The Most Raw Masterpiece I’ve Ever Heard: Ariana Grande’s ‘Petal’ — Album Review
Ariana Grande has gone through a few changes in her life lately: A tour after years of not being on stage, working on new movies, lots of criticism from fans and the general public alike, which led to the release of a new album named ‘Petal,’ after her 2024 ‘Eternal Sunshine.’ This album was released under her new company, ‘Babydoll Music,’ which is a phenomenal career move for Ariana, and we love that for her! However, I am here today to write a detailed review of her album ‘Petal,’ so let’s get started!
The first track on this album is ‘Kiss Me.’ This song, to me, gives the vibes of floating on a cloud, yet leaves you with a bittersweet aftertaste. It’s dreamy, full of synth-like sounds, which makes the song feel like a caress on someone’s cheek before saying goodbye for the last time. And I believe that is the meaning Ariana is trying to convey to her fans, the ones that truly stayed and supported her. This is a soft and truthful goodbye to them. It’s easy to understand with lines such as, ‘We decide to make it all the way out/My heart in your hands despite all of my plans/We could try to make it, make it all count/Kiss me like you know this is goodbye, mm.’ It coincides perfectly with the announcement that she will be leaving the public eye for a while, since she has had so much criticism and scrutiny for any move she has made in the past few years, which is a totally understandable decision, if you are mature enough to understand that.
The second track is the lead single, ‘hate that I made you love me.’ With this song, Ariana has drastically shifted the theme of the entire album. She is now focused on rebelling against the constant criticism she has received from people that consider themselves to be her ‘fans.’ The music video is proof of this, in which we can notice that the main lead (Justin Long) is made to represent those “fans” burying her at the beginning, then projecting onto a self she never was, the self her old label created, these people latching onto a fantasy that never was there, without accepting she is a different person, as she is being the one to bury them in the end of the music video. The same symbolisms and hidden meanings are shown in the lines of the song, such as ‘I’ve held your projections when you’ve felt so insecure/Tell me, why is it this way?/Why you so hate to see women endure?/Is it really my fault you all gave me your hearts of your own accord?/I don’t really think so,’ for example. Her penmanship is truly something so amazing to read and understand. There are very few artists like her, and we will be truly losing someone so talented for a while.
The same phenomenal penmanship returns in the third track, ‘Petal,’ which was released as the second single for this album. Here, Ariana heavily criticizes the Hollywood glamorous life, in a way, because it led to the public scrutinizing her every move, her body, and her emotions, creating a side of her that wasn’t the real one, and now she needs to step away from all this and find herself again. We can see that in lines such as, It’s such a fucked situation/Petal in the pavement/Just as long as she keeps getting it right/Heartbreak won’t bite here in paradise/This is such a convenient conflation/This record in rotation/Long as she gets the ovation each night/Heartbreak won’t bite, this is paradisе.’ Also, ‘Petal in the pavement’ seeks to make the public understand that Ariana is like a fragile flower petal that people constantly step on whenever she makes a move or releases new music. Then, suddenly people begin loving her again. It’s a constant cycle that never ends, and she is putting a temporary end to it, reclaiming control over her life by going on a break.
With the fourth track in this album, ‘Stay,’ Ariana shifts the focus back on herself and her feelings. Here, Ariana is trying to make the man she loves understand the fact that she wants to be loved for who she is, and is tired of being someone who is used to heal the wounds of his past; she wants to be with a man that can provide emotional security. This is seen in lines such as ‘Hands tied (Mmm), hard to rеach, (Mmm) but oh my/I don’t want to be/Just another corrective experience, ah/Tongue-tied (Tied)/Hard to speak, but oh my (Hard to speak)/I don’t want to be (I don’t wanna be)/Anywhere but by your side (Anywhere).’
In the fifth track of her album, ‘Oh Well,’ Ariana brings her focus once again to the general public and critics who have diminished her countless times. Here, the ‘We Can’t Be Friends’ singer truly shows off her creative and throat-cutting penmanship! The chorus is a fantastic example of her distancing herself from trying to fix everything that is said towards her, by simply choosing to not let it bother her anymore, wishing them well (or not): Good things can replace dysfunction, obsession/Friends I used to need, but now/The bad guys all go to Hell/Good things can replace dysfunction, obsession/Thanks, but I’ll see you right out/Good luck on your way to Hell/Oh well.’
In the sixth track of her album, ‘Big Feelings,’ Ariana is now quickly focusing on her current love situation, telling the man she loves that if he provides her with stability and healthiness, then she can give herself to him the way he wants. This is seen in the bridge of the song, such as ‘Once you express yourself, I can become so aquatic/Come swim in these waters/I’ve been told I’ve healing properties/So, baby, can you promise me/That you’ll handle me properly?’
In the next few songs left in this album, Ariana shifts back entirely the focus once again on the people that have criticized her. She is now criticizing them in return. She wants to let these people know that she wants nothing to do with them anymore, and to just stop criticizing her every time.
On ‘Freak,’ she openly calls this kind of ‘fans’ out, by telling them to simply stop asking for that ‘old’ self they have projected on for years and years. She is this Ariana now, showing her true self that she always has been, not the one that was created by Hollywood in the first place. We can see that in lines such as, ‘I won’t give you your fantasy this time/(Can you do it now?)/No, I won’t do what you say, freak, any time/(What can you give me now?)’ Again, her penmanship just left me truly in shock.
The following track is a short interlude, ‘Warning Signs,’ but the theme still stays the same, as it seems to me this can be considered a follow-up message of what ‘Freak’ was trying to convey to the listener. Specifically, ‘My pain is music, do you hear me everywhere?/Wear me like your new tattoos/And yet your favorite muse just simply disappears.’ Also, Ariana directly calls these people out again and their constant switch up in loving/hating her, by sharing ‘Monday, I got you all over me/You love me like ecstasy/Make me see colors I haven’t seen for a while/But Friday, you’re suddenly ghosting me/My wisdom has fled the scene/My voice plays in a taxi passing by/You don’t deserve me/You know you don’t, you never have/But I want you to feel me (I want you to feel me)/I wish someone could hear me.’
Same thing happens in the powerful R&B track, ‘Like I Do.’ Ariana here constantly calls out the haters, the fake fans, by telling them simply and plainly that she profits off their hate and doesn’t care about what they think anymore: ‘Keep my heels tall, my ego small/But I’m still Grande (Ah, ah, ah, ah)/I’m making cents off of your nonsense (Ah, ah, ah, ah)/All that shit talk keeps me well-fed (Ah, ah, ah, ah)/Through thick and thin, you’re so locked in (Ah, ah, ah, ah)/You hate to love me (Ah, ah, ah, ah).’ The chorus is an additional call out to them as she plainly tells them that she notices these same people that criticize her come to see her, by saying, ‘Extra, extra, buy one, take me/Sexy how you come to see, it’s true/You need me like I you (Mm-mm)’Cause no one fucks you like I do (Oh yeah).’ She is simply telling them they are fans also, in a way, since they have so much time to criticize her and still be first in line at every show. Fantastic job, Ariana, I am GAGGED.
In ‘Never Get Over Me,’ Ariana shifts the focus back for a second to her exes, who have made her now realize how toxic they truly were, as now she clearly understands her worth. These people are only remembered for being her exes and truly nothing else, as she sort of criticizes them, in a way, believing they have only used her for fame. She is now focusing on herself rather than them, and she is realizing how much of an impact she truly is. In lines such as, ‘Come slip into something real/And you’ll never get over me/Then somehow every ex (Ex), disappears (Yeah-yeah), oh/The vision is crystal clear/No, you’ll never get over me, yeah-yeah-yeah (Oh, baby),’ she uses specific wording meant to show that now she has matured and has a different perspective of love, being self-assured and focusing on herself first, but also being a loving and healthy relationship. She doesn’t depend on the man she is dating anymore; she is focused on what she truly wants first and foremost.
In ‘Bad Thing (Bunny Hop),’ To me, Ariana recalls her past songs ‘Bad Decisions,’ ‘Bad Idea,’ with this one, and shows how she is now focusing on her current healthy relationship, as she clearly tells her lover that she realized it’s always been him all this time. This is seen in the second verse of the song: ‘Yeah, I like your butterflies/Thе kind you’ve been making with your hands/Yeah, I can see them finally/Can’t bеlieve they’ve been right there/You know you make a real good boyfriend/In my dreams, and in real life/Meet you by the staircase where we fell in love, let’s do it twice.’
In the last song of the album, ‘Nowhere, Nobody,’ Ariana is talking for her own self one last time, saying goodbye to the public and her fans. She is saying gently to herself and everyone that she is tired of running from the constant criticism she has always received, and will embrace everything she has endured, as she is now choosing to say something like, ‘stop running, and accept everything that comes with all the experiences that I have gone through.’ She realizes that inner peace doesn’t come from trying to run away from her trauma and criticism; it comes with sitting down (this symbolizes her taking a break) and reflecting with them in mind. This is seen
You can still catch Ariana on her Eternal Sunshine Tour till the end of August, if you’d like, and still have the emotional maturity to understand her decision, by carefully listening to this album and embracing what she truly wants to say to everyone. Thank you, Ariana, for a masterpiece like this.
