grandewhispers

Great numbers - consistency is key It won't match the long-term success some of her previous albums have had, but to be pulling these numbers on your 8th album is still impressive. Like others said, she relies more on stability rather than huge debuts. And even if the albums flops completely, it already has a successful lead single and the 2nd single seems to be stable so far.

Are the rest of the songs' positions THAT bad?

right?? i'm so in love with nowhere, nobody. it's so beautiful

Which songs do y'all think she wrote exclusively in a relationship perspective?

Listening to this masterpiece

It's definitely hitting harder for me but it's making me fall in love with it even more... Makes the songs and lyrics even more necessary.

Plus, the online hate discourse surely isn't helping. Maybe once the dust settles down a bit it will also help the stability, idk.

This is crazy because it's shaping up to become my favorite album by hers I guess I really can't trust the critics... I do agree some of them are probably biased with stuff beyond the music itself, but oh well.

Already is to me.

It's kinda freefalling (at least on Spotify) but it might find stability eventually. Petal (the single) seems relatively stable. The lead also had huge drops during the first 3 days and then became a big hit - so that might still happen with the album. If it doesn't, I think an underperforming album will do no wrong to her career at this point. She will be fine, she continues to be extremely successful and still pulls huge debuts. And the era still has a huge hit after all, HTIMYLM.

Bad numbers but at least Petal (the single) is looking relatively stable.

So how were the 3rd day streaming numbers, specially compared to Positions and ES, worldwide and in the us?

That's what gives me comfort.

And then I'll use the tissue when the 3rd day numbers come out as well

Let me to this to see if it finally grows on me.

Loved your review And agree with most of it!

I think people will never be satisfied. It's an endless route which always leads to some type of complaints.

I only have ATRL tho! :(

What baffles me is that Ariana is such a special multifaceted artist, she's so talented and especially during this era of talent drought and AI, all people ever want to talk about is her appearance or relationships. And not the goddamn music and art.

they're trully illiterate i swear. ariana was sooooo ahead of hear time in 2014 when her first big scandal was saying she hated americans lol

without a doubt. the way the beat switches it's AMAZING. and her ending it in desperation saying: "i wish someone could hear me" hits so hard right now...

She's so strong I admire her soooo much. Is there some place in specific where I can post about all of this that is happening? I wanted it to be somewhere where all of us real fans can read it - I'm tired of the outside noise of dumb people.

Forgot to mention that my main complaint is the vocal restraint (I know this has been said a million times). I don't mind it during the verses and chorus, I think she still sounds heavenly, but yeah I do wish she belted more and went full out for some of the songs and their climax. Some of these songs just BEG for it. I do think I felt this more on ES though. Maybe because I wasn't used to this restraint coming for her, specially after the vocally magical Wicked songs, but I remember vividly being annoyed at her not belting on some of those songs. On this one I wanted it but it felt more expected so it didn't bother me as much. It's still on track to become my favorite record, like I said, so it's not that much of a problem - but yeah I miss it. I know it's an artistic choice and I respect it. It would be much easier to just show off her voice on every single song and have people praise it - it would've been the easy road. I understand her choice, artistically, but I just don't think it does her talent justice.

i really don't get the complains about the lyricism on this album tbh

Hey gworls Don't know if someone remembers me lol because I've been MIA on ATRL for so long but I've been lurking in here and wanted to give my opinions on this whole thing happening because we're truly in the pits as stans (also wanted to change my avi but I don't even remember how to do that anymore). Since this is the album thread I'll focus on that here and here is my review: I'm in love with this record. Truly fantastic to me, I'm so so proud of her as an artist and specially as a lyricist, she has come so far. This was more instant to me than ES tbh, and this might be a big statement but I definitely see it becoming my favorite Ariana record, finally dethroning Sweetener. I just loooove when she gets more experimental and dives into less safe spaces musically - it always ends up being a magical result for me. I was so surprised to see the lashings here and by the critics because upon first listen it truly was one of the most instant album of hers for me. And this is coming from someone who doesn't love HTIMYLM (it's cute but feels like it's missing something). The only song I can't really get into so far is freak. I like the lyrics but the rest of the song hasn't hit me yet - hopefully it does soon. Stay is also weaker, imo, but I can still bop to it. The rest of the songs whewwwwww I just love all of them and get super excited whenever they come on. I WISH WARNING SIGNS WAS A FULL SONG, IT'S SO GOOD omg. And honestly, since all of this hiatus announcement it's been bittersweet to play the album but at the same time it just has gotten more beautiful to me because the lyrics make even more sense and are even deeper now. Such a beautiful record, I wish I could tell her this and that she knew her art is appreciated Top 3: Oh Well, Big Feelings, Never Get Over Me Bottom 3: Freak, Hate That I Made You Love Me, Stay.