the quietest record she has made, released with almost no warning into the back half of 2020, and the one people were most wrong about.
the short answer
positions is her sixth studio album, released on 30 october 2020, and its title track came a week earlier. the song is about rearranging a life to make room for somebody, with a double meaning that got most of the attention and rather less of the point. the video, directed by dave meyers, casts her as president of the united states, and arrived a fortnight before an american election.
what the song is about
domesticity, which is not a subject pop songs of this size usually take on. the premise is somebody reorganising their entire life around another person and finding they do not mind — cooking, showing up, switching between roles across a day. the innuendo is real and deliberate and it is also the least interesting layer of it.
it arrived in a specific context: she had spent 2020 mostly at home, and she married dalton gomez the following may. the record is the sound of a private life happening for the first time in a decade, which is why it is so much quieter than anything around it. the piece on that marriage covers what happened next.
the video, and the president
dave meyers again, and the conceit is exact: she is the president, and the video cuts between the oval office, a press conference and a kitchen, in the same day, in the same competence. released on 23 october 2020, eleven days before the united states voted, with no statement attached.
the album
fourteen tracks, released six days after the single with almost no rollout, into a year with nothing else in it. it is chamber r&b: performed strings, a small band, low tempos, and the most restrained vocal performances of her career. there is no whistle showpiece on it. after the thank u, next years, that reads as a deliberate reset.
- pov. the closing track and the best thing on the record — a song about being seen accurately by somebody and finding it bearable. it is the one this album will be remembered for.
- 34+35. the single that carried the era commercially, and reached number one in a remixed form with doja cat and megan thee stallion.
- off the table, with the weeknd. their third collaboration, and the only sad one.
- my hair. the whistle-register track people forget exists, and the one moment on the album that reaches.
why it is underrated
because it was released into the worst possible month of the worst possible year and because it is not designed to be impressive. an album with no showpiece is an album with nothing for a headline to quote. five years on it is the one her audience returns to most consistently outside of the hits, and its influence on the two records after it is obvious — eternal sunshine and petal both proceed from the discovery that she does not have to sing loudly to hold a room.
questions people ask
what is the song positions about?
rearranging a life around another person — cooking, showing up, switching between roles across a day. the double meaning is real and is not the whole of it.
why is ariana grande the president in the positions video?
the video applies the song's argument about switching positions to the presidency. it was directed by dave meyers and released eleven days before the 2020 us election.
when did the positions album come out?
30 october 2020, six days after the single, with almost no rollout. it is her sixth studio album.
did positions reach number one?
yes, both the single and the album. the single debuted at number one on the hot 100.