Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next

2xLP on Black Vinyl Three months after the August 2018 release of Sweetener -- her fourth album, delivered in the wake of the 2017 tragedy at Manchester Arena -- Ariana Grande released "Thank U, Next," a clever pop song celebrating how each ex turned her into a better person. The refrain of "one taught me love, one taught me patience, and one taught me pain" quickly turned "Thank U, Next" into something more than a hit: it was a meme, eating up all the pop-cultural oxygen at the end of 2018, confirming Ariana Grande's position as the pre-eminent pop star of the moment. Like all defining pop stars, Grande's status derived in equal parts from her music and public persona, the latter shaped through the prism of tragedy -- not just the Manchester bombing, but the premature death of her ex Mac Miller -- and that collective consciousness lends weight to Thank U, Next, her swiftly delivered sequel to Sweetener, just as it did its predecessor. The difference with Thank U, Next is this time Gra