Ariana Grande
My Everything

This two-thousand-fourteen still in progress seems to have finally clarified one thing: there is no more room for the pop veterans in the charts and in the hearts of the renewed audience. And if there is a slim spot, it is fleeting or pointless for a positive future aftermath. Snubbed, vulgarly labeled as old and decayed, harshly rebuked by prudes due to excessively revealing outfits and retro frivolities no longer tolerable, removed from radio schedules because they are incompatible with the teen-friendly target that does not accept over-40 hip shaking, the 80s and 90s Divas are raising the white flag in front of the advance of the new generation. Newcomers who - paradoxically - draw everything from the pop teachings of their predecessors, including scandals and mini-scandals, new booty-shaking in twerk sauce, cannabis anthems, and giant sausages on stage. Let's take a brief overview of such decline: in March Kylie Minogue churns out Kiss Me Once and for the first time in decades she does not hit a top ten in the beloved UK (not to mention failing to win over the USA audience once more, despite relying on the very American Roc Nation management by Jay-Z); in May, Mariah Carey miserably fails the arduous task of climbing back up with Me. I Am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse; finally, at the dawn of summer and beach hits, Jennifer Lopez’s A.K.A. goes straight into the flop bin, including the spicy cover and yet another duet with Pitbull, Booty, which - surprise, surprise - celebrates booty shaking, a trend initiated by Miley Cyrus and currently in vogue with Nicki Minaj's Anaconda.

I would like to now focus on Mariah Carey's trajectory, a character that connects with the subject under review and introduces it perfectly. I suppose everyone knows her, once reigning supreme on the m-biz Olympus with Vision of Love, Hero and Without You, and who underwent (or rather self-inflicted) the debated metamorphosis into a plastic-like and ultra-glittery diva at the end of the nineties, coinciding with the matrimonial and creative divorce from Tommy Mottola and Columbia. It is the stubbornness in wanting to maintain at all costs the aura of Ms. Perfection - complete with questionable fitness squeezed into XXS outfits - that might explain the sad fate of Elusive Chanteuse. Let it be clear, we are not talking about a Vision of Love part two, nearly a quarter-century into her career, yet the classic lineup of rappers is now absent, and tracks like You Don't Know What To Do, Make It Look Good, Faded and The Art of Letting Go brighten the skies marred by a faux-ghetto aura. Unfortunately, all this was not enough in face of the Diva’s inability to be less of a Diva: a good album remains thrown to the winds and a team of graphic designers not even capable of using Paint properly (see the blatant face copy-paste in the single cover You Don't Know What To Do). The great pop personalities crumble, the net overflows with skirmishes and schizophrenic catfights to name an heir (Will Madonna "crown" Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna or whom?) and meanwhile, we savor Miley Cyrus's radical-porn performances at the Video Music Awards. The Old ones in retirement, the Young ones on the runway. But is it all to be blamed?

I had the chance to approach the persona of Ariana Grande, born in '93, of Sicilian-Abruzzese origins, with a Nickelodeon background, with the debut of Yours Truly, one of the pop-mainstream works I consider among the most significant of the past year along with Electric by the Pet Shop Boys, the second round of 20/20 Experience by Timberlake and Beyoncé's self-titled. Listening to tracks like The Way, Baby I, Piano, You'll Never Know not only made me reconsider the value and artistic contribution of the new twenty-somethings (that is, it's not just Justin Bieber, Miley, and post-Disney twerk antics) but made me think of the simple, natural, fresh, healthy, and sober atmospheres of what was the Carey of the 90-99 period, a persona from whom Ariana surely draws nourishment and inspiration even without plagiarisms, and supposed ones at that. R&B-Soul in a pop stew just like Hero, Vision of Love, Honey, Fantasy, Someday and Emotions, warm and enveloping voice, simple and balanced personality: the ideal mix to take on the role of a fallen myth forgotten.

My Everything marks for Grande the leap to the challenging step of the second album (in a period where success is terribly volatile and lasts the time of a viral hit like Happy or Gangnam Style), a step which is filled with a slight shift from pure R&B-Soul towards more pop, jaunty, and radio-friendly places, albeit consistent with the soul-friendly path à la Mariah. Ariana then enlists five-star producers and chooses to embrace lively, hip-hop friendly, and slightly danceable sounds that - fortunately - do not surrender 100% to electronic deviations. In addition, a group of colleagues and peers hop on the innocent carousel of the former Nickelodeon starlet, contributing (as in the case of the masterful The Weekend) to producing tracks of exquisite quality.

Ariana Grande’s new deal is inaugurated with the hyper-spirited Problem, a hip-pop mixed with funky saxophone in duet with Australian Iggy Azalea, followed by the tribal synth of One More Try, the "military" ballad Why Try and Break Free, the only eurodance slip of the project. Overcoming the "nightclub" setback, we immediately recover with the dark-dreamy hues of Best Mistake, the retro saga and - none other than - Mariah-inspired Be My Baby and especially the masterpiece of Love Me Harder, an electro-R&B idyll comparable to Do What U Want by Lady Gaga and R. Kelly. The hip hop uptempo with an oriental touch Hands On Me, the superb soul funky combo Bang Bang (with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj) and the basic Only 1, particularly 90s friendly, close the album.

Ariana Grande mostly keeps the valuable promises of Yours Truly. Pop, R&B, a veil of electronics, youthful soul, and genuinely post-adolescent soul abound. No twerking, no flirting, room for the beautiful voice. Could Mariah (the one from the early days, to be clear) find solace in a twenty-five-year career of chiaroscuro?

Ariana Grande, My Everything

Intro - Problem - One Last Time - Why Try - Break Free - Best Mistake - Be My Baby - Break Your Heart Right Back - Love Me Harder - Just A Little Bit Of Your Heart - Hands On Me - My Everything - Bang Bang - Only 1 - You Don't Know Me