A riana Grande has officially closed the door of “Eternal Sunshine” with six new tracks and a 26-minute short film “Brighter Days Ahead.” The tracks titled “Intro (End of the World) – Extended,” “Twilight Zone,” “Warm,” “Dandelion,” “Past Life,” and “Hampstead” beautifully round out the album.
In my opinion, this is Grande’s best album, showing not only her impressive vocal range but the lyrical genius she’s been hiding from the industry. This album has such good visual production and design, giving the obvious nods to Charlie Kaufman’s 2004 film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The short film “Brighter Days Ahead” has beautiful visual displays and completely ties the entire album storyline together, along with Grande’s personal life. She continues to tell the story seen in the “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” music video, where she has memories erased to ease the pain and move on. Only in this short film we see Grande’s character “Peaches” as an older woman going through the memories one last time before she hits erase. It’s equally as beautiful as it is painful sad but it’s an emotion every one of us can relate too.
If you’ve been living under a rock, Grande was previously married and received much scrutiny and judgement for how she’s conducted her life since. From her relationship status to her outside appearance, people haven’t given Grande a moment of peace. But with the release of these new songs and the conclusion of this chapter, maybe this is her way of telling the voices they don’t have power over her anymore.
The first deluxe track is a familiar one heard at the very beginning of the album, only this time Grande put a twist on it with, “Intro (End of the World) – Extended.” She sings, “I broke your heart because you broke mine/So me, I am the bad guy/‘Cause I’d already grieved you/And you started to realize/I do need ya, I did/I wish I could un-need ya, so I did.” It starts the mini journey of the deluxe and gives you a feel for what the rest of the songs have in store.
“Twilight Zone,” introduces feelings of immense closure, a tad bit of confusion, and acceptance. From the first lyrics of the song, “Did I dream the whole thing?/Was I just a nightmare?/Different dimensions/Stuck in the twilight zone,” we’re pulled into Grande’s mind as she recounts the things she thought she knew. This song is beautifully produced, courtesy of Max Martin and Ilya Salmanzadeh and in true Grande fashion, the harmonies on this track are effortless and other worldly adding to the complexity.
As she works out her thoughts in her very own twilight zone, Grande wonders if she even knew the real side of this person. Yet she, time and time again, protected them and, in turn, hurt herself. She realizes she doesn’t miss or want this person back in her life, accepts the past, and moves on, even though the shock and trauma of what has happened will never go away. That’s apparent as she sings, “It’s so strange, this I never do/Not that I miss you, I don’t/Sometimes I just can’t believe/You happened.”
Grande returns to her inner pop star with these next two songs, “Warm” and “Dandelion.” In “Warm” she sings about feeling safe in the warmth of someone’s arms but she feels cooler on her own. It’s the risk of will this love be worth it or is it all just a waste of perfectly good energy. She sings, “Can you hold the space I require?/Or will you turn the page, the page?/Will you love me like it’s true?/Am I just on your to-do-list?”
“Dandelion” hits you right off the bat with a jazzy saxophone solo into a more gritty pop beat as she begins to sing. The song seems to have a romantic undertone of making a wish on a dandelion making destiny known. Everyone knows what blowing on a dandelion feels like; having that hope that your “wish” will come true. In a way this song has that euphoric ethereal feel of making a wish.
As much as these songs feel and sound like the old Grande, they are anything but. There’s a more mature and grounded sense in this woman than there was in songs like “Break Free” and “Dangerous Woman.”
“Past Life” is the cutest little filler track. It does its job of advancing the musical plot, and it’s just as emotionally driven as the previous ones. However, there’s something missing that I can’t put my finger on. Grande, once again, talks about leaving things in the “past life” and saying goodbye. She sings, “Always wondered what would happen if I let you lose me/Always wondered what would happen if I let myself need more/…Now I’m fine, to leave you in a past life.”
The final track, “Hampstead,” has become my favorite Grande song from this record. Her vocals are so raw and real, as if she’s letting us into her mind for the last time. The lyrics speak for themselves: “What’s wrong with a little bit of poison? Tell me/I would rather feel everything than nothing every time/Fear me, stranger, a little bit of sugar, danger/I’d rather be seen and alive than dying by your point of view/I do, I do, I do, I do.”
That last line seems to reference to her song “POV” from “Positions” where she sings about wanting to see herself from her lover’s point of view. However, the Grande in this song has found closure in that chapter of her life closing. The outro of this song with Grande’s echoey vocals and the piano could bring you to tears. The song is beautifully featured at the end of the short film where Grande’s father pieces her back together (literally).
One can only hope that with the conclusion of “Eternal Sunshine,” Grande will return to the tour stage again. Until then she’s healing not only herself but the fans that resonate with this record. She’s certainly been many fans’ eternal sunshine of music.
