This past Friday, Ariana Grande released “Positions” from her upcoming sixth album of the same name. If this single is any indication, this album will probably be easily lost in the shuffle of Grande’s other works.
It didn’t initially seem that way. “Positions” had a new co-producer on it, London On The Track, along with familiar producers TBhits and Mr. Franks. The song was written by the producers, along with Angelina Barrett, Brian Vincent Bates and Nija Charles..
This hasn’t been the case, though. I can’t say I am disappointed in “Positions”, but I can’t say my excitement for the album has increased, either. This song sounds exactly like something that could’ve been on her last studio album, ‘thank u, next’.
The buzz around this song hyped up something different, too. Twitter went crazy with the news that mega R&B/hip-hop producer London On the Track co-produced “Positions”. Everyone thought this meant “Positions” would finally be her break into the adult R&B lane. The news got me excited, too, thinking this was going to be the start of her best era.
With the single now out, though, my excitement is waning. I still have great hope in this album, but “Positions” left me bored. I feel as though this album will be a classic Ariana Grande album, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good that we will still get something new from Grande, which means we can still get her classic sound. But it’s bad that it will be something we’ve already heard before as opposed to something innovative.
Grande seems to be suffering from a“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality. She’s achieved massive success from her last few albums, and that has caused her to stop furthering her craft. This has led to her music becoming very repetitive, boring and lazy. This makes it hard for someone like me, who’s been a consistent fan of hers for the last few years, to get interested in what she’s putting out. The only time I can say honestly that she has done something very innovative with her music was with ‘Dangerous Woman’ and ‘thank u, next’. It seems like she’s just going to try to recapture the essence of ‘thank u, next’ for her next era. That’s okay, but basic and boring.
With ‘Positions’ set to be released this Friday, I just wish she would delay it, go back to the drawing board and cook up something more. She should set a comeback in 2021 to develop the album more. This, in my opinion, will give us something way better than what she is about to put out.
Sadly, this won’t be the case. This era feels very rushed compared to her last, especially her release schedule. She didn’t even give us two singles to anticipate and feel out the music from the new album before it drops.
Hopefully, this album beats my expectations and I get to bite my words. So far, though, I’m not very excited.
