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grande verse

grande verse / eras / my everything

2014 · republic records · released 2014-08-25

my everythingariana grande’s 2014 album

the hard pivot into dance-pop, one year later

  • edm
  • Max Martin
  • Ilya Salmanzadeh
  • Zedd
Ariana Grande during the my everything era
Ariana Grande perfoming at 2014 MTV EMA MTV International · CC BY 3.0 · credits

every one creative-commons licensed, credited under the frame, and listed on credits.

the story

twelve months after a doo-wop debut she released a dance record. the turn was that abrupt, and it was the correct commercial read — 2014 was the peak of the edm-pop crossover and she arrived with the vocal range none of her peers had.

this is where the max martin relationship begins, and it changes the shape of her songs permanently: tighter melodic cells, hooks that resolve early, choruses built to survive a phone speaker. it is also the most feature-dependent record she has made, which is both its strength and the reason it dates fastest.

the reputation of this album has quietly improved. at the time it read as a genre grab; in hindsight it is the record where she learned to build a pop song rather than just sing one.

worth knowingthe saxophone riff carrying the biggest single on the record is doing the job a vocal hook would normally do — the chorus is largely instrumental.

why it looks like this

cool greys and near-monochrome. the era's visual language was minimal and slightly cold — a deliberate step away from the debut's warmth — so the palette drops saturation almost entirely and lets the type do the work.

the songs

the whole record, in order — all 12 tracks, with a preview on each. 7 of them have a full write-up here so far; the rest are listed with everything we can state as fact and nothing we cannot.

  1. Introno write-up yet1:20
  2. Problem feat. Iggy Azalea#23:14
  3. One Last Time3:17
  4. Why Tryno write-up yet3:32
  5. Break Free feat. Zedd#43:35
  6. Best Mistake feat. Big Sean3:54
  7. Be My Baby feat. Cashmere Cat3:37
  8. Break Your Heart Right Back feat. Childish Gambinono write-up yet4:13
  9. Love Me Harder#73:56
  10. Just a Little Bit of Your Heart3:53
  11. Hands On Me feat. A$AP Fergno write-up yet3:12
  12. My Everythingno write-up yet2:48

running order and previews from apple. released 2014-08-22.

around the same time

8 more recordings released alongside this era rather than on it — singles, features on other people’s records, deluxe cuts, soundtracks and christmas songs. every one with a preview and a way to go and hear it properly.

further reading

longer pieces on this, written to be checkable — every claim sourced and stamped with the date it was last verified.

everything in read →