One of the things that I've started to do and plan on continuing to do throughout 2019 is to do a lot of deep cuts playlists of the people I consider to be the most consistently excellent album artists of the 2010s. And one of the best in the Top 40 world is easily Ariana Grande. And with two albums in the space of 6 months bringing her to new commercial heights, she now has enough music that I can sift through it for one of these playlists.

Ariana Grande deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Intro
2. You'll Never Know
3. Bad Decisions
4. NASA
5. Goodnight N Go
6. Be My Baby featuring Cashmere Cat
7. Honeymoon Avenue
8. Fake Smile
9. Greedy
10. Piano
11. Make Up
12. Be Alright
13. Sweetener
14. Best Mistake featuring Big Sean
15. Pete Davidson
16. In My Head
17. Better Left Unsaid
18. Snow In California
19. True Love
20. Break Your Heart Right Back featuring Childish Gambino
21. Lovin' It
22. Raindrops (An Angel Cried)
23. Ghostin
24. Know Better / Forever Boy

Tracks 2, 7, 10, 17 and 21 from Yours Truly (2013)
Track 18 from Christmas Kisses EP (2013)
Tracks 1, 6, 14 and 20 from My Everything (2014)
Track 19 from Christmas & Chill EP (2015)
Tracks 3, 9, 12 and 24 from Dangerous Woman (2016)
Tracks 5, 13, 15 and 22 from Sweetener (2018)
Tracks 4, 8, 11, 16 and 23 from Thank U, Next (2019)

Yours Truly is still my favorite Ariana Grande album, she just hit this perfect combination of modern and retro sounds with Babyface and Harmony Samuels on that record. Thank U Next is probably a close 2nd, but every album since the debut has kind of stuffed in some timely guests or producers that feel a little forced to me by comparison. But still she's been pretty impressively consistent, the Pharrell half of Sweetener is the only really glaring misstep, and even that stuff had its moments -- the Bop It memes about "Sweetener" honestly made me like the song more.

Tommy Brown, one of Grande's closest collaborators since the first album, just started producing hit singles for her starting with "Thank U Next" and "7 Rings." But he's always been a part of key album tracks, including "Honeymoon Avenue," "Be Alright," and "Goodnight N Go" (which is a rewritten version of the Imogen Heap song of the same name) up through the bulk of the new album. But she's got a deep bench of collaborators filling out these albums, from Max Martin and Ilya ("Bad Decisions," "Greedy," "Ghostin") to Pop Wansel ("Fake Smile," "In My Head," "Break Your Heart Right Back").

What I really like is how Grande's sensibility as it was laid out from the beginning has been the blueprint for most of what she's done since then -- you can hear how she goes from the doo wop verses to the EDM choruses of "Better Left Unsaid" and that's been the range she's continued to span. Even stuff like the the old-fashioned key change at the end of "Greedy," most of the other artists Max Martin works with would probably not have done that with the track. The homages to '90s hits are kind of how she came through the door but are not really a big part of what she does anymore, but it still felt right to put "Break Your Heart Right Back" and "Lovin' It" in there together.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 1:19 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.