ARIANA GRANDE has built such a mighty pop legacy over the past decade as one of the most consistently kicky hitmakers around - but also as one of the weirdest minds in the game. 'Yes, And?' is her number one comeback, a disco rage-queen anthem that raises expectations for her long-awaited return, Eternal Sunshine. It's a brilliantly nasty manifesto to kick off the new Ariana era. She's just hit her thirties, wrapping up her Saturn return, and she's making music after a four-year layoff. But she's got some nonholistic shit to talk about to anyone gossiping about her between albums. "Don't comment on my body, do not reply," Ari sneers. "Your business is yours and mine is mine/ Why do you care so much whose dick I ride?"
Madonna, one of Grande's idols, is the guiding spirit of 'Yes, And?', which rides a 'Vogue'-style house beat. It's a clever salute to the queen, who invented this power move of reminding people how controversial you are by complaining how controversial you are. But it's also a spiritually perfect shout-out at a pivotal time for Grande. She's 30, around the age when Madonna made her big move into the future with Like a Prayer, the album that catapulted her into one of the most dizzyingly brilliant thirties any pop artist ever had. So for Grande to invoke 'Vogue', right from Madonna's change-of-decade moment, feels like a bold statement about her ambitions she wants to play in that historic league. Thirtysomething Madonna had it both ways: sophisticated mega-pop depth and disco bombast. Why shouldn't Ariana?
この記事は Rolling Stone UK の April/May 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Rolling Stone UK の April/May 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Sounding the Alert - The UK music industry is calling for the new Labour government to make essential changes to rescue British music - from halting the closure of venues to providing essential opportunities for new talent
To quote one Bob Dylan: "the times they are a-changin." After 14 years of Tory rule, 4 July saw a changing of the guard in British politics as Sir Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street to mark the start of a new Labour government and - according to the man himself - a decade of national renewal.Not that the result was ever in doubt, however. A cursory look at polls over the preceding year showed that a Labour landslide was very much on the cards, and it seemed like those aforementioned Dylan lyrics were about to ring true.
Staying Power- As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids
As they gave their first performance in the UK for five years, Rolling Stone UK caught up with Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, HAN, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, who together make up the record-breaking K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids. Here, they open up about the bonds they share between themselves and their devoted fans, as well as their common goal of super stardom
BACK TO THE GRIND
The Clipse broke up when a spiritual path called to one of the brothers from Virginia. Now, one of the greatest duos in rap returns
THE SCREAM QUEEN NEXT DOOR
In just a few short years, Hunter Schafer has gone from small-town North Carolina to global runways, Euphoria stardom, and her first lead role, in the horror flick Cuckoo
Together in Electronic Dreams
Raphaella Lima of video game publisher Electronic Arts brings music to her childhood love of gaming to spotlight many of the most exciting emerging acts of the past two decades in the hit football game EA SPORTS FC
JAMIE XX WAVE AFTER WAVE
Nine years after his decade-defining debut album In Colour, Jamie xx returns with In Waves, a darker and broodier follow-up that saw him fall back in love with making music
"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"
On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution
IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE
Confidence Man's Janet Planet and Sugar Bones go bigger and wilder than ever before on 3AM (LA LA LA), an album made about partying, while partying, and perfect for partying to
Collective consciousness
Ezra Collective return with Dance, No One's Watching, the roaring follow-up album to last year's boundary-moving Mercury Prize win
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Welsh techno-pop artist Kelly Lee Owens is the first signing to Dirty Hit's new dance label, dh2. She talks \"transcending my bullshit\" on the euphoric, thumping club tunes of fourth album, Dreamstate