Ariana Grande Reminds People She’s Not All Galinda/Glinda With Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead

Although Ariana Grande already released the “Slightly Deluxe” version of Eternal Sunshine last year, the “slightly” in the title suggests that Grande might have known all along she was planning to release a “truly” deluxe version later down the (yellow brick) road. Perhaps wanting to wait until after the fanfare surrounding Wicked died out to remind people that Eternal Sunshine was (and is) an underrated masterpiece. One not quite as unanimously praised as 2019’s thank u, next (nominated for four Grammys to Eternal Sunshine’s three). Yet another album that found Grande wielding music as a source of post-breakup therapy. But with the relationship that Eternal Sunshine focuses on, the stakes were clearly much higher—because Grande was actually married this time. So it is that, at one point on Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead, she sings (on “Twilight Zone”), “Why do I still protect you/Pretend these songs aren’t about you?” And who they’re about, mostly, is her most significant ex yet (sorry Pete Davidson), Dalton Gomez. 

At another point on “Twilight Zone” (Grande is a huge fan of the show, in case you couldn’t tell by her 2019 Halloween costume), she notes that she “hope[s] this might be the last one.” That is, the last song she has to write about him for the purposes of catharsis because: she’s “not foolin’ anymore.” Though she does briefly fool the listener into believing it might actually be the last song about Gomez. This done by leading into “Warm,” a more optimistic track that, while still alluding to a breakup, places greater emphasis not just on a future with a new lover, but a future with somebody who is on her wavelength and level (which now happens to be in the “exosphere”—as Grande taught us on “nasa,” she loves a good space metaphor). Grande achieves this via the temperature-centric lyrics, “‘Cause I know I’m safe and sound/And I won’t come down for you/‘Cause I’m cool/On my own/But it’s warmer/In your arms/‘Cause it’s nice to unravel/Tears, how they travel/Happy ones tonight/‘Cause it’s warm in your arms.” So much for being “cool” on her own. And yes, these sentiments sound more aimed at Ethan Slater. Especially since it was clearly written post-“holding space” virality, with Grande incorporating that pop culture moment into the song by adding, “Can you hold the space I require?/Or will you turn the page? The page/Will you love me like it’s true?” So far, it appears that Slater has, but one never knows what might happen after Wicked: For Good is released.

The tone shifts on “Dandelion,” a vampy number that creatively wields dandelions as the new version of being a genie in a bottle (for that title belongs exclusively to Christina Aguilera anyway). After all, as Grande phrases it, “Got me like, ‘What’s your wish list?’/You can get anything you’d like/I’ll be your dandelion.” All a boy needs to do is make a wish and, er, blow. So long as he doesn’t “blow this” (as Grande also says) chance with her. Elsewhere, Grande doesn’t pass up the opportunity to include some plant-based sexual innuendos via the lines, “I’m thinking you should plant this seed,” “Can’t you see I bloom at night?” and “‘Cause, boy, come what may/I’m here on my knees/Those other flowers don’t grow the same/So just leave it here with me/Let’s get dirty, dirty” (more Xtina-patented language). Of all the songs on this edition of the record, it is the most 2000s-esque, channeling the type of music Justin Timberlake would become known for on Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds.

The tempo of “Past Life” bears a similar quality—sultry, yet bothered. And, considering Grande is the person who wrote “Ghostin” and “Supernatural,” it’s to be expected that she would also help pen a verse like, “Woke up with a ghost by my side/Kissed by the passing of time, time.” It’s here that the listener realizes she wasn’t done writing songs about Gomez at all (as vaguely promised on “Twilight Zone”). Instead, she continues to rehash the past (life), belting out, “Might fuck around and elevate my expectations/Now I’m fine to leave you in a past life.” Though, in some ways, that’s obviously not true, since she can’t help but continue to explore what went wrong in that relationship through her music. And yes, she’ll be the first to admit it’s her go-to source of therapy, declaring, “Just let the music confiscate my soul.” And so it does as she delivers such other epiphanies as, “I used to think you were the medicine, but you were just code blue” and “You think I’m lost, but that’s just how you found me.”

But if Grande is lost, she could do worse (at least financially). And it is on the final track, “Hampstead,” that she seems to find herself the most, reveling in her imperfections—as well as trolling those of the media and her fans/the public at large. Once again addressing the backlash she received for being a “homewrecker” after her relationship with Slater was revealed, Grande remarks of the media, “But quite frankly, you’re still wrong about everything/So far off, your seat’s nowhere near the table/But I find something sweet in your peculiar behavior/‘Cause I think to be so dumb must be nice.” That latter line certainly bears a connection to track one on Positions, “shut up,” during which she lambasts, “How you be spending your time? (how?)/How you be using your time? (how?)/You be so worried ’bout mine (mine)/Can’t even get yourself none/You know you sound so dumb (so dumb, so dumb).” Grande appears to feel that way now more than ever as she goads the press, “What makes you think you’re even invited?/The doors are closed with lights off inside and all the while/Therе’s no one home, you’re still outsidе/I wonder why.” And in London, the intensity of the paparazzi’s tendency to invade privacy is no secret (#PrincessDiana). 

So it is that Grande gained a new perspective (or “pov”) on what it meant to be judged and critiqued, which inspired another “fuck you” verse in the form of, “You think you’ve read the book I’m still writing/I can’t imagine wanting so badly to be right/Guess I’m forever on your mind/I wonder why.” “Hampstead” also marks the second instance on Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead of Grande wielding the word “stranger.” The first instance occurs on “Past Life,” when she refers to herself as one with, “Well, maybe I’m the stranger after all.” On “Hampstead,” she accuses the outsiders judging her life of being that (which they are), demanding, “What’s wrong with a little bit of poison? Tell me/I would rather feel everything than nothing every time/Fear me, stranger, a little bit of sugar, danger/I’d rather be seen and alive than dying by your point of view” (an undeniable reference to Positions’ “pov,” flipping the script from what she says on that track, which is, “I’d love to see me from your point of view”). 

Perhaps the most poignant line of all, though is, “My lover’s just some lines in some songs” (something Taylor Swift knows all about as well). That much was made evident from the outset of the deluxe edition, with an extended version of “Intro (End of the World).” Building on the verses from the original, the pain Grande endured during her marriage comes into even sharper focus with the description, “Please, pay me no mind/While I jump into your skin and change your eyes/So you see things through mine.” More “pov” shit. Which speaks to the need for empathy in any relationship in order for it to survive. But, based on Grande’s telling, she seemed to feel invisible in her marriage, asking of her ex, “Can’t you sense me?/I’ve been right here all this time/Would you still be here pretending you still like me?/Pretending you don’t regret not thinking before asking.” This brutally honest question refers to the notion that Gomez didn’t really think it through—imagine what a lifetime with Grande would actually be like—before asking to marry her. 

And so, in keeping with the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind motif of the album, Grande embodies her inner Clementine Kruczynski with the outro, “I broke your heart because you broke mine/So me, I am the bad guy [it ain’t just Billie Eilish]/‘Cause I’d already grieved you/And you started to realize I do need ya, I did/I wish I could un-need ya, so I did.” With that, Grande commences Eternal Sunshine anew, albeit through a much more optimistic lens than before. So, for the moment, maybe there really are Brighter Days Ahead—at least in Grande’s personal life (though certainly not in the grand scheme of things, based on the political arena of the present).