Ariana Doesn’t Disappoint With Dangerous Woman

Following an aggressive promo campaign, pint-sized pop diva Ariana Grande has finally unveiled her extremely anticipated third LP Dangerous Woman. Well, the remainder of it, since most of it was released early as part of the campaign.

Since releasing her debut single “The Way” with Mac Miller (lol remember him?) in 2013, BadGalAri has exponentially risen to the A-List of pop girls thanks to her cute, girly aesthetic and an onslaught of hits and ‘Arianators’. After the monstrous success of her sophomore collection My Everything in 2014, Ari got the gears grinding for Moonlight, the tentatively titled follow-up. Some ensuing events proved, however, that Ariana’s third album would face a rougher release than her others – a roughness which has ultimately paid off.

After the infamous #DonutGate incident, Moonlight‘s lead single “Focus” was subsequently a bit of a flop (despite being an absolute bop). Time dismally named “Focus” one of the worst songs of 2015, commenting that “Grande needed a tightly constructed, elegant hit, and this isn’t it” – a judgment not far off from the truth. And so, it was back to the drawing board for Ari and her team. Using the BritneyBlueprint, the executive decision with #AG3 was to fast-track her ‘good girl gone bad’ transition era. Goodbye Moonlight, hello Dangerous Woman. 

While there are no painfully original ideas here, the end result is an exceedingly solid Ariana Grande album. Unsurprisingly, the generic made-for-radio bops like “Be Alright” or “Bad Decisions” point out that she hasn’t truly found herself as musician, or pinpointed her signature sound yet. But the more adventurous cuts like “Side to Side” with Nicki Minaj (a global smash waiting to happen), “I Don’t Care” and “Leave Me Lonely”, as well as the title track, reveal that Ari is an artist on the path to becoming a truly exciting pop star; an artist who takes musical risks which pay off; a dangerous woman.

Stream the album now: