Miley, Gaga, Britney and Christina notwithstanding, young American female pop careers can be over in the blink of a false eyelash nowadays. This suspiciously fast follow-up to last year’s Billboard No 1 debut, Yours Truly, sees teen-actor-turned-pop-sensation Ariana Grande striking while the iron is still hot.
While her debut skilfully blended ‘90s R&B with the gloriously catchy harmonies of ‘60s girl groups, this time round the 21-year-old Floridian has decided to cover a lot more bases. Needless to say, she’s enlisted some heavyweight helpers. Produced by Max Martin and David Guetta, the album features a number of collaborations – most notably ‘Problem’ with Iggy Azalea and Big Sean; ‘Break Free’ with Zedd; and ‘Bang Bang’ with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj. There’s even a ballad written by Harry Styles – the not-half-bad ‘Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart’.
In fairness to Grande, she penned the title-track herself, and her vocals are often stunningly strong. Overall, however, with so much outside help, this album sounds more like it was put together by a record company sales committee than being the work of a serious pop artist. Half of it works brilliantly, and the rest falls flat (e.g. the half-hearted and ironically titled ‘Best Mistake’, another Big Sean collaboration).
At one stage a sonorous voice declares, “You’ll soil yourself from intergalactic excitement.” Not so. Slick it may be, ultimately, this album is just... Grande.