Brooke_the_Phoenix
she/her, time-zone AEDT
Ariana Grande- My Everything album review PART 2
This is the second part of my review of My Everything. If you haven't read Part 1 yet, click here.
PRODUCTION
Like I said in the introduction, the production did get better in some ways. This time, Grande obviously hired some producers who know that you don't have to put trap percussion on everything. None of the percussion sections ever stood out in either a positive or negative way, but after the trap beats turned me off ‘Honeymoon Avenue’, I’m just glad none of the percussion clashes with the songs. However, the percussion was the only huge problem I had with Yours Truly overall. Now that that’s not an issue, I’ve noticed quite a few issues with the production that I couldn’t ignore.
Let’s talk about ‘Break Free’ first. Aside from the atrocious grammar and slurred vocals, I am not a fan of the production on this one. I’ve liked Zedd’s beats in the past, but the production here just seems to lack substance. The high-pitched, thin, choppy synth beats remind me of an old Super Mario Bros arcade game. It does have a nice build up on the pre-chorus, but apart from that, it’s kind of a lacklustre beat from Zedd. Speaking of synths, ‘Break Your Heart Right Back’ has this dark synth tone which doesn’t fit in with the rest of the production on the song, which includes an incredibly thin, happy sounding guitar progression that sounds like it was plucked from SoundBible or Garage Band. Other examples of questionable production choices is the vocal layering in ‘Intro’. It just sounds kind of messy, like each different vocal layer is overpowering each other. The piano melody in that song was nice, though. There’s also ‘Just a Little Bit of Your Heart’, which overall isn’t a bad song, but it unfortunately uses the four chords of pop music throughout the entire thing, because why think of a less overused chord progression? I probably would’ve given it a pass, but it’s not a musically interesting song overall, so the least they could’ve done is given us some interesting chord structures. Speaking of not being musically interesting, I really like the vocal melody for ‘My Everything’, but the accompaniment is literally just chords in crotchets, repeated constantly throughout the song. I’m not saying it needs to be as musically complex as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but a little variation would be nice. Another minor gripe I have is with the random pitch-shifted “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh” part at the end of the second verse of ‘Be My Baby’, which is otherwise a well-produced song.
And, of course, while we’re talking about bad production, we’ve once again got to address ‘Hands On Me’. Where to begin? There’s the high-pitched synth riff playing throughout the verses and choruses, which does nothing but irritate me. There’s the awful vocal production and layering on this song, which makes Ariana sound like she’s jogging and singing at the same time on the chorus, and then seconds later makes her sound like she’s got one blocked nostril when she’s singing “Put your hands on me/You can put your hands on me/If you like what you see/Baby put your hands on me”. There’s the pitch-shift every time one of A$AP Ferg’s verse ends with “And I make her hand rocky A.S.A.P.”, which does nothing but draw attention to this dreadful lyric. There’s the messy production throughout A$AP Ferg’s entire bridge, which consists of a bunch of random pitch shifts. There’s the thin, artificial-sounding horn riff. There’s this song in general. All of these different problems with the production throughout the album, the clashes in styles and ideas and all the varying highs and lows of quality prevent the album from being cohesive.
Despite some bad production choices and the existence of ‘Hands On Me’, not every single choice made by a producer was a bad one. Despite the fact that the synth riff in ‘One Last Time’ has the exact same melody as the chorus, and they just add drums during the chorus, making it a rather lazy production job, it doesn’t detract much from the song in my opinion, and it’s actually quite effective in building up to a “big”-sounding chorus. While Big Sean can’t help making ‘Best Mistake’ worse, this track calls back to the R&B style used in Yours Truly, with a moderately slow tempo, a minor key, some soft, sombre piano chords and even some strings in Big Sean’s verse. ‘Be My Baby’ has a really nice electric guitar riff and the back-up vocals in the verses of ‘Why Try’ help create atmosphere and build-up to the chorus (although the percussion is a bit underwhelming on this track).
The best production on the entire album comes from ‘Love Me Harder’. As a mid-tempo song with elements of R&B, naturally this song plays to Grande’s strengths. It starts off softly, with mellow production, before the chorus comes in with a driving guitar riff and throbbing synths. This is some of the best production I’ve ever heard on an Ariana Grande song. It’s not too flashy or overbearing; it’s calm, mellow, and seductive. This song is the reason I don’t like ‘Bang Bang’ or ‘Hands On Me’. This is how you make a good Ariana Grande song about sex.
OVERALL
Overall, this really isn’t a satisfying album, especially after Yours Truly. While this record has some of Grande’s best songs on here, there are too many large drops in quality for my liking, so this is a difficult album to recommend. If you’re a die-hard Ariana fan, the many terrible lyrics, slurred vocal performances and questionable production choices may not bother you, but unfortunately they were impossible for me to ignore. While there are positive aspects to the album, there are only a few songs I would want to revisit, so, I really don’t see myself coming back to this album after this review comes out. My Everything is just a disappointing, lacklustre record from an artist who can do much better than this.
Score: 5.5/10
My Ranking of the Songs:
1. Love Me Harder
2. One Last Time
3. Be My Baby
4. Best Mistake
5. Why Try
6. Problem
7. Intro
8. My Everything
9. Break Free
10. Just a Little Bit of Your Heart
11. Break Your Heart Right Back
12. Hands on Me
Thanks for reading my review! Remember that this is just my opinion, and you're free to have your own. Please leave a comment, just to give me feedback or even let me know your thoughts on the album. Comments motivate me more than views. My review of Dangerous Woman is coming... probably in 2018 sometime, but is is coming.
