My Everything (Ariana Grande album)
My Everything is the second studio album by American singer Ariana Grande, released on August 22, 2014, by Republic Records. In the album's production, Grande worked with a host of producers and co-writers, including Max Martin, Shellback, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Darkchild, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Zedd, and David Guetta.
My Everything
August 22, 2014
October 2013 – May 2014
- Burbank, California (Glenwood Palace)
- Los Angeles (Chalice Recording, Conway Recording, Larrabee North, London Bridge, Record Plant, Vietom, Wake Up Work)
- Santa Monica, California (Hollywood, Zedd1)
- Denver, Colorado (Patriot Studios)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (Studio at the Palms)
- New York City (Matzah Ball, Doe Studios)
- Stockholm, Sweden (Wolf Cousins, Kinglet, P.S Studios)
- London, UK (Metropolis)
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Grande sought for My Everything to sound as "an evolution" from her debut album Yours Truly (2013); exploring more mature and diverse lyrical content and musical styles. Primarily a pop and R&B record, My Everything expands on the 1990s retro-R&B style of its predecessor, while also approaching new genres such as EDM, electropop and dance-pop. Iggy Azalea, Zedd, Big Sean, Cashmere Cat, Childish Gambino, The Weeknd and A$AP Ferg make guest appearances on My Everything, as well as Jessie J and Nicki Minaj on the deluxe edition.
My Everything debuted atop the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States, selling 169,000 copies in its first week, marking Grande's second consecutive chart-topper in the US. It was later certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and was listed as one of the most popular albums of 2014, 2015 and the 2010s on the Billboard 200. The album debuted at number one in Australia and Canada as well, and peaked in the top ten of twenty countries worldwide. It received generally favorable reviews from music critics, appearing in year-end best-music lists of 2014. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in 2015, My Everything was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album.
My Everything was supported by five singles; all of which reached global success. The lead single, "Problem", broke numerous digital sales records upon release, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. The second single, "Break Free", reached number four in the United States. The following single, "Bang Bang", peaked at number three in the US and topped charts internationally. The fourth and fifth singles, "Love Me Harder" and "One Last Time", peaked at numbers seven and thirteen, respectively, with the latter reaching number two in the United Kingdom. Aided by My Everything's singles, Grande attained the most top ten hits for any artist in 2014 on the Hot 100. To further support the album, Grande embarked on the Honeymoon Tour in 2015.
Music and lyrics
My Everything is a pop-R&B album.[20] It revisits the '90s retro-R&B style present in Grande's debut album Yours Truly: Annie Zaleski from The A.V. Club, described the album as a "slick throwback to melodramatic '80s and '90s pop."[21] The album's tracks include EDM, hip hop tunes and piano-driven ballads.[20][22] The album opens with "Intro", in which Grande addresses her fans: "I'll give you all I have and nothing less, I promise".[23] The second track is the lead single "Problem", an uptempo dance-pop song influenced by R&B,[24][25] jazz, hip hop and funk.[25][26] Rap-Up described the track as an "infectious horn-heavy jam" that features a "carefree" Grande "declaring her independence". It includes "an empowering verse from Iggy Azalea and a whispering Big Sean on the hook."[27] "One Last Time" is a dance-pop and EDM-light song.[28][29] The album continues with "Why Try", co-written and co-produced by Ryan Tedder and Benny Blanco and features the lyrics "Now we're screaming just to see who's louder".[20] Some critics expressed an opinion that the song has a similar composition with Beyoncé's "XO" (2013; also produced by Tedder).[30]
The following track is the EDM song "Break Free".[31] The song combines the EDM and electro genres.[32][33] In an interview with Billboard, Grande described the song as "fantastic and super-experimental for [her]" and stated: "I never thought I'd do an EDM song, but that was an eye-opening experience, and now all I want to do is dance."[7] The album's first of three ballads, "Best Mistake", features Big Sean. Billboard described it as "A moody ballad that grows stickier upon each listen, "Best Mistake" carries a tidy collection of impressive production details, the momentary string stabs among them".[20] Musically, it is a minimal hip-hop piano ballad lament that utilizes instrumentation from strings and a drum machine.[34] It tells a story about a couple trying to "make up their minds about the future of their relationship, with deep affection buried underneath their problems."[34][35][36] "Be My Baby" featuring Cashmere Cat is a "bouncy R&B jam".[37] The song was compared with Mariah Carey's songs.[38] The eighth track is "Break Your Heart Right Back", a R&B number featuring Childish Gambino. The song is about a cheating boyfriend, and samples Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out," including vocals and guitar.[37][38]
"Love Me Harder", featuring The Weeknd, is a mid-tempo synthpop and R&B song,[39][40][41] which starts small before its "'throbbing', electro-heavy chorus",[42] with a guitar riff,[43] while "big vacuum-esque synths zip" can be heard throughout the track.[44] Rob Copsey wrote for The Official Charts Company that the song reminded him of Drake at his most emotional.[42] Lyrically, the song has Grande demanding romantic satisfaction,[43] using double entendres about BDSM.[41] The track "Just a Little Bit of Your Heart" is the album's second ballad, co-written by Harry Styles.[20][45] Official Charts compared the eleventh track, "Hands on Me", featuring ASAP Ferg, with Rihanna's "Cockiness (Love It)" (2012) and Azalea's "Fancy" (2014).[45] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard described "Hands on Me" as "an out-of-left-field banger that removes Grande from her teenybopper phase and finds the 21-year-old discovering her inner Rihanna with lines."[20] The title track "My Everything" concludes the standard edition of the album on a somber note, recalling "Intro", and concerns Grande's struggles to regain the solid footing she once had with her partner.[34]
The first bonus track on deluxe edition, "Bang Bang", featuring Jessie J and Nicki Minaj is an up-tempo, "soulful" song that features a "clap-heavy" production built over "big bouncy beats and horn blasts".[46][47] The next track was described by Billboard as "short, snappy and sumptuous, 'Only 1' is a light confection that succeeds due to its busy, intricate percussion".[20] The deluxe edition of My Everything concludes with the track "You Don't Know Me".
Commercial performance
On August 27, Billboard reported that My Everything would sell over 160,000 copies in its first week.[107] My Everything officially debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 169,000 copies in its first week.[108] By doing so, Grande attained her second consecutive number-one album in the country, becoming the first female artist to have her first two albums debut at number one since Scottish singer Susan Boyle did it with I Dreamed a Dream (2009) and The Gift (2010).[108] The album has sold 759,000 copies in the United States as of April 2018.[74] In March 2016, the RIAA certified the album double platinum, for combined album sales, on-demand audio, video streams, track sales equivalent of two million album-equivalent units. In Japan, My Everything remained atop the iTunes Store chart for nine weeks, thus earning Grande the longest at number one in 2014, breaking the previous record held by Frozen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.[109]
In 2015, My Everything was ranked as the 17th most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200.[110]
Notes
Sample credits