thank u, next, Ariana Grande's fifth album, arrived on Monday (February 11), just five months after Sweetener. Pitchfork's review describes these songs of affirmation as lighter, freer and more fun, carried effortlessly by Grande's voice.

For the review, Sweetener worked as a bridge: a post-tragedy assertion of survival and strength after the 2017 attack at the Manchester stop of her Dangerous Woman Tour. The new record feels like the deliverance that follows that catharsis.

The title track, released ahead of the album, became the centre of the campaign and helped turn the singer's public grief into pop material. The result, according to the review, sounds lighter precisely because it does not try to hide what came before.