#ThrowbackThursdays: Ariana Grande's Eternal Sunshine
A late, but also early, throwback to an overlooked marvel and a thorough analysis of why Grande is my favorite Millenial/Gen Z popstar.
I know it is not Thursday, but fuck it. I had other things in mind this week. And paraphrasing queen Cyrus: it’s my blog I can do what I want to.
Sooo, Ariana Grande’s latest long play release isn’t technically a throwback since it has been out for only four months. But let me stretch my logic.
Inspired by my recent love gushing for her the boy is mine remix with Brandy and Monica, I decided to revisit her March 8 2024 released album Eternal Sunshine - a date that I find to be very simbolic, but on that later. As I’m listening, there comes my surprise when I start enjoying it way more than I did on my first few listenings.
Changing my mind about a particular piece of work is not a novelty. For better or for worse, I am constantly re-evaluating my tastes and references. It’s called growth, evolution, maturity. [ksksks sorry, Teacher Helena’s palestrinha strikes back.]
What I think is important noting is that the aspect I returned to liking about this album was not new, I had noticed and enjoyed its existence before: Grande’s music intelligence and knowledge of her main genre of expression R&B. Eternal Sunshine itself, then, sounds more like an intimate and laid-back usage of her own musical tastes and references.
And you know what makes my imaginary vagina titillate? A girl who knows her history!
So here we go and allow me contextualize my main dislikes of it and to rectify my premature overlook of an album that is cleverer than what I had previously judged.
Too much personal bs
My main pet peeve with the Millenial/Gen Z western girls is that everything is way too personal and self-centered. This might sound controversial, but I miss the times when a Pop Diva had things to sing about other than only themselves.
Since the 2010’s, Pop lyricism has become a slurry regurgitation of feelings over the same failed romantic experiences, even if they had different counterparts from album to album. For the past decade, female Pop starts expressing vulnerability and self-reflection has meant complaining about men and their wrongdoings, or an insufferable performance of empowerment based on how hot, careless and rich they are.
Pardon my reverse ageism, but I was culturally raised by women like Madonna, Marisa Monte, Daniela Mercury, Cyndi Lauper, Jewel, Janet Jackson, Alanis Morissette, Sarah MacLachlan, Kate Bush, Nelly Furtado and more, who all did sing about love and relationships but also about the world and realities around them.
They reshaped points of view, created worlds, characters and fantastic narratives. Celebrated intimate friendships and their ups and downs, spoke on varied female sensibilities beyond romantic love or its hardships. Spirituality, social issues… they talked about things they liked that were not only men, for chrissake!
By all means, some songs from the present era are incredibly cool and fun. And a few of these current divas have written about other topics; but in my opinion, there is such a focus on lived experiences that it looks like imaginative writing is a no-go.
I do admit it to be a generational trait, though. Millenials and Gen Zs are obsessed with our own asses. We have conditioned ourselves to use the public sphere as a therapy couch, vomiting our feelings and often biased self-awareness all over social media.
And although I think that bringing subjectivity to the table is somewhat revolutionary, as I grow older I start questioning at what point has it become so bumptiously self-serving.
So when on March 8 2024, I pressed play on Eternal Sunshine and the first line I hear is
How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship?
guuuurl I was gone! Is this bish going to be complaining about men for over 30 minutes of music again?!
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Yes, Miss Grande’s themes here go from hinting and enticing listeners about the demise of her marriage and the start of her current relationship to social media-like self-empowerment discourse. It is all very the same, very confessional but there is something sweet about it.
One of my favorite things about Ariana’s lyrics is how blunt she is in her self-deprecation. Most of the times it is actually funny how she cleverly writes about her self-criticism. That twisted sense of humor is actually what makes me appreciate her songs over some of her generational Pop peers.
Eternal Sunshine is obviously inspired by the movie The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, by French filmmaker Michel Gondry. It has been ages since I last watched this masterpiece, so I won’t get into the details of the plot. However, its main themes of memory, depression, fucking up on relationships and accountability are all over Ariana’s reflections for this album.
Even though it feels like she has been talking about these things for the past four LPs, it is very endearing how she never sees herself as a victim, honestly chronicling her feelings throughout the processes of her life, acknowledging her mistakes and the lessons taken from them.
Like a damn well analyzed person, she never removes herself from the scenes bringing onto focus both her apathy and her hope.
However, it is sonically that this album thrives. Like I said, Grande’s library of musical references has been in the forefront of her recent works. Starting out with bye that borrows from the Disco days of great diva Diana Ross, she sets a beautiful tone to this journey.
don’t wanna break up again, which was the only song that I first loved from this album, presents a scathing and sincere narrative of a couple who can’t come to terms with the end of their relationship. It is so emotional to hear her beautiful and airy harmonies being backed by a heavy 1990’s style R&B beat that brings all down to a somber ground.
Such deep and thorough musical research matures Grande’s work in an effortless way. If in the beginning of her career it felt like she could be only captalizing on sheer nostalgia, when she now emulates Mariah Carey’s dramatic gravitas in pieces like true story, or reimagines Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine as a surprisingly self-aware other woman, you actually believe this is the type of music that formed her as an artist and sensitive human being.
Speaking of queen Mariah, her absence on the original version of yes, and? is very much felt. Not only because the track does sound like something Mariah would have done circa 1998, but mainly for the reason that she sounds beyond cool on that remix.
On Saturn Returns Interdule, Ariana has astrologist Diana Garland explaining the concept of the planet’s 29 year cicle and how it ignites in us a need for brutal self honesty. As a bonafide Cancer Sun, Libra Moon and again Cancer Mercury, it is impossible to have Grande without all of those feelings that she emotes over and over again.
Nevertheless, in spite of its thematic redundancy, Eternal Sunshine highlights a woman very much invested in deepening her self realization while being honest about her past shortcomings.
On her wonderful essay All About Love, the late cultural critic bell hooks notes how love has always been viewed as a small matter by academia because it was always relegated as women’s subject.
That this album was released on International Women’s Day is very interesting, because here we have Grande reflecting on her romantic relationships with pending maturity, setting her apart and ahead from her contemporary Pop colleagues.