Fans should probably always be thankful for the breakups, because they’re always the starting point for good albums.
After Ariana Grande’s divorce, music lovers immediately look forward to the album
From Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, history has seen countless classic albums come from… divorces .
To this day, from Shakira to Adele, every time someone breaks up, fans wait: When will they release a new album? And the same goes for Ariana Grande .
The “impeachment” of the ex
In 2021, Ariana Grande got married, and since then has not released another studio album, until this year, right after getting out of her marriage with Dalton Gomez, the singer immediately “took the opportunity” to release Eternal Sunshine, which immediately became a phenomenon upon its release, becoming the best-selling album of 2024 to date.
The title is clearly influenced by director Michel Gondry’s classic breakup film, Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind, about a couple who, after breaking up, buy a service that completely erases their memories of their love.
Eternal Sunshine – on the contrary – is Ariana Grande’s way of preserving the bitter aftertaste of marriage, sometimes she even uses her music as an “indictment” of her ex.
There are all the nuances of a breakup in Eternal Sunshine, from sleepless nights, failed attempts to communicate with the other person, the pain of realizing you’ve been betrayed, to the feeling of pity when seeing your ex’s shoes still in the box.
Or even further, the outrage at the media speculation about the cause of the breakup as if they were lying under their beds.
Though the lyrics often quickly become cliched and superficial, Ariana Grande’s impeccable belting and ever-so-smiling vocals give the album a richness of sound that perfectly captures the lingering pain of a breakup.
Is there free will?
After the post-breakup phase comes the post-post-breakup phase. Released shortly after Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine, Kacey Musgraves, a seven-time Grammy-winning country singer, released her album Deeper Well three years after her marriage ended.
Kacey Musgraves
No longer showing any traces of loneliness or regret like the time of the Star-crossed album, the current Kacey Musgraves has learned to love and find the meaning of life in simple truths.
Throughout the album, which flows like a dream, without climax, without drama, without aggression, Kacey Musgraves plays acoustic guitar and sings to us about what she found after returning to a state of balance. More than once she talks about the meaninglessness of money and fame:
“You can wear a gold watch on your wrist but it won’t give you back the lost time.”
No, where she finds paradise is in a meal with friends in a strange city, in a purple rose in a vase of water, in a cloudy Monday breakfast, in the song of the dense trees, or sometimes in a small apple.
“Even something as small as an apple is both simple and complex, sweet and divine, a perfect design. Can I talk to the architect who made it?” Musgraves writes on The Architect, Deeper Well’s most philosophical track.
A song that questions the arrangements of the stars, the arrangements of the supreme being, whether or not there is free will in man.
And all those confusing categories were explained by her very clearly and lucidly, because her mind was now completely calm.
If Eternal Sunshine is a pain reliever for those still traumatized by broken love, then Deeper Well is like a deep well leading us into another world richer than the world of love.
This world is broken, there is another world. Breaking up is not the end of the world. Whoever wants to be loved, will always find their place.
