On March 28th, Ariana Grande released the deluxe version of her 2024 album “Eternal Sunshine”. The new deluxe version has six new songs titled, “Intro (end of the world) – extended version”, “twilight zone”, “warm”, “dandelion”, “past life’, and “Hampstead”. Altogether, the album has 19 songs and is 55 minutes and 30 seconds long. Not only are there new songs, but there is also a short film tied to the album called “Brighter Days Ahead”.
The original Eternal sunshine is already a good pop album, but these next six songs can take it to another level. Songs like “Intro (end of the world)”, “I wish I hated you”, “Imperfect for you”, “ordinary things”, are songs that are filled with beautiful vocals and with personal lyrics. These songs capture the essence of the album and elevate it. Songs like “bye”, “don’t wanna break up again”, “eternal sunshine”, “supernatural”, “true story”, “the boy is mine”, “yes, and?”, and “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)”, gather more of the pop side of the album. For example, “yes, and?” has a vogue element to it and even had a remix with Mariah Carey. Supernatural also has a remix with Troye Sivan.
Upon first listening to the deluxe tracks, my ranking of them is:
- Hampstead
- past life
- Intro (end of the world) – extended version
- twilight zone
- dandelion
- Warm
Hampstead and past life are such beautiful songs that for me it did not feel right for them to ranked low on my list. Since these were my first impressions of the deluxe tracks, I must sit down and process them with more listens in the future. I really enjoyed the extended version of “Intro (end of the world)” more than I thought I would. This is because I had already listened to the song a lot on the original Eternal Sunshine so I did not think I could love it even more. The new lyrics she added made the song even better, a line that stood out to me was, “Would you still be here pretending you still like me? Pretending you don’t regret not thinking before asking.”
I quite like the intro to “dandelion”, but I need to sit with the song more, I feel the same way with “twilight zone” and “warm”. The vocals on the new songs are beautiful as always, and I feel as if these songs were a good addition to the album. The short film, “Brighter days ahead” which is connected to the album was good, and I enjoyed watching it.
The film follows the story of a woman named Peaches (played by Ariana Grande), who goes to Brighter days inc. To relive 4 memories in her life that shaped who she is today. After she views each memory, they get destroyed forever. In each memory, either a song from the original Eternal Sunshine gets played or one of the deluxe tracks. After Peaches sees all four memories, the short film ends and the credits roll. I really liked watching her memories and the film was well made. It is a wonderful way to end the Eternal Sunshine era. Overall, I really liked the new songs, and the film tied to it.