A little over a month ago, one of pop’s biggest phenomena released an album named Sweetener.  On August 17th, Ariana Grande released her fifth studio album, and her third number one album on the Billboard charts.

With four studio albums out already, she dropped her new album’s lead single “no tears left to cry”, on April 20th of this year.  The second single, “God is a woman”, came out on July 13th, and her album was released just over a month afterwards.

“raindrops (an angel cried)” is a great way for her to start an album.  It is simple, but not too simple because of the high notes in the song.

“blazed (featuring Pharrell Williams)” is a nice sounding song, and I like the quick, almost jazzy demeanor the song has.  Williams’ quality goes great with Ariana’s, and it is a great combination that I didn’t see coming.

“the light is coming (featuring Nicki Minaj)” is very different than her other songs.  I do not like it because it is all over the place and there is so much to it. There are a lot of background noises and extra voices that make it extravagantly weird.

“R.E.M.” is not too bad.  I like the lyrics to it and it is decent, I just think it might be better if it was sped up a little bit.

I love “God is a woman”. There is not a better person to sing that song, and it fits her vocal range perfectly.  It also has a very catchy beat. It is the type of song that makes you want to sing along in hopes of being better than her.

“sweetener” is a cute song.  I like the lyrics and it is a typical Ariana Grande song; in a positive way.

I like the instruments and sound effects used in “successful”.  They elevate the song, making it a decent song to boost your mood.

“everytime” has a good chorus.  It is catchy, but not in an annoying way.  It is not monotone, even though she does not do any high notes, but that is okay because I think the song is satisfactory as is.

“breathin” has a quality to it that stands out more than other songs on the album.  Your foot automatically taps along to it.

“no tears left to cry” is like the new and improved Ariana.  It is easy to song along to, and it is a great attention grabber for a lead single.

“borderline (featuring Missy Elliott)” is not too bad.  It is definitely very similar to a couple of the other songs, but there are also some other songs I like better than this one.

“better off” is like a lot of her other songs on different albums.  It is slower and has a lot to it that makes it solid.

“goodnight n go” is somewhat different.  It seems like a song you would hear from her other albums, but also elevated.  This song shows more of how wide her vocal range actually is by singing in different octaves the whole time, rather than one or two different small notes that pop out in the bridge like how lots of her songs are.

“pete davidson” is also a typical Grande song; one that you would expect to hear from her.  Although it has an important meaning, it is very similar to “better off”.

“get well soon” is another song she would sing on different albums, but it rambles on for a little while.  It is enjoyable and all, it is just she already has lots of songs that are similar to this, aside from the fact that is her main style.

Out of all 15 songs, my favorites are “God is a woman”, “sweetener”, “breathin”, and “no tears left to cry”. However, I could not pick an overall favorite between them.

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.  I would give this album a rating of 8/10.