What Happened To The Butterflies?

Ariana Grande “Honeymoon Avenue”

Wow, this is just an exquisitely crafted pop song. The raw songwriting is fantastic – I love the way it cycles through three discrete hooks as the chorus escalates – but the arrangement really puts it over the top. It’s one of those songs where there’s always something new to catch your ear or change the dynamic, but it’s restrained enough so that it’s not overwhelming or obnoxious. It’s also not especially weird – there are some very interesting and unusual structural choices, but the producers knew exactly where the song ought to be direct and conventional. Ariana Grande’s performance is excellent too – she sings like a baby Mariah in the best possible way, with a voice that can effortlessly hit ecstatic heights, but is nuanced enough to get across a lot of emotional shading in phrasing lines that would otherwise be sort of banal.

Buy it from Amazon.