Sweetener (album)
Sweetener is the fourth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande. It was released on August 17, 2018, through Republic Records. The album has guest appearances by Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott.
Sweetener debuted at number-one on the US Billboard 200 with 231,000 album-equivalent units moved in its first week, of which 127,000 were from pure sales, marking Grande's third release to reach the top position in the country. The album received critical acclaim upon release, appearing on several year-end and decade-end lists. Sweetener is certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for earning over one million units in the country. The album also topped the charts in several other countries, including in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, marking the first Grammy win of Grande's career. As of June 2020, the album has sold 321,000 pure copies in the US.
Three singles were released from Sweetener, all of which reached the top-twenty on the US Billboard Hot 100: The lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry", debuted and peaked at number three, while the promotional single, "The Light Is Coming" featuring Minaj, peaked at number 89 on the chart. The second and third singles, "God Is a Woman" and "Breathin", reached numbers 8 and 12, respectively. Grande launched on a series of concerts entitled The Sweetener Sessions to promote the album. To further support Sweetener and her fifth studio album, Thank U, Next, Grande embarked on the Sweetener World Tour, which began on March 18, 2019 and concluded on December 22, 2019.
Background and recording
On May 20, 2016, Grande released her third studio album Dangerous Woman, which was met with positive reviews and commercial success. Work on Sweetener commenced around early July of that year, the first song created being the title track, co-written and produced by Pharrell Williams. On November 13, 2016, Grande stated on Snapchat that she had finished her fourth album. Later, she clarified by saying, "I didn't mean to make an album, and I don't know if it's done at all, but I just have a bunch of songs that I really really like. I've been working a lot and have been creating and feeling inspired." Further confirmation came on December 2017, when Grande confirmed that she was still working on the album.Grande's manager Scooter Braun told Variety that the album has a more mature sound: "It's time for to sing the songs that define her... Whitney, Mariah, Adele – when they sing, that's their song. Ariana has big vocal moments; it's time for her song." Williams told Los Angeles Times: "The things that has to say on this album, it's pretty next-level." Producers Max Martin and Savan Kotecha were later confirmed to have collaborated with Grande in the album. On December 28, 2017, Grande shared several pictures of her in the studio throughout the year. On December 31, 2017, Grande shared a snippet from the album on her Instagram, with the caption "see u next year". Grande later revealed that the track was the closing track on the album, titled "Get Well Soon".
In April 2018, it was reported that Grande was planning on releasing the album's lead single on April 27, 2018. The next week, on April 16, 2018, it was reported that Grande had move up the lead single release to April 20, 2018, due to label-mate Post Malone's album being released on April 27. The following day, Grande announced that the album's lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry" and revealed the release date to be April 20, 2018.
Grande appeared onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she announced that her album would be called Sweetener and that it would be released that summer. She further explained the meaning behind the title is "It's kind of about like bringing light to a situation, or to someone's life, or somebody else who brings light to your life, or sweetening the situation." A May 2018 cover article in Time magazine by Sam Lansky notes that, for the first time with this album, Grande "took the lead on writing". In late May 2018, she announced that the album would feature 15 tracks and three collaborations, which are Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj and Pharrell Williams.
In early June 2018, Grande announced during her set at Wango Tango that the album would be available for pre-order on June 20, and "The Light Is Coming" would be released as a promotional single along with it. The second single, "God Is a Woman", was announced to be released on July 20, 2018, however, on July 12, Grande surprised fans by announcing that the single would be released the following day. Prior to the album's release, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic commented that the first three singles from the album "sparked with a sense of defiance and rattled mortality... trifecta of pseudo-spiritualism and sneaky innovation.... Grande's music and videos radiate ".
Composition
Music and lyrics
Musically, Sweetener is a pop, R&B and trap record that includes elements of house, funk, neo soul and hip hop music on its beats and productions. The melodies and harmonies on the album are diverse and include uptempo songs and many different downtempo, sentimental ballads. It explores a diversity of other music genres, including tropical house, EDM, synthpop and minimalist urban influences. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic stated that the album "deepens the R&B inclinations of 2016's Dangerous Woman." In an interview with Zach Sang, Grande said: "Listen, the thing that I love most about this project sonically, is that all I really did was sing in my sweet lower register".Songs
The album begins with 38-second a cappella intro, "Raindrops ", written by Bob Gaudio. Originally performed by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. "Blazed" is a high tempo funk-influenced song. It features vocals and background vocals by Pharrell Williams, who also produced the track. She first admitted the name of the song on her Twitter account. Lyrically, it is about "loving someone and being with them." "The Light Is Coming" merges hip hop and R&B elements. Grande sings the lyrics "The light is coming / to give back everything the darkness stole", over a "jittery beat" used with quick drums and synths, and a heavily sampled CNN archive clip of a man shouting at former senator Arlen Specter at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania in 2009 concerning healthcare. Israel Daramola described the song as a "glitchy, thumping" dance record with a sample that highlights Grande's "nursery rhyme-style melody" "R.E.M" is an R&B song that is built over a smooth doo-wop beat. The song's title stands for "rapid eye movement", which is where memorable and vivid dreams occur. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon for the Tonight Show, she admitted that "R.E.M" was her favourite song. She later confirmed on Twitter that "R.E.M." is a song based on Beyoncé's demo titled "Wake Up", a leftover from the singer's 2013 self-titled album.The fifth track "God Is a Woman" contains lyrics about female sexual empowerment and spirituality; Time described the song as "an anthemic, sultry banger." A trap-pop song, "God Is a Woman" contains influences of reggae whilst "Sweetener" was the first song that Grande recorded for the album, and it features Williams vocals in the background similar to "R.E.M". Being a trap-inspired song, which symbolises empowerment. "Successful" is a 90s-esque neo soul song that has elements of gospel and trap. Lyrically, it's about "girls feeling good about their own individual success." "Everytime" is a "trap-pop" song that contains a pop-rap chorus. "Breathin" is a dance-pop song that contains influences of synthpop. The Independent called the song an "emotional highlight" and that it is a "mental health bop over a good, solid pop beat." Lyrically, it is about Grande's overcoming growth from anxiety.
"No Tears Left To Cry" is a dance-pop and disco song with a UK garage beat. It was served as the first official single for the album. Lyrically, it is about the Manchester Arena Bombing and about overcoming a tragic event and trying to turn it into a positive and uplifting experience. Many listeners interpret this as her way of addressing the Manchester Arena bombing that took place at her Dangerous Woman Tour concert in May 2017. "Borderline" is a 90s contemporary R&B song that features American rapper Missy Elliott. It's one of Grande's favourites on the album. "Better Off" is a "retro-fied" pop ballad that discusses a toxic relationship. "Goodnight n Go" is an EDM song with deep house and tropical influences. It contains a sample of "Goodnight and Go", written and performed by Grande's inspiration Imogen Heap. In an interview with Billboard Heap said that "it feels like a gift". She went on saying: "When somebody that famous picks up on a song that has had its day and gives it a second life, it's a real gift. I think she's done a lovely version of it." "Pete Davidson" is an interlude of the album and has a trap and hip hop production. Lyrically, it is about her then-fiancé, Pete Davidson. "Get Well Soon" is a soul-ballad that has a laid back R&B melody with lyrics that talk about Grande’s personal anxiety & trauma following the Manchester Arena bombing. At the end of the song, 40 seconds of silence are played as a tribute to the twenty-two victims of the bombing and the date of which the bombing took place.
Promotion
Grande went silent on all social media after sharing a snippet of a song from the album on December 31, 2017. On April 17, 2018, Grande broke her silence by sharing a teaser of the album's lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry", which was released on April 20, 2018, alongside its music video. In the music video, she teased the album by writing some of the song names, including "God Is a Woman", "Breathin", "R.E.M", "Successful", "Sweetener", "Borderline" and the first 3 letters of "Blazed", which was teased again in a behind-the-scenes video. She first performed the song at Coachella later that night, as a guest during the performance of DJ Kygo. Grande announced the title of the album and several song titles on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on May 1, 2018, shortly before performing "No Tears Left to Cry". She also opened the 2018 Billboard Music Awards with a performance of the song on May 20, 2018. On June 2, 2018, Grande performed at Wango Tango in California, closing her set with a performance of "No Tears Left to Cry" and also sharing a snippet of "The Light Is Coming".On August 8, 2018, three dates were announced for a series of promotional concerts in the United States, titled The Sweetener Sessions, in partnership with American Express.
Grande also announced a world tour in support of the album and her fifth album Thank U, Next. Titled the Sweetener World Tour, it began on March 18, 2019, and concluded on December 22, 2019.
Singles
The album's lead single, "No Tears Left to Cry", was released on April 20, 2018 alongside its music video. The track debuted at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Grande's ninth Hot 100 top 10 and sixth to debut in the top 10, tying Grande with Lady Gaga and Rihanna in sixth among acts with the most top 10 debuts on the chart. The single made Grande the first artist in the chart's 60-year history to debut in the top 10 with a lead single from each of her first four albums. The song also topped the Mainstream Top 40 chart in July 2018, reached number one in nine countries and top-ten in twenty others.The second single, "God Is a Woman", was released on July 13, 2018, with its music video premiering 12 hours after the song's release. The single debuted at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number eight, making it Grande's tenth top ten song on the chart and placing her as the twelfth overall artist and seventh female artist with the most Hot 100 top 10s in the 2010s decade. The song also became Grande's second single to top the US Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart from Sweetener, and third overall.
"Breathin" was released to US contemporary hit radio as the third and final single from the album on September 18, 2018. The song has debuted number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at number 12. Its music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis premiered on November 7, 2018 on her YouTube account.
Promotional singles
A promotional single, "The Light Is Coming", featuring Nicki Minaj, was released on June 20, 2018, along with the pre-order of the album. The song debuted at number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 and later peaked at number 89, after the release of the album.Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Sweetener has an average score of 81 based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".Reviewing for Vice, Robert Christgau called the album a "garden of sonic delights" and wrote: "Grande is pleasant in such a physically uncommon and technically astute way. Her pure, precise soprano is warm without burr or melisma, its mellow sweetness never saccharine or showy". In The New York Times, Jon Pareles said the singer's voice "can be silky, breathy or cutting, swooping through long melismas or jabbing out short R&B phrases; it's always supple and airborne, never forced. … Ms. Grande sails above any fray, past or present. Her aplomb is her triumph." Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone called the album "a refreshing, cohesive package. … Grande's easy way with trap phrasing find a home next to her flair for Broadway-esque dramatic runs"; it combines "the sensual romance of the album's plentiful love songs and the aching heartbreak of the others." Spanos concludes that it is Grande's "best album yet, and one of 2018's strongest pop releases to date. Kate Solomon of The Independent commented that with music that is "often unexpected, sometimes in a good way, it is an album by an artist in flux – trying to move forward while reluctant to fully relinquish old ideas."
Writing for NME, Douglas Greenwood deemed the album " confident, accomplished, sometimes left-field collection of pop bangers, proving that she's not shy of experimentation." He also commented that "there are a couple of songs on Sweetener that you'd happily leave on the shelf." Similarly, in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said that "her collaborations with Pharrell really push the boundaries. But they make the rest of this album seem formulaic." He considered the album "uneven", with its attempts to balance out what Grande called a "weird" record. Petridis felt that "the world could use more pop music as imaginative as Sweeteners highlights."
Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph felt that "the quality of the songs is high, although there are moments when they might be trying too hard to demonstrate that the teen queen is all grown up now," and argued, "as modern, branded, blockbuster pop albums go, Sweetener is a delightful confection." He commented less favorably about guest rappers Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott, who "sound like they dialled in clichéd verses for a pay cheque."
Year-end lists
In December 2018, Billboard placed Sweetener at the top of their year end list for the best albums of 2018. Complimenting Grande's take on sadness, they said "she didn’t let her past define her, and she didn’t dwell on what her future may hold, either" and praised Grande that "while most fans couldn’t possibly relate to her extraordinary circumstances, Grande still ended the year seeming more approachable and human than ever". Sweetener alongside its followup Thank U, Next placed on Billboard' decade end album's list "The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s" at numbers 38 and 8 respectively. They called Sweetener her most personal sound and "a radiant, pure snapshot of what stumbling upon happiness sounds like". They said that Grande had "found herself -- and graduated to a new level of pop superstardom". On their rankings of the Grammys Best Pop Vocal Album winners, Yardbarker ranked Sweetener number 15 on their list.Paper placed the closing track of the album "Get Well Soon" at number 15 on their "Top 100 Songs of 2018" list naming it "waltzing, lyrically superb" and praising the album saying that Grande "transformed her pain into something digestible, like sweetener molecules settling into a bitter cup of coffee;. The article pointed out the album's parallelism with Beyoncé's 2016 album, Lemonade, saying "like Beyoncé who made Lemonade from her own life's lemons just two years ago, Sweetener
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | |
| AllMusic | Best of 2018 | - | |
| AllMusic | 200 Best Albums of the 2010s | - | |
| BBC | Best Albums of 2018 | 6 | |
| Billboard | 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 1 | |
| Billboard | The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s | 38 | |
| Complex | The Best Albums of 2018 | 4 | |
| Dazed | The 20 Best Albums of 2018 | 6 | |
| Entertainment Weekly | The 20 Best Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
| Esquire | The 50 Best Albums Of 2018 | 33 | |
| Flavorwire | The Best Albums of 2018 | 4 | |
| GQ | The 20 Best Albums of 2018 | 9 | |
| The Guardian | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 20 | |
| The Line of Best Fit | The Best Albums of 2018 | 13 | |
| The New Yorker | The Best Ten Albums of 2018 | - | |
| The New York Times | The 28 Best Albums of 2018 | 7 | |
| NME | Albums Of The Year 2018 | 21 | |
| Noisey | The 100 Best Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
| NPR | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 22 | |
| Paper | Top 20 Albums of 2018 | 2 | |
| Paste | The 30 Best Pop Albums of the 2010s | 28 | |
| Pitchfork | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 11 | |
| Pitchfork | The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s | 100 | |
| PopMatters | The 70 Best Albums of 2018 | 46 | |
| Rolling Stone | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 5 | |
| Rolling Stone | The 20 Best Pop Albums of 2018 | 2 | |
| Slant | The 25 Best Albums of 2018 | 20 | |
| Spin | The 51 Best Albums of 2018 | 15 | |
| Stereogum | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 3 | |
| Stereogum | The 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s | 42 | |
| Thrillist | The Best Albums of 2018 | 22 | |
| Uproxx | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 5 | |
| Uproxx | The Best Albums Of The 2010s | 68 | |
| Variety | 20 Best Albums of 2018 | 7 | |
| Variety | The Best Albums of the Decade | - |
Awards
| Year | Organization | Award | Result | Ref. |
| 2018 | People's Choice Awards | Album of 2018 | ||
| 2019 | 61st Annual Grammy Awards | Best Pop Vocal Album | ||
| 2019 | iHeartRadio Music Awards | Pop Album of the Year |
Commercial performance
In the United States, Sweetener debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 231,000 album-equivalent units, of which 127,000 were from traditional album sales, thus becoming Grande's third number-one album in the United States. It also logged the largest streaming week for a non-hip hop album by a female artist; the songs were streamed 126.7 million times in the album's first week. On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart issue dated September 1, ten songs appeared simultaneously, placing Grande as the fourth female artist with the most simultaneous entries on the chart by a solo female artist behind Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Cardi B. Grande also topped the Artist 100 chart the same week due to album sales and song streams. In its second week, Sweetener dropped to number four moving 75,000 equivalent album units, while in its third week, it fell one position to number five moving an additional 56,000 equivalent album units. The album was ranked 38th on the 2018 year-end Billboard 200 chart. On April 3, 2019, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over a million units in the US. As of June 2020, the album has sold 321,000 copies in the country.In the United Kingdom, Sweetener debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, moving 45,000 album-equivalent units. It became her second number-one album in the UK, and her fastest selling album to date. Following its release, two album tracks entered the UK Singles Chart as "Breathin" debuted at number 8, and "Sweetener" landed at number 22, while the single "God Is a Woman" ascended six places to number 6.
In Australia, the album became Grande's third number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, with all 15 of its tracks placing on the ARIA Singles Chart in the same week.
Track listing
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.Notes
- Track titles are stylized in all lowercase, except "R.E.M." and the proper noun "God" in tracks 4 and 5 respectively.
- "Raindrops " is an acapella cover of "An Angel Cried", a 1964 song written by Bob Gaudio and performed by The Four Seasons.
- "R.E.M" contains elements of an unreleased demo by Beyoncé titled "Wake Up".
- "Goodnight n Go" contains a sample of and incorporates lyrics from "Goodnight and Go", written and performed by Imogen Heap.
- "Get Well Soon" actually ends at 4:42, but there are an additional 40 seconds of silence afterwards, dedicated to the victims of the Manchester Arena Bombing.
Personnel
Performers and musicians
- Ariana Grande – vocals
- Pharrell Williams – featured artist, additional vocals
- Nicki Minaj – featured artist
- Missy Elliott – featured artist
- Rickard Göransson – guitar
- Peter Lee Johnson – strings
- Max Martin – bass, drums, keyboards, percussion
- Ilya Salmanzadeh – background vocals, drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, percussion
- Charles Anderson – production
- Brian Malik Baptiste – production
- Cory Bice – recording engineer assistance
- Scooter Braun – executive production
- Tommy Brown – production
- Andrew Coleman – recording, digital editing, arrangement
- Kris Crawford – recording assistance
- Thomas Cullison – recording assistance
- Aubrey "Big Juice" Delaine – vocals recording
- Jacob Dennis – recording engineer assistance
- Scott Desmarais – mix assistance
- Corte Ellis – recording
- Missy Elliott – recording
- Iain Findlay – recording assistance
- Robin Florent – mix assistance
- Michael Foster – production
- Chris Galland – mix assistance
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- Ariana Grande – executive production, vocal production
- Hart Gunther – recording assistance
- John Hanes – mix assistance
- Hit-Boy – production
- Sam Holland – recording
- Chris Khan – recording assistance
- David Kim – recording assistance
- Mike Larson – recording, digital editing, arrangement, additional programming
- Guillermo Lefeld – recording assistance
- Jeremy Lertola – recording engineer assistance
- Manny Marroquin – mixing
- Max Martin – production, programming
- Randy Merrill – mastering
- Brendan Morawski – recording engineer assistance
- Manny Park – recording assistance
- Noah Passovoy – recording
- Ramon Rivas – recording engineer assistance
- Ilya Salmanzadeh – production, mixing, programming
- Ben "Bengineer" Sedano – recording assistance
- Jon Sher – recording assistance
- Phil Tan – mixing
- Pharrell Williams – production
- Bill Zimmerman – additional engineering
- Dave Meyers – photography
- Jessica Severn – art direction, design
Charts
Weekly charts
Monthly charts
Year-end charts
| Chart | Position |
| Australian Albums | 43 |
| Belgian Albums | 56 |
| Belgian Albums | 170 |
| Canadian Albums | 34 |
| Danish Albums | 66 |
| French Albums | 167 |
| Irish Albums | 28 |
| Latvian Albums | 67 |
| Mexican Albums | 62 |
| New Zealand Albums | 31 |
| Swedish Albums | 97 |
| UK Albums | 50 |
| US Billboard 200 | 32 |
| US Rolling Stone 200 | 58 |