Between her profound emotional growth on 2024’s ‘Eternal Sunshine’ and her virtuosic performance as Glinda in the Wicked films, Ariana Grande would seem to have endless reasons to be grateful. Those works emerged from a year-plus spent largely out of the spotlight – a relatively long time by her standards. However, brought back in by the movies’ press cycle and her first world tour in seven years, she’s once again come under intense tabloid and social media scrutiny – around her relationships, her image, her body. In response, she’s described ‘Petal’, her eighth studio album, as “a little feral”, “an unfiltered rage that I think we all feel sometimes”.
The album opens with the grand romantic synthpop of ‘Kiss Me’, which gestures towards hope amid the noise: “Society, desperate for remedy / Empathy, fix this reality / You know I don’t belong”. But from there, Grande turns to an emotion rarely shown in a pop song – ambivalence. On the lead single ‘Hate That I Made You Love Me’, she addresses an audience whose misunderstandings of her will seemingly never change: “Is it really my fault you all gave me your hearts of your own accord?” Even the song’s instrumental feels lethargic, as if it’s resigned to its own fate.
‘Petal’, the second single, is the harshest song of Grande’s career, a rejoinder to her doubters: “They say the artist needs tears to write again / ’Cause all of my favorite stories end in some kind of catastrophe / But I don’t need someone to save me / ’Cause this music and I will never die”. As the track shifts gears from a dramatic waltz to stuttering hip-hop, she’s caught between a seething anger at her circumstances, and a desire to rise above.
Entirely written and produced by Grande and longtime collaborator Ilya, with Max Martin assisting on the two singles and ‘Stay’, the musical palette on ‘Petal’ feels smaller than any album prior. Her trademark vocal production shines the most on the more experimental tracks: the Imogen Heap/PinkPantheress two-step of ‘Oh Well’, and the two-part suite of ‘Freak’ and ‘Warning Signs (Interlude)’, where her most poetic writing (“Someday, all the seeds will open / All the life I’ve been denied of / Will bloom all around, unfrozen”) gives way to deep frustration over explosive synths: “My pain is music, do you hear me everywhere?”
‘Petal’ largely sits in a place of discomfort – the blurry feelings of being misunderstood by a dear friend, lover or millions of complete strangers. Even the more playful songs (‘Big Feelings’, ‘Like I Do’, ‘Never Get Over Me’) hold a touch of venom for those addicted to her love. The lovely ‘Stay’ is an exception that proves the rule, but the vibe shift of the final tracks feels perfunctory – the rote toxic-love narrative of ‘Bad Things (Bunny Hop)’ never reaches the stakes of its ‘Blinding Lights’-like arrangement. ‘Nowhere, Nobody’ closes out on a ballad about unconditional love – a theme that she’s carried her entire career – but it’s too neat a bow, as if the gratitude she found on ‘Eternal Sunshine’ was transplanted onto a far more conflicted album.
Can Ariana Grande be an artist who makes popular music, a human with a private life, and a celebrity who navigates fame unscathed? These tensions have been inextricable from stardom since at least Judy Garland, who Grande has consciously echoed in song and film throughout her career.
Though she’s clear about how she sees her position as an artist – the “petal in the pavement”, “flowers from a tomb” – ‘Petal’ ultimately has a sense of distance. Its joys are painted in shades of grey, while she carries its heaviest moments with poise. Rather than turning heartache into collective joy and wonder – which has always been her greatest strength – ‘Petal’ pulls inward, beseeching the listener to hold empathy for her experiences, even as she reportedly looks to step back from public life following the ‘Eternal Sunshine’ tour.
Details
- Record label: Babydoll Music / Republic Records
- Release date: July 31, 2026