ariana grande - my everything

I like this new song a lot, even the Big Sean verse isn't completely awful: http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/ariana-grande-best-mistake-feat-big-sean/

hmmmmmmmmmmm

this is really shaping up to be a distancing from the first album, not just building on it

this wouldn't have sounded that out of place on the first album tho? and i like it.

'just building on' the previous album (basically rehashing it) would have been pretty disappointing imo

surely there's a middle ground between 'rehashing' and 'sprinting towards a more top 40 sound' that a phrase like 'building on' exists to describe

yeah the links are really very tenuous but she's gonna have a huge debut week so it's hard to fault them imo

i think we're all aware that ariana grande is going to be a huge commercial success but it's possible to fault the music within that, no?

Sort of

sure it's just one of those things where the motive of the critic and the motive of the artist start to clash in a way that is hard to reconcile

that's kind of a dodgy logical route to go down w/r/t critiquing successful pop songs. i think a pop critic can take into account zeitgeist-catching and the commercial impetus without necessarily ending up having to applaud every song in the top 10 just because it succeeded on those terms

Isn't part of the fun applauding/enjoyingf songs purely for those reasons tho

no

"problem" and especially "break free" sure, but i don't see what is zeitgeist-catching about this new song at all

i certainly don't fault ariana and co for wanting to catapult her to a more secure/ubiquitous level of stardom but i definitely fault everyone involved for thinking they need to take this very myopic, narrow view on how to reach that goal, essentially trying to launch her based on name recognition rather than idk prior-music-qualities recognition

it'll work but apparently the price is an anonymous-making EDM turn when that wasn't necessary and detracts from the possible individuality she could be securing in that higher circle of pop singers

(nb i haven't heard the new one maybe this looks a lot wronger than it should)

and tbh i understand the attraction to big pop-culture-ubiquity when the thing in question is new, not terrible, something the monoculture can celebrate and share together because monoculture is fun and affirming, hearkening back to a simpler time when we all danced the macarena and purchased peace frogs merchandise, but some of yall overdo it

here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8eRzOYhLuw

http://johnjayandrich.iheart.com/articles/johnjay-rich-good-bad-and-the-gossip-285155/ariana-grande-fought-max-martin-over-12651483

i'm glad she fought Max Martin on having to sing "become who i really are" but the whole "i only wanna die alive only by the hands of a broken heart" is really even worse

That may be the actual worst music video I've ever seen.

This song has really grown on me but that video, oh dear. If you're going to be a pop star you have to make it look like you're enjoying yourself and having fun and not just afraid that someone will see you from an angle that isn't "that one side of the face."

she posted clips of the pop & oak (and childish gambino) song on IG and it sounds great

http://instagram.com/p/rsYyEOyWcG

http://instagram.com/p/rsZtykyWdh

not to get gassed off two clips but it sounds like one of her best songs

Can listen to four of the tracks here for anyone interested:

http://news.mtv.ca/news/music/mtv-first-ariana-grande-preview-four-tracks-off-grandes-upcoming-album-my-everything/

"be my baby" sounded like a "right there" redux
"just a little bit of your heart" is laughably bad
"why try" is tedder at his most grossly calculated

"love me harder" is kind of magical though

not really feeling the weeknd getting on his mykki ekko shit but god damn that "love me harder" chorus

lemme jump on my whiney shit here and point out that if "love me harder" was a robyn single it would be top 5 on every year end list

YOU GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOT TO LOVE ME HARDER

the tedder song is bad but i like the other two

"just a little bit of your heart" sounds like a katy perry ballad that is actually good

Harry Styles is adding that to his resume as we speak:

"Like a Katy Perry ballad, but good"--Jordan S.

i like that you can hear her voice in these at least

definitely prefer "just a little bit of your heart" to that mika one from the last album

it's funny, the weeknd seems to be able to write the kind of really fantastic melodies for other artists that he doesn't really do for himself. m.i.a.'s "exodus", now this

with uberweiss on the other songs...we've heard what, half the album now and the bulk of that is fine-at-best and i'm certainly not getting my life from it like i was from almost all of yours truly :(

the a$ap ferg song is goooooooood

i think i'm...pleasantly surprised by this album on the whole although that jessie j bonus track can go die in hell

There's some good stuff here but I'm otherwise left cold to most of it. It's missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. Not a patch on the best songs from her last album. Break Your Heart Right Back feels like such a waste of that sample too.

man they really let donald glover do biggie's flow over the "mo money mo problems" riff huh

love "break your heart right back"

like "one more time"

dislike "love me harder" iunno i mean it sounds cool but the song it threatens to be never really materializes for me and then the weeknd shows up and i'm out

feels transitional

As far as recent songs using the I'm Coming Out sample featuring questionable rappers aping Biggie's flow goes, this>>>>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHSaEs6KC8Q

extremely taxing to hear both childish gambino and iggy azealea rapping over that sample within the space of an hour

echoing the lukewarm responses :( i feel like this album does a very poor job of framing and supporting her voice - she often seems to have been dropped on top of a backing track with little thought rather than working with it, and a lot of these songs sound like they were written for a smaller voice. i mean i guess most of it is "fine"

the harmony samuels bonus track is one of the best!

I'm surprised by how subdued (and bland a lot of the time) the production is, considering the people who worked on the album. Like, production-wise, the only track that jumps out on first listen is the Darkchild track with A$AP Ferg. It's subdued enough that it makes "Bang Bang" sound good in comparison.

imo im surprised how cohesive sounding the record is, considering the variety of producers and no one to really tie it together (didn't realize max martin only ties together 3 tracks).

not super impressed by the DarkChild production (well any of his shit the last 3 years).

love me harder is the standout for me. agree with le goon about Robyn. have a feeling it will be on a lot of lists anyways. very curious about the involvement of Peter Svennson (from the Cardigans) -- has he been producing other top 40 shit? very strong track. agree with lex about the weeknd - love his sia/greg kurstin collab last year too.

the harry styles track is terrible. is it his first writing credit for another artist?

the trouble with "love me harder" is of course the weeknd himself - he completely kills the momentum (as big sean does on the otherwise-fine "best mistake", he feels like he takes up over half the song)

a$ap ferg is, bizarrely enough, the real revelation of the album. had no idea he could sound as fun as that

ya this is blandsville, not even the hyperreal rictus of the first

pro tip: first quarter is more entertaining when taken as a continuation of her wrestling with the demonic visitations

darkchild arab money vs guile stage number is weird but fun

i like that you can hear her voice in these at least

There's so much sonic gunk on "Problem" that I just assumed she couldn't sing and they were doing the best that they could. But then I sought out a few unadorned clips and was really impressed by her voice. So I'm glad they're letting her show it off instead of drowning it in reverb, cut/paste takes and awkward overdubs.

Wait, were you talking about Break Free? Because that sounds terrible.

"Love Me Harder" sounds the best right now, the only time I've liked The Weeknd on anything tbh.

"Love Me Harder" is basically DWUW Pt II

But on the whole I'm actually enjoying this album - it's obviously no Yours Truly but an EDM Ariana album could have been so much more disastrous.

The instrumental on the Harry Styles one is lovely and it deserves better lyrics than his flavourless syrup.

Yeah, listening now, Love Me Harder sounds OK. Still a little too much artificial mush on her vox for my tastes - obviously she can sing, but the songs I've heard sound like they were recorded one line at a time - but I think I'd prefer this to clean vox paired to a generic piano ballad extreme.