When Ariana Grande releases an album, it rarely arrives in a vacuum. Coming off her lauded performances as Glinda in both Wicked films, petal is her first full-length album since 2024’s eternal sunshine. In the time since, conversations around her acting career, appearance, and public relationships have often overshadowed the music itself. Much like Taylor Swift, Ariana has reached a level of fame where separating the artist from the art feels nearly impossible. Going into petal, I tried to tune all of that out and simply listen.
Ariana remains one of pop’s most gifted vocalists, and her chemistry with longtime collaborators Max Martin and Ilya is undeniable. Every song feels meticulously crafted, weaving together shimmering synth-pop, glossy R&B, theatrical flourishes, and the stacked harmonies that have become her trademark. While eternal sunshine continued her evolution as a pop artist, I kept coming back to the emotional honesty of Sweetener and thank u, next. As beautiful as petal sounds, I rarely felt like I was learning anything new about Ariana herself.
The orchestral opener “Kiss Me” quickly gives way to a futuristic, almost industrial beat, while Ariana delivers one of the album’s strongest melodies with the refrain, “kiss me like you know this is goodbye.” Layered harmonies throughout remind you why few artists arrange vocals quite like she does.
Lead single “hate that i made you love me” has only grown on me since its release. It’s easily the album’s biggest pop moment, and I think it was the perfect introduction to the era. While listeners will inevitably connect it to Ariana’s recent relationships, I tried not to get caught up in that. The Christian Breslauer-directed video, co-starring Justin Long, leans fully into campy horror before revealing itself to be a movie within a movie, making for one of Ariana’s most entertaining visuals in years.
The title track, “petal,” pairs plucky production that immediately reminded me of “7 rings” with a darker, theatrical atmosphere. Breslauer’s accompanying video places Ariana in an audition room where she’s molded into exactly who “they” want her to be through callbacks to earlier eras of her career. Its bloody climax reads as a tongue-in-cheek rejection of the expectations that have followed her throughout it all.
Elsewhere, petal settles into an impressively cohesive groove. “oh well” unpacks dysfunction and obsession, “big feelings” delivers the warm R&B Ariana has always excelled at, and “freak” introduces shimmering guitar before “warning Signs” darkens the mood. They’re all enjoyable listens, but it’s also where I found myself craving more emotional specificity. Everything sounds immaculate, yet much of the album’s middle begins to blur together.
“like I do” delivers some of Ariana’s boldest lyrics in years, culminating in the eyebrow-raising declaration, “no one fucks you like I do.” It’s cheeky, dramatic, and immediately brought me back to the playful confidence of “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.”
By the time “never get over me” arrives, I found myself wishing for just a little more vulnerability. It’s undeniably catchy, buoyed by bright piano and another effortless vocal performance, but compared to the emotional transparency that once defined Ariana’s songwriting, it feels intentionally guarded.
Thankfully, the album saves its biggest surprise for the end. “bad thing (bunny hop)” is my favorite song here by a mile. The opening instrumentation genuinely made me sit up in my chair, and from that point forward, the track never loses momentum. It’s adventurous, dynamic, and exactly the kind of sonic risk-taking I’d love to hear Ariana lean into more often. Closing track “nowhere, nobody” provides a gentle landing, its guitar outro serving as a fitting curtain call.
petal may not hit me as deeply as Ariana Grande’s best work, but that’s only because she’s set the bar so high. The production is immaculate, the vocals remain among the best in pop, and the album is remarkably cohesive from beginning to end. It may not reveal a dramatically new side of Ariana, but it’s another reminder that few artists make polished pop music quite like she can.
petal is out now.
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