Album Review : Yours Truly - Ariana Grande

It goes without saying that Ariana Grande has an outstanding voice which has often seen her compared to the diva that is Mariah Carey, and after hearing her first two singles the comparisons only grew stronger. So I was interested to see how Ariana would showcase her individuality on her debut album, Yours Truly, and separate herself from her idol.

The album opens with a stunning R'n'B ballad titled, 'Honeymoon Avenue', where Ariana can show off her extensive vocal range but, even more importantly, the lyrics are far more mature than anything we have heard from her before. This is followed by her new single, 'Baby I' (which I have written a post on) and a pleasantly surprising collaboration with Big Sean which, although sounds quite similar to her debut single, is a great uptempo track.
Then Ariana breaks out another ballad with 'Tattooed Heart' and it's the only song on the album that I am not particularly a fan of. Once again, the lyrics are mature and heartbreaking and beautifully executed with her powerful voice; however, I found it a bit dull and repetitive after two minutes.
Luckily, Miss Grande saves herself with the next track which is my favourite on the album, the aptly entitled 'Lovin' It'. It's an extremely catchy R'n'B song with a lot of mainstream potential and it's the first time on the album that Arianas vocals are matched with a strong production rather than being out-shined by it.
Another highlight of the album is track ten which features Nathan Sykes from The Wanted and it has already gained popularity commercially over the last couple of weeks. It's a huge ballad that showcases Ariana at her best and reminds us why she could be as great as Mariah given the right material.

Overall, the album didn't disappoint. The vocals were as perfect as I expected and the production was satisfactory but what surprised me the most was how well Ariana manoeuvred between uptempo and ballads without losing her way.
 A lot of vocally gifted female singers such as Mariah, Whitney and Christina, have many a times been criticised for being incapable of having a fair balance between ballads and uptempo songs as they rely heavily on their strong and moving vocals.
Ariana doesn't seem to be flawed in this sense because she offers a lot of variety on this album from dance to pop to R'n'B all whilst keeping her composure and holding her own within every genre.
For this matter, I applaud her efforts on her debut CD and look forward to hearing her future music projects.

4.5/5