63
MUSIC
Ariana Grande gets in
her feelings on Positions
By Maura Johnston
even by the dizzying standards of the late
2010s and early 2020s, Ariana Grande has expe-
rienced a lot of low and high points over the past
few years: the death of her onetime boyfriend
Mac Miller, public scrutiny of her relationships,
sold-out tours and tweetstorms with her legions
of fans. She’s also kept busy in the studio, releas-
ing albums, as well as the occasional one-off single,
that provide immediate snapshots of who she is
right now.
In the middle of October, Grande announced on
social media that she’d soon be following up 2018’s
lightly funky Sweetener and 2019’s bedheaded
Thank U, Next with another album, her sixth over-
all. Positions, which
Grande recorded
during lockdown,
came out on Oct. 30,
and the album winds
up being an ideal
counterweight to
the madness of the
moment. Its forth-
right attitude, ef-
fervescent energy
and indelible hooks
offer a saucy, dance-
able respite from the
shouting hordes.
Maybe Grande
foresaw all that
yelling: beginning
an album with a song
called “Shut Up”
sends a message. It’s
a playful celebration
of ignoring any
gossip, with Grande’s
cottony voice
accompanied by urgent strings. On the chorus—
an ideal snippet for accompanying TikTok videos—
she stretches the two-syllable title up and down the
scale as strings swoon behind her. It’s a teasing swat,
one that shows off Grande’s sense of humor as well
as her lithe soprano.
Grande is one of pop’s biggest names—her col-
laborations with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have
already netted her two chart-topping singles this
year—and Positions is, accordingly, an event album,
complete with October-surprise release strategy
and cameo appearances from fellow No. 1 hitmak-
ers the Weeknd and Doja Cat. But like Thank U,
Next before it, the album’s strength comes from its
intimate vibe and idiosyncratic worldview, with
Grande’s voice turning bedroom calisthenics (glee-
fully detailed on the giggly “34+35” and the sul-
try “Nasty”) as well as the more mundane aspects
of romance (“Whatcha gonna do when I’m bored/
And I wanna play video games at 2 a.m.?” she
muses on “Six Thirty”) into bubbly pop fodder.
Grande’s most potent weapon as a pop star
is her ability to make the personal universal. Her
honesty about her struggles is rocket-fueled by her
innate knowledge of what makes a hook undeniable,
and those two qualities are all over Positions. The
haunting “Off the Table,” a duet with Abel Tesfaye
of miserabilist-R&B project the Weeknd, tackles
the idea of loving after loss head-on and with
grace. Tesfaye’s smooth voice soothes Grande’s
anxieties about moving on. The string-laden
“POV” and roller-rink-ready “Love Language” are
similarly resonant,
with Grande’s
vocal performance
echoing the soul-
opening experiences
described in her
lyrics. “Motive,”
the duet with pop-
rapper Doja Cat,
rides a thumping
groove as Grande
picks apart a suitor’s
reasons for being.
Taken as a whole,
Positions feels like
the culmination
of Grande’s nearly
10 years as a record-
ing artist, nodding
to elements from her
past while present-
ing an impishly opti-
mistic view of what’s
to come. Touches
of classic R&B flit
in and out, reminiscent
of the soul-inspired pop
on her 2013 debut Yours
Truly; the minimally fuzzy
production of tracks like
“Six Thirty” and “Ob-
vious” bring to mind
the homespun vibes of
Grande’s Thank U, Next
era. That all contributes to why it’s a smoothly con-
fident album. Even when Grande is singing about
self-doubt and uncertainty, she’s fully in her feel-
ings, knowing that pop can bring a release.
‘It felt nice to
be creating
from a more
healed place ...
I’m happy to
not be in that
kind of pain
anymore.’
ARIANA GRANDE, on
the Zach Sang Show,
about what makes
this album different
JOHN SHEARER—GETTY IMAGES
△
Grande’s last
album, 2019’s
Thank U,
Next, earned
the singer
two Grammy
nominations
