Final Rating: 7/10
Pop and RnB sensation Ariana Grande has just released her third album to date titled, “Dangerous Women”. Expectedly, the album contains a great display of Grande’s top notch vocals, and is a nice combination of Pop and RnB. In her prior album, her RnB side was not seen as much therefore, it was nice to see her reveal this side of her style again.
Some of the lyrics on the album were somewhat off putting and immature. For instance, she goes on and on about how she wants love yet, she seems to be so hung up in talking about infatuation and ends up contradicting herself. For an example, on the track Into You she sings “a little less conversation and a little more touch my body”; if I am correct, that sounds like infatuation. Another example would be in Greedy where she says, “You know that I’m greedy for love. I ain’t talking money, I’m’ just physically obsessed”, another example of infatuation as she consistently speaks about physical image and action. It was just very off putting and came off as somewhat immature when she consistently brings up love and then describe’s that only in a physical or sexual sense however, I think that there are many other artists that do this as well.
This album has some catchy songs, but many of the beats are not necessarily “different”, or anything that I haven’t exactly heard before. There were definitely a couple songs that did catch my ear such as Be Alright, Greedy, and Bad Decisions. Hands down, Be Alright was the best track on this album. It is a very fun and upbeat song, and it goes back and forth between a slow “ticking” sound as she sings over that track, then into the fun dance style chorus. This track isn’t unexpected in any way and doesn’t really have any “surprises” in it, the song goes on pretty much how you would expect it to in the sense that it is repetitive in what it does but, it works so well for this track.
Grande’s vocals are the most attractive feature of this whole album as they are raw, and listeners know that they are raw as she sounds exactly like so when performing. It is always a re-assuring feeling when you can listen to music and know that vocals have barely or only lightly been retouched. She has a beautiful voice, and knows exactly how to use it.
The album has some nice additions including Nicki Minaj, Future, Lil Wayne, and Macy Gray. These artists most definitely add some more flavour and personality to the album, my favourite being Macy Gray. In the track Leave Me Lonely, it honestly began just sounding like your average pop breakup song but once her vocals began, it just added this whole new world of personality and difference. It added a sexier vibe to the track, as her voice is much more soft and almost smokey sounding in comparison to Grande. Another enjoyable track was Side to Side with Minaj because it had a touch of reggae to it, incorporated with a club/dance type of beat. The best part of this song was Minaj, but it wasn’t anything super different from what I’ve heard from her.
