Album Review: Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman (2016)

Cookie FM Rating – 3.5/5

When it comes to popular mainstream artists, I’m not one for the usual suspects but I will admit that my guilty pleasure is none other than Ariana Grande. This petite American has some vocal pipes & talents in her, and at the end of May she released her third studio album. Dangerous Woman (2016) is more grown up in sound and lyrical content than her previous LP, showcasing her move from the teen-bop & Nickelodeon fame to a more mature transition. Similar to her comrades of the same niche (Miley, Demi, Selena, Zendaya), Ariana proves that she is no longer a teenager but now a young woman.

Her album opens up with Moonlight; a very sweet and rather romantic track before introducing the title track, Dangerous Woman, which expresses feelings influenced by a lover that easily match the sound of the track. Known for working with other stellar artists, one collaboration that stood out for me is Side By Side with Nicki Minaj. This track has island vibes, an influence of the rapper’s background perhaps, that’s sure to be a hit this summer. There are a handful of songs which could easily be summer hits including her latest single, Into You, as well as Greedy.

Ariana’s vocal abilities are very evident throughout the album, specifically her soft tones and high-hitting notes. As mentioned earlier, Ariana’s lyrical content revolves a lot about love & relationships, which with her soft tonal vocals make for quite a sultry album, notably Let Me Love You with Lil Wayne. Personally I feel the first half of the album is much more memorable than its latter half. Overall the songs & sounds are rather repetitive, and although I have favourite tracks and do enjoy listening to the music, I sort of switch off after a while, and this may be due to the lyrical content being too much the same.