They ride off together into a pink-tinted sunset leaving behind a trail of partially sucked lollipops, oversized sweatshirts and broken hearts. The arrival of her fifth studio album “thank u, next” on Friday, which dropped a mere six months after “Sweetener,” finds Grande in a spot likely she nor her fans could’ve anticipated: liberated from both romantic and musical attachments. Journeying through the 12-track LP is the pop music equivalent of watching your favorite rom-com heroine self-actualize in real time. If “Sweetener,” as Grande has described, was a “dreamier” and “mature” experiment away from the expected bangers, its followup more deftly sticks the landing. “Thank u, next” successfully reconciles her pop music roots with her more recent and ― depending on who you ask ― controversial R&B leanings.

Source: Huffington Post February 09, 2019 16:07 UTC