Ariana Grande - Thank U, Next (2019)

Reason for Listening:
#36 on the Billboard 200 (Week of 20191102). Weeks on Chart between 30 and 50.
Last Week: 37 | Peak: 1 | Weeks on Chart: 37.

---

While I've seen Ariana Grande's name and heard some of her songs, I wouldn't have been able to name any of her songs prior to this blog post. She has nine tracks on the dance video game series Just Dance - six of which are on Just Dance Now: "The Way" (JD2014), "Break Free" (JD2015 DLC), "Into You" (JD2017), "Side to Side" (JD2018), "No Tears Left to Cry" (JD2019), "7 Rings" (JD2020).

Released 20190208.
12 songs. 41:11. thank u, next (Standard) (2019)
12+2 songs. 41:11+05:36. thank u, next (Japanese) (2019)
Wikipedia

---

Notes:
--20191101--
First listen. Explicit.
I'm not fond of the horns in "bloodline". I guess it's fairly repetitive.
Between track 4 and track 5 I watch the music video for "thank u, next." It references several movies: Mean Girls, Bring It On, 13 Going on 30, and Legally Blonde.
The main thing about "thank u, next" is occasionally I'll hear "bacon, eggs."
After listening to the album, I quickly listened to the top four songs again.
"imagine" borders on being too repetitive at the end ("Can you imagine it?" and "Imagine").
"make up" channels the sound of "no tears left to cry."

3: "thank u, next";
2: "imagine"; "make up"; "7 rings";
1: "needy"; "fake smile"; "ghostin"; "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored";
0: "NASA"; "bad idea"; "in my head";
-1: "bloodline";

Summary:
The album was decent and I found some tracks which I might enjoy in the future. However, it was not good enough for me to repeatedly listen from start-to-finish. While there may be multiple reasons, I suspect this was mainly due to the genre.

When choosing a favorite, I thought "thank u, next" would automatically be the best track. However, upon listening to the top four rated songs, I had a tough time choosing just one of the four. While "7 rings" is good, I like it the least of the four. Meanwhile, "imagine" loses a couple of points for it's repetitive end. Ultimately I decided to choose "

Overall Rating: 3.4/5
Favorite Song: "imagine"
Second Favorite Song: "thank u, next"

---