As one of the most recognizable celebrities on the planet, Ariana Grande goes to great lengths to shield herself from the public. She often cycles through different disguises based on her work or latest relationship.
The success of Wicked and Wicked: For Good gifted Grande with a Glinda-sized bubble of insulation. Playing a friendly pink princess sanitized Grande’s otherwise explicit musical image from fans.
With Petal, her first release since the twin Wicked films, the bubble has burst.
By their very nature, bubbles are fragile things. And some worry that Grande, too, is fragile. There’s been online concern for Grande as fans and critics alike parse her weight, her apparent health issues and the mental harm that prior relationships may have caused her. Plugged In recently wrote a blog about the issues surrounding that scrutiny—a scrutiny that’s grown so intense that Grande herself has decided to withdraw—just as Petal arrives.
For now, she’ll let her album do the talking. And boy, does it have a lot to say.
Grande spends most of Petal with condescending speech towards fans and former lovers (there’s little difference in her mind) who don’t get her.
She claims to have found the “petal in the pavement,” but this brisk collection does little to convince listeners there’s something beautiful in this brokenness.
Petal follows Grande’s public divorce and details her doubts about romance and self-worth. She finds a few moments of positive reflection on tracks such as “hate that i made you love me.” (All of the album’s tracks feature a lowercased style.)
Grande’s regret at giving her heart away boils over as she sings, “I hate that I made you love me.” She shows she’s remorseful at forcing someone into a love they never wanted while also realizing that a relationship isn’t her salvation.
On “nowhere, nobody” she admits that there are “voices in my head trying to swallow me” but she’s “alright/been holding hands with so much complexity.”
The album’s titular song, “petal,” literalizes Grande’s heel turn towards her fans and the public at large. She declares herself stuck in a “f—-ed situation” as all of her “favorite stories end in catastrophe.”
“petal’s” music video is an inappropriate, visceral short film where Grande undergoes several auditions for the fictional role of a pop star. Each time, she changes her look based on feedback from talent agents before they eventually tell her to go back to the old Ariana Grande. Her response? A dramatic, gory shift to murdering several people via chainsaw, which leaves Grande covered in blood.
The upsetting song and music video conclude on a note of defiance as she sings, “I am not a victim, b—/I’m practically drowning in my blessings.”
“stay” is an emotional plea for someone to save Grande from herself as she looks for love in all the wrong places. She wonders, “Can you keep me safe this time?” before admitting she already knows the answer.
“oh well” is a flippant response to emotional turmoil as she concludes the best way to deal with her relationship problems is to “throw a Band-Aid on my whole d— life.”
“freak” contains a veiled reference to suicide as she wonders and threatens what it would be like to start over—not just regarding a troublesome relationship, but with her whole life.
The track “big feelings” endorses sex as the antidote to pain as Grande wallows in her own despair. She sings, “Come swim in these waters/I’ve been told I have healing properties.” Those properties? Something like, “sex bout to make a grown man cry” and other sexually explicit acts.
“like i do” continues the vulgar sexual imagery as she’s in the midst of a breakup and attempts to convince her lover to stay with her simply because no one else “f— you like I do.”
On “kiss me,” Grande reveals her desperation for her relationship to last. She takes a dark turn as she sings, “Give me something to love/Something just to obsess me/It’s do or die, bring me to life.”
Across Petal there are several references to karma and zodiac signs as well as drugs such as ecstasy. Similar to past Grande albums, Petal contains plenty of profanity such as f-words, s-words, and uses of d–n and b–ch.
What isn’t so apparent from simply reading these lyrics is Grande’s rage throughout Petal. Accompanied by a whirlwind of drums and distorted bass, Grande’s voice reaches a biting snarl as often as her signature, intimate high-pitched breaths.
Her relationship to stardom continues to morph. Grande indicates that the all-consuming pact with her fans has soured as much as it has with her ex-boyfriends. Yet the sparse moments of introspection provide hope there’s still something worth salvaging in Grande’s journey.
Unfortunately, Grande’s own insecurities overshadow her hope and threaten to push her towards relying on sex appeal and self-sabotage over an authentic relationship.
Grande has repeatedly bloomed and wilted her fair share throughout her career. Even as she searches for the next flower to grow, the scars of her toxic approach to love sadly choke out any sign of life.
Jackson Greer is a High School English Teacher in the suburbs of Texas. He lives in Coppell, Texas with his wife, Clara. They love debating whether or not to get another cat and reading poetry together. Also, he is a former employee of Focus on the Family’s Parenting Department.
