POSITIONS ALBUM REVIEW: ARIANA GRANDE IS LOVING LIFE IN HER NEW RECORD.

Ariana Grande released her sixth album last Friday. She had shared previously the first single, 'Positions', a guitar-sampled track with a trap-pop beat ,which she started using in Thank u,next .The record opens  with 'Shut up', a statement to her haters with a 'Don't-worry-bout-me' message. 

'But I just end up loving life' , Ariana sings in Just Like Magic. She has found happiness and it shows in the record, but, actually, the beauty and complexity in the album are seen in the songs with some feeling or emotion,or anytype of internal debate. The record splits into easy, simple songs about Ariana craving for sex with trap beats and autotune (34+35/'six thirty') or  her new era of happiness,like when she sings her morning routine (Just Like Magic) and great pop songs. For example, 'My Hair', with its retro and 90s diva vibe (includes brilliant whistling) talking in a sutile suggestive and sexual way. 

'Pov' recruits a declaration of love with more thought lyrics and slow tempo beat ('you touch my soul from the outside' /'permeate my ego and my pride'). This is the song that sounds most true of the record, maybe that is why it is in the end of the record, leaving you a feeling of hope and trust in love. 

From the features, the Ty dolla $ign collaboration does not add much to 'Safety Net'. Despite the metaphor is not bad, the rapper's verse only brings a few lines  finished in 'girl'about ice and jewelry, a trap classic topic. Ariana's first vocals on the song seem to make the track R&B, but Ty's addition remains basic. He showed this summer in Jacob Collier's All I Need (ft Mahalia) the melodic possibilities in his voice, which truly set him apart from others,but there is no space for that here, which could have become a proper contemporary R&B song. Doja Cat's assisted-piece ('motive') sounds disco and house, making it funny and outstanding in a record that repeats trap-pop beats. Finally, The Weeknd feature ('off the table'), the next episode  to their first collaboration 'Love Me Harder' takes some depth into the record. It shows Ariana's vulnerability,  enphasized with falsetto autotune and her vocal range.The weekend's voice was enough (no synths,no 80s drums this time) for giving priority to the feelings, asking for honesty. 

The whole record, matching with the artwork, is surrounded by shimmering, bubbling and dreamy orchestral instrumental. But lyrically it lacks that dreamy perfection. As it happened in Thank u, next, lyrics are filled with words like 'shit', 'that', which make it feel incomplete and empty.