{"id":5242,"date":"2026-07-31T04:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5242"},"modified":"2026-07-31T04:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:35:20","slug":"ariana-grandes-petal-introduces-an-angry-and-angular-ari-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5242","title":{"rendered":"Ariana Grande\u2019s \u2018Petal\u2019 Introduces an Angry and Angular Ari: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tOn the surface, Ariana Grande\u2019s \u201cPetal\u201d is a sister album to its predecessor, 2024\u2019s \u201cEternal Sunshine\u201d \u2014\u00a0it was made with the same two collaborators, Ilya Salmanzadeh and Max Martin, and it also was entirely written, performed and produced by the three of them. Usually, that formula means a chapter two: more of the same but different.<\/p>\n

Read more Sony Pictures Revenue Drops 13% in June Quarter, Music Segment Sales Jump 21%<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tNot this time. This sister is darker, moodier and a lot more blunt than \u201cSunshine,\u201d and her emotions are more volatile, less heartbroken, and much less internalized. It\u2019s a different Ariana, musically and especially lyrically.<\/p>\n

\n\tGrande braced her fans for a change in a widely circulated interview earlier this week. \u201cI think [fans] will feel familiarity and comfort in it,\u201d she said of the album. \u201cYet at the same time it\u2019s very experimental and different for me, and also I wrote from a place that I don\u2019t usually, which is unfiltered rage,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI usually am too shy to tap into that, and I think this time I didn\u2019t filter as much as I usually do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis<\/em> is rage?,\u201d some may think at first listen, because it\u2019s still a pop album, even though it moves into weirder territory musically than she has in the past. And let\u2019s be real: With her pretty, pristine soprano, it\u2019s hard to imagine what an Angry Ari (\u201cAngRI\u201d?) would sound like. But lurking below the shiny surface of many of the songs are lyrics like:<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJust know that I will find my way from you like flowers from a tomb\u201d; \u201cAll of my favorite stories end in some kind of catastrophe\u201d; \u201cI\u2019m not a victim, bitch, I\u2019m practically drowning in my blessings\u201d; \u201cGood luck on your way to hell.\u201d Likewise, the NSFW lyrics of her recent albums moves into a whole new realm: \u201cPussy so sweet a tear fell from his eye\u201d; \u201cThis sex is bout to make a grown man cry\u201d; \u201cThe grass is way greener since I been beneath ya\u201d; and if those were too subtle, \u201cNo one fucks you like I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd for good measure, there\u2019s a mission statement: \u201cKeep my heels tall, my ego small, but I\u2019m still Grande.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe heartbroken but resilient Grande from the last album is nowhere in sight \u2014 with one exception, these songs are about vengeance or sex, and about whom is bound to be the subject of endless online chatter.<\/p>\n

Read more Banijay Americas CEO Ben Samek to Oversee Merged Banijay\/All3Media Operations in the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe album\u2019s lead single, \u201cHate That I Made You Love Me,\u201d is a solid introduction to the sound of the album\u2019s more experimental tracks: It\u2019s beautiful but odd, with a crinkling synthesizer hook over a spare beat, creating an haunting setting for her lush, multitracked vocals; her growth as a melodicist is on full display in the mellifluous, multisyllabic middle section.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she promised, there are familiar-sounding songs and moments (\u201cKiss Me,\u201d \u201cFreak\u201d), but there\u2019s also music that would be more expected from FKA Twigs or even the Weeknd \u2014 Ilya executive-produced the album with Grande (Martin contributes to just three songs), so his more-adventurous inclinations have come to the fore. \u201cLike I Do,\u201d probably the album\u2019s darkest song musically, is based around the lovely eight-note wordless figure she sings at the beginning, but soon gives way to an ominous, hulking rhythm musical track; several songs are built around Ilya\u2019s trademark malfunctioning-computer synth lines. The hard-hitting title track pairs a busy, complex melody with a thudding Portishead rhythm; it\u2019s like two different songs playing in synch.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even relatively straightforward songs don\u2019t sound like anything she\u2019s done before. \u201cNever Get Over Me\u201d has an icy funk groove with a silky soulful vocal \u2014 and, far off in the distance, that psycho siren-like sound from \u201cKill Bill\u201d (thematic link!) whenever Beatrix Kiddo is about to act out her<\/em> unfiltered rage. \u201cBad Thing (Bunny Hop)\u201d is a fast, new wave-esque track with a flash of \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d; \u201cBig Feelings\u201d has a sultriness that we have rarely heard from her in the past.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe one exception is the closing track and prettiest song, the ballad \u201cNowhere, Nobody,\u201d driven by a heavily echoed guitar and a percolating rhythm track, a showcase for Grande\u2019s lush, layered vocals, which bring back the wistfulness of \u201cEternal Sunshine.\u201d It, and the album, end on an English-teacher-enraging note by quite deliberately finishing with a preposition: \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere else and there is nobody else\/ that I\u2019d rather be \u2026 with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPetal\u201d is not an easy or obvious career move \u2014 it\u2019s probably the biggest musical departure of her career, but it\u2019s also her most musically and lyrically accomplished album. She continues to grow as a virtuoso singer and vocal arranger, soaring to the top of her range with ease, but also showing nuance in her emotion as well as the kind of innovation she showed on the elaborate singing-along-with-herself loops featured on the \u201cSunshine\u201d tour. Eight albums into her discography, Ariana Grande continues to surprise.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Wonder Man\u2019 Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Speaks Out After Marvel Series Canceled: \u2018That\u2019s Life\u2026 Everything Will Shake Out\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight albums into her career, Ariana Grande makes her most angry and adventurous album to date with ‘Petal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[939],"class_list":["post-5242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-ariana-grande"],"yoast_head":"\nAriana Grande\u2019s \u2018Petal\u2019 Introduces an Angry and Angular Ari: Album Review - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ariana Grande\u2019s \u2018Petal\u2019 Introduces an Angry and Angular Ari: Album Review - 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