• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Vinyl Chapters

Vinyl Chapters

The Stories Behind The Music

  • Home
  • About
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • News
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Cart
Home » articles » Ariana Grande: Positions – Album Review

Ariana Grande: Positions – Album Review

November 2, 2020 by Emily Simpson

Ariana Grande

A blend of the sensual and the sensitive, Ariana Grande delivers the easy-listening album, Positions.

Grande’s previous two records were written in the midst of serious pain. Sweetener was marked by grief, following the Manchester Arena bombing, and Thank U, Next followed the death of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller. But with Positions, the singer is optimistically moving on to the next chapter of her life – especially shown through the track, shut up: “All them demons helped me see shit differently / So don’t be sad for me”.

Ariana’s vulnerable side comes out with tracks like safety net, singing about fear and uncertainty over a woozy RnB shuffle. Or in pov when she whispers “I’m getting used to receiving / still getting good at not leaving” over a backing drenched in a rainfall ambience.

Ariana Grande - Positions

As well as the scattering assurances that Grande is overcoming the anxiety and depression she has been suffering with, the album focuses largely on her sex life. The raunchily titled 34+35 – you do the maths – has a rather tongue-in-cheek beginning of “If I put it quite plainly / just give me them babies”, and if that was too understated, she later abandons coyness altogether with a more graphic description of what she wants to get up to with her boyfriend. And on the racy love language, she sighs: “Baby, pardon my french but could we speak in tongues?”. While the singer’s vocals remain amazing, her talent as a lyricist gets to the root of the appeal in this album.

The shimmery track just like magic is full of finger snaps and self-love (“Just like magic, I’m attractive / I get everything I want ‘cos I attract it”). But the song ends before it really gets a chance to take off. But Grande’s talents are on full display in my hair, beginning as another steamy sex jam. With synths and retro guitar licks, the big finish has an outro delivered entirely in whistle notes, it’s euphoric (and quite frankly just showing off!).

Positions has come down with a slight case of Spotify Syndrome – short, generic songs with nothing to distract the listener while they stream it in the background of whatever they are doing. This album seems like the final push to move Ariana Grande away from her squeaky clean Disney image, but also shifting away from the narrative of her being a grieving, tragedy-struck popstar, and moving on to a brighter phase of her life.

Score: 3/5

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Review

About Emily Simpson

Guitarist by profession and record collector for fun. I’m a freelance writer with a passion for rock and blues.

Reader Interactions

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to our Newsletter

* indicates required

Recent Posts

Charlie Puth

Charlie Puth: Charlie – Review

Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris: Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 – Review

JP Hoe

New Music Fridays – 5th August 2022

Footer

Navigation

Home

About

Reviews

Features

News

Submit

Contact Us

Shop

Search

Recent Posts

  • Taylor Swift: Midnights – Album Review
  • Charlie Puth: Charlie – Review
  • Calvin Harris: Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 – Review
  • New Music Fridays – 5th August 2022
  • Hayley Kiyoko: Panorama – Review

Social Media

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Affiliate Disclosure

Vinyl Chapters is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. In doing so, this helps us continue providing free content. It does not increase the price for you in any way.

Copyright © 2023 Vinyl Chapters | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Editorial Team