an "expert" or be qualified to give an evaluation of music. Literally the history of music (especially Western music) as an art form is riddled with never ending debates from "critics" trying to argue for the inherent goodness or badness of music and unsurprisingly there's no consensus even today. There's no objectivity to be had here, only subjective ones we can make for ourselves. Some critics are just journalists and writers that are hired by magazines, websites and social media for promotion and news but there are no qualifications to be had in the first place so its not a big deal. Pitchfork (a website the internet sort of sees as a valid music critic hub) is not full of trained musicians, its individual human writers with a good voice and a good pen to express their individual opinions