Dangerous Woman Era
Even as a fan, I was skeptical about buying "Dangerous Woman". Ariana's "My Everything" album was all over the place, and I hoped she would cut ties with the songwriters and producers: Max Martin, David Guetta, Savan Kotecha, Ryan Tedder, Harry Styles, and Zedd (Tommy Brown & Cashmere Cat could stay). "Focus" with Max Martin was a mess. Add to the horrible cover art (bunny ears???!!), a latex sex suit, the very good but not great title track with horrible videos of her crawling on the floor in lingerie and looking ridiculous singing in the aforementioned bunny suit, I was going to hold my money.
The good: Her voice shines on Dangerous Woman, the music itself outstanding. We get to hear her sing in her lower register, warm tones are in full effect, and she hits the high notes and whistle register. The songs are well produced, and she shares co writing credit on many of them. They are catchy, even the Max Martin penned, Britney Spears inspired "Into You". Ariana really shines on tracks "I Don't Care", "Greedy", "Leave Me Lonely", "Sometimes", "Moonlight", and "Side to Side"; just about every song, or at least 1-12. When she performs the music, you can tell she believes in the material, and she has a newfound confidence. Her wardrobe is sleeker and more adult with expensive pant suits and diamond jewelry.
Valid Concerns: Ariana is at her best singing R&B music and she is singing more of it here. Overall, the album keeps her in the R&B/EDM/Pop-R&B Lite category. Just when Ariana gets into a groove singing unapologetic, full blown R&B (which she is a virtuoso at), the producers bring her back with a R&B lite/Pop song. "Leave Me Lonely" is soulful, but when I heard the song live, Ariana had full blown vocal runs not on the studio version, and it's like she was held back. While the lyrics are at times clever and catchy, their content is jarring. It seems Republic Records (or Ari) is in a panic to make her an "adult artist", despite the fact that she looks about 16 on her best day. Therefore, we get Ariana singing a lot about her libido, how she likes only bad boys, how too much "physical activity" has left her with a phallic bicycle condition, F-bombs, and how her boyfriend gives her good "poop" everyday. Much of this is sung with sly humor, so you can take it with a grain of salt. While she is an assertive woman, and one that sings about reckless behavior, it certainly doesn't make her dangerous. However, if she sang about how she is using her intelligence to fight for equal pay for woman everyday, she would indeed be a dangerous woman.
Conclusion: While her debut "Yours Truly" is a personal favorite and still a more cohesive effort, Ariana is putting out her best material right now and better than her contemporaries. She is one of the few artists whose live material sounds better than the studio versions. Unfortunately, she is an R&B artist trapped in the world of a pop star, and she is in an industry that doesn't consider former teen female stars mature artists unless they behave badly and sing about sex, which is completely not true. Based off concert observations, about 40% of her fans are 13 and under, and you have to wonder if this new material will turn off some parents while at the same time gaining new, older fans. Its a big gamble.
Ariana does have an image problem; partly her fault, but mostly Republic Records and their team, who haven't done anything to help in that area. She is one of the top streaming and social media artists, but cannot move units. Even Dangerous Woman is not projected to sell that well. Her peers are doing much better with lesser talent (Selena Gomez, Meghan Trainor, Katy Perry, etc). I can't help but wonder if her career would have been better in the hands of a Clive Davis or L.A. Reid, who know about artist longevity and maximizing potential. To paraphrase Toni Braxton, even though she sued LaFace Records, she credits Babyface for teaching her about music, and L.A. Reid for teaching her how to be a star. In any event, I hope Ariana does well; I'm looking forward to her tour and more videos with her acting out a story line.