15 best Ariana Grande songs
By Micah Wimmer
14. “Into You”
Dangerous Woman is a bit of a transitional record for Grande as it finds her transitioning from the teen pop of her first two records to a more R&B inflected style with only moderate success. It lacks the surety of the records that precede and follow it, though the album’s second single, “Into You” shows the promise of what was to come. It’s a bass heavy track, perennially pulsating, and while it is not as dynamic as many of her best songs, its limited range showcases a definite sense of purpose, making it the perfect soundtrack for developing a fiery crush on someone you met 15 minutes ago.
13. “No Tears Left to Cry”
Ariana Grande is one of the best pure singers making pop music today, and on this track she really shows off her vocal power in one of the biggest hooks of her career. It’s also a song that displays her abilities, not only from a technical standpoint, but as a conveyer of moods with her delivery showcasing a number of contradictory emotions in the same line. While the lyrics are those of joy, finding herself in a state of mind she wants to be in all the time, there is an undercurrent of fear in her delivery. It is as if even in the midst of freedom from sadness, she is still worried about a time that it will reappear, when those tears may come back. But in the interim, “we vibin.’”