Ariana Grande Releases Fifth Studio Album

On Feb. 8, Ariana Grande released her fifth studio album, “Thank U, Next.” This was Grande’s second full-length studio album in a sixth month period. “Thank U, Next” features twelve tracks, three of which were released prior as singles. All the songs off the album have elements of trap, R&B and of course Grande’s signature pop element.

As of the week of Feb. 18, her songs “7 Rings,” “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” and “Thank, U Next”  hold the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100. Which has not been achieved since 1964 by The Beatles

Grande egged fans on prior to the album’s release. Starting back in Oct. when she dropped hints like lyrics and snippets to “Needy” on her social media. She posted a 45-second snippet to Instagram featuring the song’s chorus.

“Imagine,” which Grande released back in Dec. as a promotional single, features the rhythm that can be heard throughout the album. The song ends with Grande’s infamous whistle-tones.

“NASA,” begins with Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, “One small step for man,” but Grande changed the word man to woman. Lyrics include “Baby, you know time apart is beneficial / It’s like I’m the universe and you’ll be N-A-S-A”.

“Fake Smile,” samples Wendy Rene’s “After Laughter.” The song features Grande’s “trap” sound and features a pop ballad inspired chorus.

“Bad Idea” features lyrics like “Yeah, I’ma call you over here to numb the pain/  I got a bad idea / Forget about it, yeah, forget about him, yeah Forget about me.” The song ends with an almost minute long trap instrumental, making it Grande’s longest song on the album at 4 minutes and 27 seconds.

“Make Up,” features a play on words for both making up in a relationship and makeup. Lyrics include “And I love it when we make up / Go ‘head, ruin my makeup.”

“Ghostin,” is the typical Grande pop ballad. Grande has been through a lot in the past year and a half, through the Manchester attack and Mac Miller’s death. The song is emotional and raw. Lyrics include “I’m a girl with a whole lot of baggage, yeah” and “I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again over him.”

“In My Head,” draws parallels to Grande’s song “Pete Davidson” which has lyrics like, “I thought you into my life, woah. Look at my mind, yeah.” The title of the track gives away that what she is singing about was all in her head and has lyrics like, “Yeah, look at you, boy, I invented you.”

“7 Rings,” samples ‘My Favorite Things,” from The Sound of Music. The song shows that Grande doesn’t need a man to make her happy when she has money and her six best friends who she bought Tiffany & Co rings for. The song is very trap heavy and toward the end Grande raps.

“Thank u, next,” the title track to the album starts off with Grande listing some of her previous boyfriends like Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, the late Mac Miller, and of course Pete Davidson. The music video for the track features several of Grande’s favorite movies, such as “Legally Blonde,” “Mean Girls,” “Bring It On,” and “13 Going On 30.” Within three days the music video broke the record for the fastest song to reach 100 million views on Vevo.

The album ends with “Breakup With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored,” which Grande debuted as the third single off the album. The video was also debuted on the album release date. The song features a trap, R&B vibe.

Since its release, “Thank U, Next” has been breaking records.

The 12-song Thank U, Next storms Streaming Songs, snagging the chart’s top three spots, five of the top 10 and securing its entire tracklist within the top 24 of the 50-position chart,” Billboard said .