Sweetener
| Ariana Grande
Sweetener
Sweetener is the fourth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande. It was released on August 17, 2018, through Republic Records. The album is the follow-up to her 2016 studio album, Dangerous Woman, and features guest appearances from Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Cherwell
This is not an album which innovates contemporary pop music, but perhaps understandably, Ariana Grande is not too concerned with that right now. Instead, she has made an album which feels like a successful act of healing.
-
Ear Buddy
The songs are catchy
-
Alternatively pop
The album is an exquisite reminder that life goes on and while you may be preoccupied with what’s going on those you have lost will always be there. Grande’s Sweetener captures her life right now – engulfed in love and relationship. Sweetener is telling us that Grande is moving on, but will act as a constant reminder that she will never forget.
-
Refinery 29
Via humor, true ferocity, charismatic wackiness, and not much sentimentality, Sweetener paints a completely unexpected and honest (if at times abstract) picture of Grande right now – a year after tragedy and in the throes of romantic bliss. She seems to have unlocked a new level of creativity, one that goes beyond a good single here and there.
-
Variety
If you dread pop songs with pointedly positive messages — a reasonable dread, to be sure — “Sweetener” might have you rethinking that position.
-
Highs Nobiety
sweetener is a solid body of work that shows the rewards of perseverance.
-
Pitchfork
After years of searching, Ariana Grande has found her true voice. Sweetener is an exemplary pop album, radiating with low-key joy and newfound love.
-
Rolling Stone
Powering past tragedy, the singer has made the best album of her career.
-
Consequence of Sound
Ariana Grande stuns and frustrates on sweetener, an album that delights one moment and sinks into mediocrity the next.
-
NME
The superstar returns with a confident, accomplished, sometimes left-field collection of pop bangers, proving that she's not shy of experimentation.
-
Pride
Sweetener is most certainly Ariana's most cohesive and mature body of work. Filled to the brim with bops and tears and feels, I can't wait to listen to the album on repeat for the rest of my life.
-
Stereogum
As a mission statement for this album, she couldn’t have done much better than “Right now I’m in a state of mind/ I wanna be in like all the time/ Ain’t got no tears left to cry/ So I’m pickin’ it up.” Sweetener exists in that headspace . . . couched in production that peers just as excitedly over the horizon, her perspective is contagious.
-
The New York Times
While a few guest vocalists (Mr. Williams, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott) provide a little grit for contrast, Ms. Grande sails above any fray, past or present. Her aplomb is her triumph.
-
Entertainment Weekly
A fascinating and sneakily complex pop album that adds new creative wrinkles to Grande’s already estimable repertoire.
-
Variety
Ariana Grande’s fourth and most delightful album.
-
The A.V. Club
Confident and empowered, Sweetener illustrates once again that Grande is an unparalleled pop chameleon.
-
NME
Ariana’s core fanbase are bound to find an instant, sugar-rush of pleasure in this fascinating side-step from an artist who – until now – has made her name by stomping down the traditional pop path.
-
Los Angeles Times
The songs are shiny and catchy of course. ... Yet there’s an uncommon sense of self-possession to this album--a kind of ecstatic calm--that sets it apart from everything else on Top 40 radio right now.
-
Slant Magazine
For the most part, though, the formula results in an album that's both consistent and refined, a reflection of Grande's growing awareness of herself as an artist and her place in the world.
-
The Guardian
It sounds like the work of an artist torn between doing exactly what she pleases and, perhaps understandably under the circumstances, giving her audience what they want. But there’s no doubt which of these impulses is more successful artistically.
-
The Line of Best Fit
Keeping the ratting trap beats across most of the tracks keeps the record bang up to date, but adding in flourishes of experimental instrumentation sees Ariana going so much further.
-
Pretty Much Amazing
Because it deviates from what fans expected, Sweetener takes a couple rotations to sink in, but if you give it time, you’ll see Ariana Grande really threw it down when she took down her ponytail.
-
All Music
An album that coheres in a way other Ariana Grande albums don't, which means Sweetener is something of a double triumph: she's come through a tough time stronger and better than before.
-
The Observer
The title track and R.E.M. smush together her penchant for musical theatre and 90s R&B. Everytime bridges tight melodies with synths like a large elastic band being plucked, and God is a Woman feels almost tantric, with guitars and harmonies spaced between sweaty beats.
-
The Telegraph
Grande can really sing, which is a treat in this Auto-Tuned era. Her four-octave range has been compared favourably to Mariah Carey’s, but her style is far more delicate and understated. She rarely unleashes full power blasts but her delight in singing is transparent and her producers take full advantage, layering her all over the tracks.
-
The Quietus
Grande’s new sound, the Williams-produced Not-Bangers, only make up half of the album. These standout tracks are interspersed between standard pop tracks. ... That’s not to say that the Bangers on Sweetener are bad--it’s more that they belong in previous era of Grande and they spoil the flow between songs. Sweetener may not be the dawning of a new age for Ariana but it could be a step towards somewhere weird and wonderful.
-
Sputnikmusic
Grande is adding herself to several distinct sonic palates, putting her own indelible stamp on fundamentally disparate productions while letting them exist in different spaces. It doesn’t sound as free and natural as much of her previous work, but maybe that awkward hollowness is the point.
-
Exclaim
Ultimately, beatmaker Tommy "TBHits" Brown outshines the veterans, co-producing two of the record's more engaging tracks--"Better Off" and "Goodnight n Go"--which are inexplicably relegated to the end of the record. Those songs manage to accomplish what the rest of the album attempts: bringing a new fire to pop-R&B's familiar formulas.
-
The Independent
Seven of the 15 tracks here have been drowned in producer Pharrell Williams’ bubblemint bounce – at points, it’s in danger of sounding more like his record than Grande’s.
-
The Guardian
Her collaborations with Pharrell really push the boundaries. But they make the rest of this album seem formulaic.
-
The Young Folks
Sweetener is exactly what the title proposes it to be. It doesn’t completely mask the sometimes-bitter taste of life, nor does it try to—but when you’re in the right mood, it might be just what you were looking for.
-
Idolator
Despite its shortcomings (of which there are admittedly few), Sweetener is one of the superstar’s best efforts to date. The collection’s strongest moments are its lightest points. When her ethereal voice soars over sweet melodies, it is hard to imagine anything better.
-
Uproxx
At this point, she’s shepherded her own sound with such precision that each of these songs showcase a different facet of her style. Though markedly different, they all bear her fingerprints.
-
The Atlantic
Fans have come to expect a roller coaster’s predictable but satisfying thrill from Grande’s music, but here they get rackety pinball machines: rewarding and frustrating depending on the listener’s own familiarity, mood, and internal rhythm.
-
All Music
Such concentration doesn't simply result in a stronger set of songs, but an album that coheres in a way other Ariana Grande albums don't, which means Sweetener is something of a double triumph: she's come through a tough time stronger and better than before.
-
Entertainment Focus
For the most part Grande is pushing boundaries on Sweetener. There are a handful of tracks that blur into each other, and I’m sure she’s wishing she hadn’t including a short ode to her short-lived fiancé Pete Davidson. Other than that, it’s a confident pop record that will keep her on the charts and in the hearts of her vast fanbase. Personally I’d like to really hear what she can do with that huge voice she possesses and I suspect that’ll come in time. Until then, this is an enjoyable and uplifting record.
-
Vulture
Sweetener offers gourmet parfait, when some listeners might have expected steak. This isn’t a knock against the quality of the music . . . what counts is that Ariana Grande seems at peace after what looked like a rough patch, and Sweetener lives up to its name as a heartening dip into the sights, tastes, and smells of blossoming romance.
-
Crack Magazine
Grande’s voice is forever without fault, navigating powerful, stratospheric highs and airy runs effortlessly.
-
Us Weekly
There are a few venti-sized missteps this time around (here’s looking at you, Williams), but those are easily forgiven. After all, the music speaks for itself — and even though Grande is still refining her craft, it’s evident that she is in a great place in her life. And really, that’s all that matters, right?
-
The Urban Twist
In ‘Sweetener’, Ariana Grande sounds more grown than before. Her unique soprano vocals set her apart from other female singers from the 2010s. The soothing and dreamy vibe makes a listener close their eyes while laying back enjoying the floating of the music.
-
KXSC Radio
Honest, emotional and gently soul-bearing, “sweetener” could only possibly have been performed by a Cancer -- and how lucky we are that that Cancer was Ariana Grande. Her angel voice takes you on a sweet and indulgent journey through new love and butterflies-in-your-stomach romance and, in the end, leaves you with nary a cavity to be found. This is an album that takes care of you, lets you cry on its shoulder and be a little too in your feelings and tells you, in the final track, that you’re valid because of it. And because of that, if nothing else, it’s worth your listen.
-
UMKC University News
Given the semi-inconsistent nature of the album, it ultimately leaves the listener feeling somewhat unsatisfied and wanting more. Even after several listens, you still don’t entirely get the feeling that she is showcasing her full potential. If anything, though, Sweetener demonstrates a massive leap forward for Grande in terms of personal and artistic growth, and at moments is quite honestly staggeringly beautiful in all that it represents.
-
Atwood Magazine
When the album came out I was honestly underwhelmed during the first listen. I feel like “no tears” and “God is a woman” where somehow misleading as singles because they represent a sonicscape and production style that isn’t really present for most of the album – Pharrell, rather than Max Martin, takes over Sweetener. I feel like my expectations were set too high, I’m a huge fan of Martin and especially his work with female pop superstars, but the more I listen to the album the more it grows on me.
-
The Muse
Dangerous Woman was positioned as Grande finally taking the next logical step as a young woman pop singer, releasing aggressively Sexy music with a capital S. But listening to Sweetener, its longterm charting potential still elusive at this point, the risks Grande takes here are perhaps the most grown-up thing she’s ever done. And sometimes the part when you break free from the past, when it finally happens in real life, doesn’t always include a bass drop.
-
NYS Music
With Grande’s determination to not be swayed away by negativity and danger, she bravely set out a new course for herself, making this light-sounding album sound less like a scared murmur for pity but more like a stance of defiance.
-
Affinity Magazine
Overall, ‘Sweetener’ is quite different from Ariana’s previous albums, with less pop songs and more of an r&b vibe most certainly brought in by Pharrell Williams, who helped produce it. However, a certain similarity resides in the harmonies and high notes that can be found throughout the record. All the tracks also presents the same themes, mental health and love, with a fair amount of sexual references.
-
The Musical Hype
All in all, there’s plenty of deliciousness throughout the course of Sweetener. Ariana Grande doesn’t aim for the highest of notes as she has in the past, but she continues to shine as one of music’s most elite vocalists. Again, this isn’t a perfect album, but there are more than enough worthwhile moments.
-
Fansided
While Sweetener might not fit in with the current landscape of down-tempo hip-hop, the album could be the influential saving grace desperately needed to take pop music in a fresher — you could say, sweeter — direction. Ariana Grande rises as the latest pop star to divert from the reliable formula of radio-ready bangers, and she sounds more self-assured, confident and happier than she ever has on a boldly singular and empowered album.
-
Her Campus
What distinguishes Sweetener from Grande’s previous albums is the production style and the influences used to create it. Produced largely in part by R&B and funk musician Pharrell Williams, Sweetener embodies a much more syncopated sound. In contrast, much of the inspiration for the album was derived from classic and retro sources. This dissimilarity produced a unique new sound for the album.
-
Random J Pop
Sweetener is one of Ariana's most inconsistent albums. It feels a little all over the place and there are moments where it feels like it's shifting focus erratically. In this sense it's much like Ariana herself, which is exactly what makes Sweetener work; aside from it featuring some really good songs.
-
Forbes
It’s a smart, sensual and only sometimes saccharine album on which Grande obeys pop music’s universal mandates while also striving to make music that is uniquely, authentically hers.
-
The Times
You would expect this album to reflect on the situation, to contain a few lachrymose ballads about coming together, staying positive and holding on. In fact, Grande has provided resistance of a different kind: carrying on in such poptastic fashion, as if the whole thing never happened.
-
Into More
Sweetener feels like a spiritual successor to Yours Truly rather than a follow-up to Dangerous Woman. But that also makes Grande’s discography feel so much more cohesive. Truly was simple and beautiful. My Everything and Dangerous Woman were focused on delivering bops to pop radio. Like Truly, Sweetener puts Grande front and center and feels more deeply personal than anything the singer has put out before. Sweetener is a cohesive, minimalist, sonic surprise — but it’s also a confident entry in Grande’s discography that solidly moves her from pop princess to pop dauphine.
-
NZ Herald
Sweetener is a lesson in empowerment, self-assuredness, and finding light in the darkness, and on top of all that, it's just a great sounding trap-pop album, with some of the best vocals in the business.
-
The Ringer
In a pop landscape that feels clouded in a numbing, formless haze, Sweetener is a blast of cool, clean air—a much-needed ode to joy.
-
Cosmopolitan
Fuse together Grande’s singing chops with her laundry list of eccentricities and she magically morphs from pop singer to a straight-up diva. The difference? As we’ve gleamed from Mariah, Celine, Cher, or Britney, divas don’t shrink themselves to fit a mold created by the music industry. They deliver their music in their own way and in their own style, and approach everything from performance to social media in a way that suits them first. After all, only a diva could make a high ponytail work for so much of their professional life. And only a diva would insist on walking in heels—even when she’s not.
-
Ratings Game Music
The track-listing varies from cruising music, to club hits, to fun in the sun, to soulful. Ariana opened up about some personal experiences on the promo run for her most earnest project yet. She turned her pain into art. Life gave her lemons and she made sweet sweet lemonade.
-
The Advocate
Despite a couple hard-to-swallow tracks, “Sweetener” lives up to its name and further advances Grande's evolution into a pop powerhouse.
-
Indiana Daily Student
If you haven’t listened to Ariana Grande’s newest album "Sweetener," you should. It’s pretty much dream pop perfection, and it’s Grande’s most personal album yet.
-
Red and Black
The overall sound of this album is a mix of pop, R&B and ‘90s groove. This sound isn’t drastically different from her past three releases but is an evolution lyrically and musically. Grande was very personal about her life in this album which she hasn't done in the past. Just listening to some of the lyrics, listeners can tell she isn’t trying to hide who she is. This album embodies women empowerment, the act of falling in love, struggle, strife, survival and heartbreak.
-
Immortal Reviews
The world has been eagerly waiting for Ariana Grande's massive return. With the world watching her every move, from her romance to her music, this album was meant to change pop music. But will it really? Ariana Grande's Sweetener is too daring for its own good, it's lack of hooks surprisingly and appreciated but by not replacing them, Grande ends up with a lot of empty-sounding tracks.
-
A Bit of Pop Music
To be completely honest, Sweetener is not the revolutionary pop record I low key expected it to be, but it sure is another step up for a pop star who has been steadily growing with every album release. Ariana Grande is on a steady road to become pop royalty with already two of the very best singles of the year to her name, but I think she will have even more to offer in the near future!
-
Express
She is an extraordinarily sweet, skillful and agile singer – arguably the finest female voice in pop – and on tracks like raindrops (An Angel Cried) and Goodnight n’ Go, it simply soars.
-
The Roosevelt Review
For anybody who is a pop enthusiast, adores emotion packed songs or just likes any genre of music, Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener”, is an album you want to listen to as soon as possible!
-
No Hipsters Allowed
Sweetener is a solid body of work and Ariana’s most adult project yet — she was definitely going for grown and sexy vibes throughout. There are no real duds on the album, but half of it can be classified as lukewarm. The album would’ve benefited from a ballad or two (and perhaps one club banger).
-
Cal Times
There’s no rise or fall to the album, just a lot of the same sound, which can make listening through the entire 15 tracks at once a bit difficult. Overall though, this album is unquestionably of a quality worthy of belonging to the biggest pop star in the world.
-
Slant Magazine
the formula results in an album that’s both consistent and refined, a reflection of Grande’s growing awareness of herself as an artist and her place in the world.
-
34st
Grande’s Sweetener effectively evolves her image and voice while giving us the comforting sounds we came to love her for. It gives the listener something to dance drunkenly to and something to cry to on repea.
-
Diandra Reviews It All
There is nothing like new love and sudden tragedy to make you re-analyze how much you have been investing in yourself and the people/ things that make you happy. Thus, Sweetener is not just another good album, it also another good move.
-
Medium
Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album is her strongest effort yet, offering confident, cohesive set of songs that is orthodox but unexpected at the same time.
-
Out
With the ever-increasing ease of access artists can offer to their music here in the streaming age, we see musicians and their sound evolving and changing as rapidly as the times we live in. For Ariana Grande, whose fourth studio album, Sweetener, released today, the singer has moved on from the blatant, unapologetic themes from 2016’s Dangerous Woman and settled into a soothing, infectious bliss.
-
The Gavel
This album is full of emotions and truths well beyond the reach of most other young artists. It is by far Ariana’s best work yet and is especially meaningful given the recent struggles Ariana has gone through.
-
The National Student
Sweetener is (both figuratively and literally) about taking away the bitterness of life and replacing it with something good; it reminds us of the strength in all of us and is a promise of better things to come.
-
Huffington Post
‘Sweetener’ isn’t absolutely terrible, it’s just largely unremarkable… but in the fickle world of mainstream pop, sometimes that’s worse.
-
Metro Newspaper UK
Sweetener is far from perfect — fat could have been trimmed, including the Max Martin-produced Everytime, which lacks the chemistry of collaborations with a firing-on-all-cylinders Pharrell. But such shortcomings are easily forgiven on an album that otherwise makes a shrewd and rousing statement about pop’s ineffable power and never surrendering to darkness.
-
Positively Underground
Ariana Grande has been a voice to root for in pop for a while. From the empowering nature of “Dangerous Woman” to the ridiculously fun “Everyday” video, but Sweetener sees her on top of the world making an album only she could for the first time. Her 2020s are sure to see her skyrocket further into the stratosphere.
-
Vidette Online
Grande outdid herself on this album, and it will be difficult to top.
-
Kelly Alexander Show
I wouldn’t say the experimental sound is imaginative or revolutionary, but it’s enough to give Grande her moment, and satisfy even the tamest of Ariana fans.
-
The Sphinx
There certainly are flaws; at times certain tracks seem to lull and blend together, and the artist collaborations leave something to be desired, but, overall, the downfalls of ’Sweetener’ can and should be overlooked, in order to appreciate, what is at its core, a wholly refreshing and inspiring piece of work. Grande’s message of positivity and encouragement, set amongst the wave of enticing and engaging sounds and styles is beautifully done, proving to not only her fans, but the whole world that in times of darkness, this new-found voice of hers is one to be listened to.
-
The Pop Topic
On Sweetener, Ariana Grande creates experimental but fantastic pop records with the help of Pharrell Williams, Max Martin and more.
-
Bloggers Gamut
Faced with releasing one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year, Ariana has not let us down. Sweetener is a prime of example of what makes Ariana Grande the new princess of pop.
-
God Is In The TV
She’s taken a slight left turn with some quirky artistic shifts in order to not repeat Dangerous Woman which is an admirable move. Sweetener ends up being hard to fully connect with as the songwriting can be meandering in places and needs more of the sharpness of her best work. Hopefully this works as a transitional release and the glimpses of brilliance here will be more fully realised next time.
-
The Perfect Tempo
Ariana Grande, an artist that continues to develop and evolve, releases her most diverse and experimental pop album to date. Full of positive anthems that mostly hit the sweet spot.
-
The Mill Creek Chronicle
Sweetener as a whole, is a fascinating and complex pop album that adds new creative notations to Grande’s already estimable repertoire.
-
Noctiluca
After listening to the album, I think Grande ventured out of her comfort zone a little bit. Not so much for a couple of the songs, but “borderline” and “the light is coming” are not too much of her normal style.
-
Telegram
Yet there’s an uncommon sense of self-possession to this album — a kind of ecstatic calm — that sets it apart from everything else on Top 40 radio right now. It’s as though Grande feels that by sticking it out to make “Sweetener” she’s already won the game. She may be right.
-
Daily Mail
It’s a waste of Grande’s voice, which seldom reaches its full wattage. Maybe she just didn’t feel like singing to the rafters. Or maybe the producers couldn’t see that the one magic ingredient here was the one that had nothing to do with them. On her next album she should sing acapella all the way through.
-
The Ithacan
“Sweetener” brings a much-needed, quirky energy to a genre in which it’s all too easy to pump out stale, predictable hits. The album is adorable without slipping into bubblegum pop and is well-made but not overproduced. Grande’s influences are obvious and combine into a complex, thoughtful album; the project is indicative of an artist who not only knows exactly what she wants to create, but who has the musical mastery — and the right producers — to execute it instrumentally and vocally.
-
The Fresh Committee
I do agree it was her time to shine in a relatively weak year for mainstream albums. “no tears left to cry” and “the light is coming” are killer singles. “God is a woman” is the most polished song of the bunch, though I hear a chart-topping future for “breathin.” As a whole, this album would benefit from being more short than sweet.
-
The Review Geek
Sweetener is an interesting one to review really because in many ways the album doesn’t really excel as an R&B soundtrack and fails to really push the boundaries of pure pop to be considered one of the artist’s best efforts. Having said that, Sweetener is still an impressive effort and what we’re left with is an album that falls somewhere between the two genres, with enough vocal work and experimentation to make it an album worth checking out if you’re a fan of Grande’s previous work.
-
Riffs and Rhymes
Grande is happy to be where she’s at but more than anything, she’s ready to stand on her own two feet and yell from the mountain tops that “God is a Woman”. By the end of this album, you believe her. And why shouldn’t you? From here on out, the best is yet to come for Grande and I think we’re all waiting to hear what it sounds like.
-
The Blue Jay
Ariana Grande’s album is successful and many people love it. All in all, I think it’s okay, but just not that special or important. I recommend listening to other artists who make more diverse and enjoyable songs, if you’re looking for music artists that use their talent to their full potential.
-
Setlist.fm
We truly do not deserve Ariana Grande. This album embodies everything she went through and how she was able to find the light after the darkness stole everything from her.
-
Caroline Fassl
While pop is not my preferred genre, I suppose we could all use a little bit of brightness nowadays. I think Ariana achieved exactly what she intended to do- release an album that made the summer a little… sweeter.
-
The Hollywood Reporter
The pop star’s latest album is an effervescent — and even slightly eccentric — effort that finds her coming into her own as an artist and adult.
-
Observer
Production-wise, Sweetener is largely split between tracks from funk-happy pioneer Pharrell and go-to hit maker Max Martin (along with his Swede-pop apprentices). While the album is deliciously cohesive as a whole, this even division indicates that Grande seeks to appease her rabid fans and charge forward towards new horizons in equal measure.
-
DBK News
Her latest release experiments with sound and still emphasizes her musical strengths.
-
Hot Press
Grande honours the Manchester bombing with the best, most mature album of her career.
-
The Daily Campus
“Sweetener” may have its missteps, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best pop albums I’ve heard so far this year. It’s a grand statement from one of the top divas in music right now. Or should I say, Grandé.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments