[Tom4784]

Ariana

This is an album that should have been an EP, at best. The highs are high and the lows are boring and indistinct. There's some tracks (most noticeably 34+35) that feel like they've taken the bones of far better songs from Thank U, Next and Sweetener and have just repurposed them into songs that are just lacking.

On the plus side though, most of the features are pretty great, Doja and Weeknd's offerings are particular highlights, but most of the songs where it's just Ariana alone are just lacking in anything unique or of substance. Ghostin and Imagine were two songs I really loved from her last album and I was hoping she'd explore those sounds and themes more but instead we just got some bangers mixed in with a lot of filler. Less is more, Ariana.

It's not a complete wash of an album though, as I said, there's a number of bangers and a few more that I wouldn't mind listening to again but the other half of the album is just production line disposable trash.

For the high points alone, I'm gonna give it a 6/10 but that's a low, barely passable 6. I hope she takes a year or two off so she can actually serve something a bit more fully realised than this album.