Ariana Grande, Petal

★★

Things appear to be difficult in the world of Ariana Grande right now. This week, the singer announced she would be a taking “a step back” from public life in the face of “endless, ongoing public scrutiny” around her weight loss and health. It comes after social media was ablaze with commentary following the release of the music video for Petal, the darkly dramatic title track of her eighth album.

In the video, Grande stars as Pepper, an aspiring actress repeatedly rejected by a panel of crass casting directors. Eventually, Pepper cracks, her disappointment giving way to frenzied violence in a shockingly graphic scene. Visually, it’s the strongest example of the “unfiltered rage” Grande has described as running through the new album, but her fury only appears in flashes.

Most of the time, it feels as though spite rather than rage is powering the record, with the majority of songs directed at one, or several, exes who Grande believes will never get over her. Sure, there are references to the burdens of the music industry, internet gossip and Grande’s own demons, too, but it’s the men who seem to be occupying Grande almost as much as she haunts them.

On Hate That I Made You Love Me – moody, slow synth-pop in the same vein as Petal – Grande is sorry-not-sorry for being hopelessly intoxicating. “Hate that I made you love me/but I barely tried,” she coos breezily, while the bedroom R&B of Big Feelings is a fitting backdrop for boasts about sex “’bout to make a grown man cry.” When she defends herself in the chorus – “there are worse things I could do” – the line curls through her own vocal stack like a coquettish shrug.

She’s even more brazen on Like I Do, where she reasserts herself as an incomparable lover, and yet again on Never Get Over Me, promising, “I won’t let you forget how I feel.” The arrangements often feel as repetitive and one-note as the sentiment, with an uninspiring formula – raunchy blobs of bass; sultry, swaggering synth lines; and a uniform vocal delivery – further diluting the impact.

Swede kingpin Max Martin lends a hand to three of the album’s strongest tracks (the breakbeat-heavy Oh Well, where Grande’s voice truly soars, is a standout), but longtime Grande collaborator Ilya is the chief producer here, drawing from a frustratingly muted palette that reinforces the flatness of the record.

Petal comes to life when Grande replaces the scorn with vulnerability and romance, as on the sweetly pleading Stay and Bad Thing (Bunny Hop), its running beat providing a much-needed change of pace. The song is most likely about Ethan Slater, Grande’s co-star in Wicked and most recent ex. The two got together in scandalous circumstances that saw Grande dubbed a homewrecker; three years on they’ve split and she’s reportedly back with Ricky Alvarez, her former back-up dancer whom she first dated a decade ago.

Alongside her extraordinary success as a pop singer and now actor (Grande was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Galinda in 2024’s Wicked, which she reprised in the sequel the following year), Grande has endured plenty of heartbreak, including a bombing at her 2017 Manchester concert that killed 22 people, and the accidental overdose death of her ex, rapper Mac Miller, months after they broke up in 2018. Her new album is named after the “petal in the pavement” metaphor, referencing flowers that bloom in spite of harsh conditions.

Currently on tour after a gruelling few years filming and promoting Wicked, Grande’s resilience is undeniable, but so is her fragility. Her defiance on Petal can’t drown out the impression that something is deeply wrong.

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