Ariana Grande - Positions

Arriving in October 2020 with barely three weeks of notice, Positions is Ariana Grande's most relaxed record. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sent the title track straight to the top of the Hot 100, but the album itself feels less concerned with singles than anything she had made to that point.

The sound is R&B first, pop second, with strings arranged across almost every track and tempos that rarely rise above a saunter. "34+35" is the joke everyone remembers, but "Six Thirty," "Love Language," and "My Hair" are the record's real center, all built on the kind of layered background vocals that Grande stacks better than anyone working. "Off The Table" brings The Weeknd back for a duet about grief and hesitancy, "Safety Net" pairs her with Ty Dolla $ign, and "POV" closes the album on the best pure vocal performance of her career.

Made largely in isolation during 2020, it plays like a record built for a house rather than a stadium, and it has aged into one of the warmest things in her catalog.