Ariana Grande has returned back with the lead single for her forth studio album Sweetener. As is to be expected, this song has topped just about every chart worldwide and has her fan base going crazy. Me? I'm not entirely sold on the song. But I'm here for the visuals.
Nothing critical I have to say about this song really matters, because its already a damn hit. But I find it underwhelming. I love the Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock "It takes two" style drums that underlie the whole thing, but the song as a whole feels lacking. There's nothing which really punctuates it or strikes through. I've felt this way about Max Martin's production for a while now. Ever since he broke apart from Dr. Luke it's felt like something's been missing from his productions. They don't quite pop the same way and the song structures don't feel as defined. "No tears left to cry" needed builds, it needed a bridge section, it needed a middle-8, it needed bigger vocals, it needed a key change. The song should have been over blown, over produced and camped up to the fucking eyeballs. You can hear lyrically and thematically that the basis of the song was a millennial take on Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive", but it has none of the gloss, weight, or razor sharp production to match it. A shame, because there's a great song here. The end result just feels a few levels beneath where it had the potential to be.
The song serves visuals tho'. Director Dave Meyers shows how to do CGI right without it looking cheap and ragged (i.e like a Joseph Khan video). Although, I think a large part of why I like the video is because I'm still in my feelings about Namie Amuro's retirement and this video treatment and all of Ariana's looks scream Namie.
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