In 2020, I didn’t have the energy to write about music at all, even when I really wanted to. As such, I will be posting reviews of my favorite albums of last year — approximately as the anniversary of their release approaches — to allow myself to capture what made me love them so much. Here is the seventh and final!
No popstar that debuted in the 2010s has had a career quite as prolific as Ariana Grande. Since releasing the nineties-indebted Yours Truly in 2013, the singer churned out four others by the end of the decade to snowballing success and maturity — and then there is Positions! After Sweetener and thank u, next, two back-to-back releases centered on trauma and the growth it forced upon a her, Grande’s first album of the 2020s is the celebratory feel-good record that in some ways finds her returning to her roots while advancing her artistry in others.
Sonically, Positions is a love letter to the singer’s appreciation of trap and R&B that began with Yours Truly. Tracks like the Ty Dolla $ign-assisted “safety net,” the winking “my hair,” and the lowkey “west side” are propelled mostly by deep bass and groove, while Disneyfied orchestral arrangements outfit others like opener “shut up,” manifestation anthem “just like magic,” and loved up “obvious.”
True to the album’s title, sex is one of the overarching themes of this set of songs; “34+35” is a thinly veiled ode to sixty-nining, Grande describes how “[her] pussy [is] designed” for her partner on “nasty,” and the title track involves positions both in and outside the bedroom. But even more prevalent is the grappling with domesticated love, heard most sweetly on “six thirty,” “love language,” and closer “pov” — the latter is an absolute showstopper, with the singer displaying the full range of her voice for the first time across the album’s fourteen tracks. If there was any doubt of her staying powers at the beginning of this decade, Positions makes clear Grande will continue to dominate the pop game for years to come.
Rating: 9.5/10
Standout tracks: “just like magic,” “nasty,” “love language,” “positions”