Agree with this 100%

Also especially in the UK she had a real chance to capitalize on Manchester (as awful as that sounds) raising her profile and exposing her to a much wider audience. I can't believe there's not one safe pop song here that could've been a bona fide MOR hit, something along the lines of One Last Time.

Instead she decides now to have her experimental Pharrell album.

Seriously becoming #1 pop girl was hers to lose and she quite happily has done that. I'm impressed she experimented a bit but this really feels like overkill.

Camila, Man Of The Woods, and Sweetener

The three albums that have been mainly Pharrell produced this year so far right? There might be more but these feel like the big three. No one seemed to have an issue with his presence on Camila (10 songs) yet MOTW (16 songs) and now Sweetener (15 songs) haven’t been as warmed received. Personally I’ve loved all three of them, MOTW especially, but I do see where some people are coming from and blaming Pharrell for “screwing up” her album is a logical assumption.

I disagree with this - after everything she went through surely she should be allowed to make the album she wants to make? I’m unsure how I feel about the music itself but I’m certainly not upset about her not capitalising on Manchester and cementing herself as the pop girl. A big pop album is obviously not what she wanted.

Iirc Havana was the only Pharrell song on Camila and he only wrote and didn't produce that! (Which is why Camila is a really strong album unlike those other two mentioned x). The only Camila song he's produced is Sangria Wine I think which is a hot mess of a song 🤢

why not, though? this was l i t e r a l l y a 'foot up' for her to become the top dog + she has missed the mark. she has not delivered.

as a fan, that's upsetting because i want her to do as well as she can (+ sh!t does she deserve it after what she's been through).

but what about what her fans wanted? why should we accept sub-par because it's "what she wanted"? i know that i & 16000 others from the manchester gig would have been comforted by something a little more familiar from her.

i say this from a place of love because i wouldn't want her to feel suffocated but you cannot be as commercially pop as she has been, generate hype via her legions of fans who have got onboard because of her POP music + then be disappointed when they turn their noses up at a primarily melodically-devoid r&b album with little-to-no pop elements.

+ the label knew exactly what they were doing with this because they deliberately put out the poppiest single first. then 'the light is coming' was very poorly received + the 'second official single' was pushed through, a max/savan/ilya production. the third single will no doubt be 'breathin'' (another max/savan/ilya production) because a very small amount of people are here for this 'sound' she wanted.

so you go ahead + be 'not upset' all you like - but i feel we are more than entitled to feel disappointed + upset that a pop singer didn't make a pop album, like we were expecting.
just as she's entitled to feel disappointed that she made the album that she wanted + it tanks, because it will - this will not do well past the fanbase.

Well I like the album, it's not as strong and diverse as Dangerous Woman but as a whole it's a good standard. There's just a lack of standout hits aside from the two singles and "breathin".

I think a re-order of the tracklist would go a long way to improving the album as well. The order at the start just feels very odd?

The main highlights for me aside from the three we had already heard are breathin, everytime, better off and goodnight n go.

Personally, I kind of respect her more for using the post-Manchester platform for the type of album she wanted to make and not doing the obvious pop hoe album that would've been huge regardless.

Wow at Breathin getting over 4.3 million streams on Spotify in it's first day! Enter the Spotify chart at #3, also riding high worldwide, they might have to push this earlier than they probably planned!

She’s the artist. She can make whatever album she wants. Taste is subjective, she obviously doesn’t consider the record to be subpar.

This just sounds like toxic and entitled fandom to me. It’s completely normal to be disappointed when an artist doesn’t deliver what you expected, but feeling like you’re owed something or getting upset that she didn’t use Manchester as a ‘foot up’ is just ridiculous.

She’s the artist. She can make whatever album she wants. Taste is subjective, she obviously doesn’t consider the record to be subpar.

This just sounds like toxic and entitled fandom to me. It’s completely normal to be disappointed when an artist doesn’t deliver what you expected, but feeling like you’re owed something or getting upset that she didn’t use Manchester as a ‘foot up’ is just ridiculous.

you say that but the songs you’ve pointed out as highlights came from the “after sessions” (ie. after the label heard the pharrell stuff) & they’re the tracks she did with max/savan/ilya so not exactly the album she wanted to create.

I said I respect her for using the platform for showing the material she wants to produce, not that I personally prefer the songs she did with Pharrell

hun, with all due respect, step the f*ck down - don't call me toxic/entitled for having an opinion.
ariana + her music got me through months of depression and anxiety having been caught in the manchester bombing.
forgive me for being upset that i don't like "artist album" she put out when this so called 'artistry' wreaks of pharrell; there's no ariana in the majority of these songs.

+ it's not using it as a platform when it's already there - it's wasting it when you don't use it & there's a difference.

The thing is that when the defence is ‘you may not like it, but it’s the personal album Ariana wanted to make. I’m like, well it doesn’t feel so personal because it literally feels like a direct follow up to Man in the Woods or several other PW projects.