To this day, I can still vividly picture one of the best nights of my life.

Strobe lights beaming everywhere, unnoticed costume changes, screaming fans that yelled until their voice boxes broke—it was one of the first, and best, concerts I’ve ever attended. 

Ariana Grande: an icon, an idol, a superstar. 

For years, I’ve dreamt of reliving her Dangerous Woman world tour; seeing and hearing her angelic voice in person was better than I had anticipated. Now, with her continuous releases of exceptional albums, I never have a doubt in my mind about her success. 

I have grown to appreciate lots of other different and upcoming singers, but Grande has always been a constant. She recently released her newest album, Positions. With that knowledge, I just knew I had no choice but to review it.

This album reminds me a lot of her prior album sweetener, which she released in 2018. To be honest, I still listen to sweetener quite often to this day. But with her brand new release, I’ve found myself jamming out to Positions much more frequently.

After listening to the fourteen tracks on Positions through and through, I’ve most definitely distinguished some favorites.

Let’s start with “motive.” It’s a collaboration with another great artist, Doja Cat. Their voices mix together so smoothly; it makes for a perfect new pop song. Throughout the lyrics, I can make out the overall purpose.

“Baby, tell me what’s your motive?”

The chorus is so unbelievably catchy and upbeat. Yes, it’s repetitive, but it’s repetitive in a good way. All in all, it’s talking about a certain purpose for motivation. In my mind, Grande produces songs that are either emotional and raw or more pop-like and sanguine—”motive” falls into the pop-like category.

However, especially on this album, I’ve discovered there are more buoyant and upbeat tracks rather than sentimental. Yet another example of that would be her song “obvious.” 

“Obvious” is esentially Grande romantically confessing her feelings towards a partner—an unknown partner for that matter. Throughout the song, she seems to be blatantly telling this mysterious person that her feelings towards him should be very obvious—hence the title. 

“Others that I’ve had had to impress me before, but I knew you were the real thing when you walked through that door. I didn’t think that I would have to spell it out.”

Within these well-thought-out lyrics, Grande is questioning why her lover isn’t getting the message that she does indeed have strong feelings for him. She’s also emphasizing that he isn’t like any of her past lovers: he’s real, and he’s different.

Moving on to the third and final favorite of mine, “positions” is by far the best of the album. Personally, in the past I’ve noticed that the song on the album that coincidentally shares the title of the album is never what it is hyped up to be; that’s for any artist (not just Grande). However, this album contradicted that idea. 

I like to think of “positions” as an R&B love song sung towards her current boyfriend, Dalton Gomez. Grande announced the release of this song on the night of the last presidential debate, a fitting choice because, in her music video, she is featured acting as the President of the United States with a cabinet made up of her closest confidants, like her mother, Joan Grande. But this song isn’t just about men and relationships; it also targets feminism. Grande is trying to convey a message regarding feminism and how women can still be successful and independent while maintaining a stable and positive intimate relationship.

Grande never fails to produce great songs with great messages. Somehow, she always seems to incorporate the idea of feminism into her songs and albums, which is extremely important for today’s youth to be educated about.

Positions is an album surrounding intimacy and purity; it is extremely personal but also exemplifies the act of women’s independence and empowerment. All fourteen of these songs produce a magical tune, and it makes them even better knowing that they’re sung by queen Ariana Grande.