15 best Ariana Grande songs
By Micah Wimmer
4. “Bad Idea”
Pretty much every Ariana Grande song is well-crafted. She has a bevy of world-class producers at her disposal and has shown an intuitive knack for knowing how to utilize them well. But some songs just have that one element that still makes it stand out from the rest. Here, on “Bad Idea,” it is an insistently picked guitar that lends the song a hint of ominous, but enticing danger on the horizon. The song is both sexy and discomforting at once, a track that seduces the listener in spite of themselves. Whatever the bad idea is that she sings about, Grande sells it, making poor decision-making sound like the most appealing thing in the world.
3. “Needy”
“Needy” is one of the more haunting songs in Grande’s discography. It is built around repetitive chords played on some sort of keyboard that sounds like it was repurposed from the soundtrack of a b-horror film, as she sings of her tendency to be, well, needy. “Needy” kind of deconstructs the more independent persona evident elsewhere on Thank U, Next— most notable on the title track — but even when talking about needing a lot from another, there’s a certain strength in that. The song shows Ariana working in a different sonic direction than is her standard and she excels. This is likely the closest she will ever come to making a moody, indie pop record, but it also indicates that on the off chance she does decide to pursue that direction, she’ll absolutely crush it.
2. “Get Well Soon”
“Get Well Soon” is perhaps the most seductive song that Grande has ever written despite it not really being about seduction at all. Her voice is lilting and the instrumentation is relatively pared back, really letting her performance shine over the staggered piano chords and insistent percussion. The melodies throughout are surprising, yet she handles every nuance of the track’s demands with ease, making it one of her more relaxed performances which is a major part of just what makes it so inviting. It may not be her most famous song, but it’s certainly among her most beautiful.