Each Ariana Grande album cowl includes a picture of the singer, each capturing the intention behind the discharge. On Harmful Girl, she initiatives youthful playfulness together with her signature ponytail, although her black-latex bunny masks hints at one thing extra provocative beneath the bubble-gum floor. It was clear that Grande’s third studio album would showcase the singer’s extra sensual aspect whereas exploiting her knack for decoding any type or sound with transformative outcomes.
Take heed to Harmful Girl now.
Launched on Might 20, 2016, Harmful Girl picked up from the place My Every thing had left off, delivering extra floor-filling dance hits and shifting additional away from her ballad-heavy beginnings.
Over the hopping backing observe of “You Don’t Know Me,” Grande sings, “The girl you see in photographs is only a part of the one I am.” By its title alone, Harmful Girl vowed to showcase a brand new maturity in Grande’s artistry. Sonically, the album furthered that mission, enhancing the retro R&B parts of her first two albums, Yours Actually and My Every thing, whereas exploring extra electro-pop soundscapes that will form her future profession.
Coming into harmful new territory
The Harmful Girl period began with the promotional single “Focus,” which was in October 2015. Whereas “Focus” featured the identical upbeat, horn-driven power of Grande’s 2014 smash hit “Problem,” it additionally teed up the album’s first official single, as Grande coquettishly instructed listeners to “focus on me.”
Rising 5 months later, the album’s title observe discovered Grande venturing into moodier territory than the frothy pop of “Focus.” Sparked by an electrical guitar, the singer climatically calls out, “Somethin’ ’bout you makes me feel like a dangerous woman!” all through the observe. We knew Grande may ship arena-sized singalongs, and this sluggish jam channeled all the nice energy ballads of the 80s with a hook that promised, “All girls wanna be like that/Bad girls underneath, like that.”
On the opposite aspect of the spectrum, “Be Alright” provided a stark distinction to the sluggish tempo and sensuality of “Dangerous Woman.” Dipping right into a deep home sound, Grande’s celebratory single was adopted as an anthem for the LGBTQ group.
Embracing collaborators
A month later, she’d embark on the brand new course that trap-R&B had specified by mainstream music, dropping the hypnotic “Let Me Love You,” that includes Lil Wayne. This paved the way in which for the dance-pop perfection of “Into You,” which signaled that Grande was able to storm the summer time of 2016.
With a belting declaration of affection that revolved round thudding EDM basslines, “Into You” is Grande and hitmaker Max Martin at their finest. It contained all of the hallmarks of a traditional earworm, with Grande’s breathy falsetto floating over the thick beats. Grande completed off the album’s advance singles run with the retro-pop, uptown funk of “Greedy,” a music given away with digital pre-orders and which featured a choir of her exuberant vocals over a slick bassline.
Harmful Girl opens with the swinging doo-wop ballad “Moonlight,” carefully aligning with the sound Grande experimented with on Yours Actually. On the deep lower “Leave Me Lonely,” she introduced Macy Grey again into the general public eye, the latter expertly delivering some Nina Simone theatrics that slot in with the dramatic nature of the music.
A mature transition
Protecting in keeping with the album’s premise, Grande debuts her “adult” anthem, “Side To Side,” with assist from hip-hop’s raunchiest queen, Nicki Minaj. Like many former youngster stars turned pop divas earlier than her, Grande was consciously leaning into her “grown-up” part, whereas on the similar time side-stepping all the same old clichés that got here with the territory.
Probably the greatest pop and hip-hop collaborations of the last decade, “Side To Side” capitalized on the dancehall development of the time, with reggae riddims and loads of sexual innuendo packaged within the campy imagery of the SoulCycle health craze. Simply as Olivia Newton-John made her “body talk” within the iconic “Let’s Get Physical” music video, Grande and Minaj’s cardio-driven duet rode its method to the highest of the charts, hitting No.4 on the Billboard Sizzling 100.
Grande adopted “Side To Side” with one other collaborative effort on the Future-assisted “Everyday.” As trap-influenced pop began to realize extra traction within the mainstream, “Everyday” helped gasoline its dominance, paving the way in which for the lure leanings on her subsequent albums Sweetener and thank u, subsequent.
Evolving the pop system
A lot of Harmful Girl sees Grande enjoying with tempos, genres, and time shifts. “I Don’t Care” finds her embracing orchestral R&B to neglect a misplaced love, “Sometimes” ventures into extra acoustic pop (a rarity for Grande), and “Bad Decision,” “Touch It,” “Knew Better/Forever Boy” and “Thinking Bout You” all depend on Grande’s highly effective pipes and EDM synth-pop manufacturing.
Together with her third album, Ariana Grande discovered success in evolving the pop system she’d already established whereas venturing into uncharted, edgier territory. The gamble paid off, with Harmful Girl debuting at No.2 on the Billboard 200 charts and notching her first No.1 album within the UK. It was clear that the ascending pop queen was simply getting began.
Harmful Girl could be purchased right here.
