{"id":23758,"date":"2026-08-01T01:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23758"},"modified":"2026-08-01T01:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:21:22","slug":"ariana-grandes-petal-never-fully-blooms-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=23758","title":{"rendered":"Ariana Grande&#8217;s petal Never Fully Blooms: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ariana-Grande.jpeg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"1615237\" data-title=\"Ariana Grande\u2019s petal Never Fully Blooms: Review\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/ariana-grande-petal-album-review\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/ariana-grande\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ariana Grande<\/a> knows how cruel the world can be. \u201cSociety desperate for remedy\/ Empathy, fix this reality,\u201d she declares on \u201ckiss me,\u201d the sprawling opener of her eight studio album, <em>petal<\/em>. It\u2019s no surprise Grande adopted this philosophy \u2013 love as the cure for a rotting world \u2013 given everything she\u2019s been through: most notably, a terrorist attack during the \u201cDangerous Woman Tour\u201d in 2017 and the death of her long-term partner, rapper Mac Miller, a year and some change later. More recently, she\u2019s experienced scrutiny from a parasocial public, with many questioning her dalliances with various <em>Wicked<\/em> co-stars and taking issue \u2013 or concern (if you can even call it that) \u2013 with her increasingly gaunt appearance. That\u2019s a lot for one person to handle.<\/p>\n<p>But, in true pop star fashion, Grande uses her greatest gift \u2013 music \u2013 to nurse her wounds. Her last effort, the celestial <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2024\/03\/ariana-grande-eternal-sunshine-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>eternal sunshine<\/em><\/a>, saw Grande deploy her post-<em>Sweetener<\/em> blend of lo-fi R&amp;B and pop to express her woes. Now, her sadness has hardened to \u201can unfiltered rage.\u201d On <em>petal<\/em>, Grande triangulates grievances with her celebrity, the press, and lovers past, all while proving she\u2019s still got a few more stylistic circles to square. She\u2019s admittedly gone a bit \u201cferal,\u201d and her newfound experimentation is surprisingly ear-catching, though at times disappointingly pussyfooted, especially when paired with clumsy lyricism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vivid-seats.pxf.io\/c\/1882189\/952533\/12730?subId1=ariana-grande%2Apetal-review-button&amp;subId2=&amp;subId3=&amp;sharedid=&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vividseats.com%2Fariana-grande-tickets%2Fperformer%2F29081\" class=\"button button-ticket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Find Last-Minute Arian Grande Tickets Here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Take that opener, \u201ckiss me,\u201d whose clunky percussive hits and distorted synth crashes make the perfect apocalypse-now type atmosphere for Grande to get all existential over. That same abrasiveness is found on \u201cpetal,\u201d a progressive-waltz whose time changes mirror its lyrical ambivalence. Here, she questions the age old notion that great art can only come from suffering. (\u201cTake your broken heart, make it into art,\u201d as the late Carrie Fisher said). \u201cLong as she gets the ovation each night\/ Heartbreak won\u2019t bit\u0435, this is paradise,\u201d Grande sings. It\u2019s a delicate balance every artist faces, one Grande has become accustomed to. At what point does offering up the most intimate, vulnerable parts of oneself to a hungry audience become too heavy a burden to bear? Is the solution to completely detach as to not feel anything at all? Or to keep pushing the bad feelings down?<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>She explores the latter on the UK garage-tinged \u201coh well\u201d: \u201cI play all the parts that I\u2019m supposed to, right?\/ And I just throw a band-aid on my whole damn life.\u201d In the end, she retraces that earlier philosophy, that love is all she needs. \u201cThere\u2019s no more running\/ And there\u2019s nowhere with nobody else that I\u2019d rather be,\u201d she sings on album closer \u201cnowhere, nobody,\u201d her deep admiration for Imogen Heap bursting through as her voice turns crystalline in the chorus.<\/p>\n<p>Grande kept a tight ensemble of collaborators this go-around. The entire album was co-written and executive produced by herself and Ilya Salmanzadeh. Max Martin was tapped for lead single \u201chate that i made you love me\u201d and two other tracks, but <em>petal<\/em> presents a largely singular Grande. (It was even her first album to be released through her own imprint label, Babydoll Music, a subsidiary of Republic Records.) The lack of outside voices gave Grande the creative clearance to go \u201cfuck it\u201d and explore arenas she was \u201ctoo shy or polite to tap into before.\u201d The autobiography works best when Grande just talks her shit.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ariana Grande - petal (official music video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/afSgBNwmZrQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>She harnesses a <em>Positions<\/em>-era horniness at times, like when she brags that her nether regions possess enough power to make a grown man cry on \u201cbig feelings,\u201d a track that deserves a better melody and metaphor than its title, or just how unforgettable those same nether regions are on \u201cnever get over me,\u201d the type of R&amp;B\/pop romp Grande could conjure in her sleep.<\/p>\n<p>Other times, though, Grande\u2019s pen is more limited than lucid, so much so that the left-of-center production choices feel like wasted potential. \u201cstay\u201d is so full of lyrical and melodic platitudes that the electronic beeps and bops in the background sound like they got lost on their way to a better track. \u201clike i do\u201d glides with a dirtier iteration of a <em>thank you, next<\/em> trap beat but is marred with eye-roll inducing one-liners: \u201cmy ego small\/ but I\u2019m still Grande\u201d (a low-hanging-fruit play on her surname\u2019s proper pronunciation) and \u201cI\u2019m making cents off of your nonsense,\u201d to name a few. To be fair, there is one eye-widening line where Grande boasts being a source of inspiration for an ex man\u2019s new girl\u2026 whoever that may be. Lead single \u201chate that i made you love me\u201d continues in the vein of <em>eternal sunshine<\/em>\u2019s \u201cwe can\u2019t be friends (wait for your love)\u201d by taking shots at an overbearing press; now, however, the message trumps the medium as Grande employs aimless synth sparks and a tepid drum pattern to lament her relationship with celebrity.<\/p>\n<p>Grande sold this album as angrier and darker than her past work. Though her lyrics glean something weightier, her waifish vocal performance makes the aforementioned \u201cunfiltered rage\u201d hard to buy. \u201cwarning signs (interlude)\u201d broods as Grande laments a lover (or audience?) who ignores her pleading cries. The eery, electronic production crescendos, but Grande\u2019s voice remains static until the very end when her voice, too, turns computerized \u2013 but only for a second. Even when she\u2019s not selling anger, Grande\u2019s voice leaves much to be desired, and it\u2019s quite a shame since she\u2019s shown her expansive vocal capabilities many times before. It\u2019s especially unfortunate on \u201cbad thing (bunny hop),\u201d an Olivia Rodrigo-style track that chronicles the early push and pull of a messy attraction. It would\u2019ve been better bought if Grande\u2019s voice wasn\u2019t drowned out by the pop-rock production.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps in this latest evolution of Ariana Grande, the pop star has found strength in softness. She dons a notably lighter voice as an act of vocal preservation, utilizing it even to shut down the discourse about her body. It\u2019s that quiet authority that permeates the high points of <em>petal<\/em>. She\u2019s not reinventing any sort of wheel, nor has she marked a benchmark in her pop canon. What she has done, however, is plant creative seeds that could be paths to new sonic landscapes should she let them bloom. Most importantly, Grande has given us a glimpse into how she\u2019s feeling now and the type of whispery yet grounded presence she prefers, one that\u2019s brave enough \u2013 and vulnerable enough \u2013 to use petals for armor.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stream Ariana Grande\u2019s Petals in Hi-Res <a href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=33441&amp;awinaffid=454749&amp;clickref2=https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/ariana-grande-petal-album-review&amp;clickref3=&amp;clickref4=Music%20Reviews,Music,Reviews%7CPop%7Cariana-grande&amp;clickref=ariana-grande-petal&amp;clickref2=album-review&amp;ued=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.qobuz.com%2Falbum%2Ftyx5jpmnacu5o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Qobuz<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.qobuz.com\/album\/tyx5jpmnacu5o?zone=US-en&amp;campaign=%7BConsequence%7D\" width=\"100%\" height=\"390\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ariana Grande knows how cruel the world can be. \u201cSociety desperate for remedy\/ Empathy, fix this reality,\u201d she declares on \u201ckiss me,\u201d the sprawling opener of her eight studio album, petal. It\u2019s no surprise Grande adopted this philosophy \u2013 love as the cure for a rotting world \u2013 given everything she\u2019s been through: most notably,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ariana-Grande.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}