Say what you will about Ariana Grande (I’ve already said plenty), but the girl — or, at least, The Grande Machine — has produced a solid tune or ten.
With the pint-sized pop princess’ second album, My Everything, just days away now, that #AriPromo is going harder than ever. And today, MTV dropped 4 new songs from the LP.
All of the songs are varying levels of “good,” but one of them is truly amazing — and that’s “Love Me Harder,” featuring late night future-R&B crooner, The Weeknd.
The dreamy Max Martin, Savan Kotecha and Weeknd-crafted track — which was co-written by The Cardigans‘ Peter Svensson (!) — plays like a blend of Jennifer Lopez‘s “First Love” (also a Max Martin production) and, oddly, Lady Gaga‘s “Do What U Want” (#JusticeForARTPOP), as the tiny songstress coos up against waves upon waves of warm synthesizers. “‘Cause if you want to keep me, you’ve got to, got to, got to, got to, got to love me harder…”
Although Ariana and Abel are a somewhat inexplicable pairing on paper (well, it’s not all that confu$ing), the collaboration makes total sense in song, as the two trade sweetly crooned melodies across the slick Swede-pop production.
It’s that earworm of a post-chorus that really seals the deal: “Ooh-ooh-ooh! Love me, love me, love me…/ Ooh-ooh-ooh! Harder, harder, harder…” An anthem for true lovers of hard love — even Lana Del Rey would appreciate the sentiment.
She might not know how to enunciate, but the Kabbalistic, demon-seeing serial killer is proving to be quite the vessel for some great pop this year.
‘My Everything’ will be released on August 25. (iTunes)
