If you want to see what happens when creativity and commerce collide, Ariana Grande has provided some insight in the form of a ‘behind-the-scenes’ video that shows her playing back tracks from Eternal Sunshine, her forthcoming album, to her record label.
Sadly, we don’t get to hear any of these beyond Yes, And?, Grande’s recent single - all song titles and snippets are bleeped or edited out - but we do get some reaction from the ‘suits’ after they’ve heard what the star has been up to.
“I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s fucking brilliant,” says one. “I know between you and Max [Martin] it’ll just be perfect. Vocals are great, the changes, the tempos, the house music of it, then there’s a little R&B. It’s really kind of… it’s you! It’s like an elevated version of all the albums that you did before like Sweetener meets kind of Thank U, Next.”
For an artist, it looks like quite an awkward situation to be in but, faced with a phalanx of crescent of record company types, Grande seems pretty comfortable with the situation.
Inevitably, there’s talk about potential singles, and everyone seems pretty enthusiastic about what they’re hearing. That said, it seems unlikely that Grande’s label would walk into a meeting with their prized asset and tell them that they don’t like their new material, and if they had, we’re guessing we wouldn’t ever get to hear about it.
This isn’t the first studio footage that Grande has shared in the run-up to the release of Eternal Sunshine on 8 March. She previously uploaded clips of her recording vocals with Max Martin, which also involved her showing him the Pro Tools Playlist keyboard shortcuts.
In other news, lead single Yes, And? Continues to evolve with new remixes by The Blessed Madonna, Jonas Blue and Felix Jaehn, and there’s also an alternate version that features vocals from none other than Mariah Carey.
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