Ariana Grande's Albums, Ranked From Worst to Best

7.

At the age of 27, Ariana Grande has already made it through several momentous chapters of her career. As a teenager, she starred in musicals on Broadway, before joining the cast of Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious and becoming a true child star. From there, she started dropping full-length studio albums of her own, beginning with her debut, Yours Truly, in 2013.

Even in the earliest days of her career as a solo pop singer, Ariana Grande was successful. Yours Truly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as did her follow-up: 2014’s My Everything. But it wasn’t until the back half of the decade, with the release of critically-acclaimed albums like Dangerous Woman, Sweetener, and thank u, next, that Ariana really came into her own as a dominant global superstar, successfully blending the worlds of pop, R&B, and hip-hop with her own unique twist.

Now, at the top of a new decade, Ariana Grande is back with her sixth studio album: positions. So, how does it rank in comparison to her other full-length releases? Is it her best album yet? Or did her hot streak finally cool down? The Complex Music team took a look at her catalog of full-length releases to see where it stacks up with the rest. These are Ariana Grande’s albums, ranked from worst to best.

6.‘Yours Truly’ (2013)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Harmony Samuels, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Antonio Dixon, The Rascals, Tommy Brown, Matt Squire, Rickey “SlikkMuzik” Offord, MIKA, Greg Wells, Jason Nevins

Features: Big Sean, Mac Miller, Nathan Sykes, MIKA

It’s almost unfathomable that the Ariana Grande we know today once released a kitschy rework of a song from the musical Wicked, but everyone started somewhere. Her debut album, Yours Truly, is a relic of Grande’s career; it’s somehow a tasteful and enjoyable mashup of nostalgic ’90s urban pop, her Broadway-trained talent, and the charming doo-wop timbre she still taps into today. Her collaboration with Mac Miller on “The Way” made for a successful lead single, and only a select handful of Grande’s newer songs hold a candle to the excellence of “Honeymoon Avenue”. In spite of its virtues, the stylings of Yours Truly had its vices. The once malleable teen-star persona of Grande’s musical debut is long gone, and with it the phoney juvenile sounds of an album almost entirely written and produced by adult men. We’re nothing if not thankful for the service this album provided in the grand scheme of Ari’s career, but it’s a relief to finally have her at the helm. —Mallorie List

5.‘My Everything’ (2014)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Max Martin, Shellback, Benny Blanco, Savan Kotecha, Ryan Tedder, Tommy Brown, Darkchild, Ilya, Salmanzadeh, Zedd, Key Wane, Pop & Oak

Features: Iggy Azalea, Zedd, Big Sean, Cashmere Cat, Childish Gambino, the Weeknd, ASAP Ferg

On My Everything, Ariana Grande was just stepping into her own lane. With her acting days fading to the background, the she had a mission to show she had the vocal ability to take her far in the industry. And she succeeded with flying colors on My Everything, drawing comparisons to legendary vocalists like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. The album was fun and confident, but its lack of direction ultimately hurts its ranking on this list. On the album, she revisited a lot of her old tricks from her debut, mixing ’90s R&B riffs with ’80s pop and EDM sounds. The album has very high highs, with the empowering anthem “Break Free” and “Love Me Harder,” but not all of her attempts nailed the landing. It’s not a masterpiece, but My Everything still set the foundation for Ariana’s rise to the top. —Jessica McKinney

4.‘positions’ (2020)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Tommy Brown, Peter Lee Johnson, Mr. Franks, Travis Sayles, Xavi, Murda Beatz, Joseph L'Étranger, Shea Taylor, The Rascals, Keys Open Doors, Scott Storch, Anthony M. Jones, Charles Anderson, London on da Track, Josh Conerly, Oliver “Junior” Frid

Features: Doja Cat, the Weeknd, Ty Dolla $ign

You may have noticed a trend that exists throughout the rest of this list: it’s in reverse chronological order. That’s because (before positions, anyway) each album Ariana Grande released was better than the one that came before it. Unfortunately, positions breaks that streak. Let’s make it very clear, though: that doesn’t mean it’s a bad album. It says more about the exceptionally high bar Ariana has set for herself with records like thank u, next. With positions, she opted for a more laid-back sound, swapping upbeat pop production and trap beats for a collection of songs guided by strings. In many ways, the subdued energy is fitting for the context in which positions was created: Ariana was quarantining with her new man and made an album full of slower R&B songs about falling in love and having lots of sex. She knew most of us were stuck at home, so she didn’t bother packing in as many bangers as she did on the last couple albums, choosing to play with a more soothing sonic palette instead. Unfortunately, the resulting album feels a little too long, and not as dynamic as the projects that came immediately before it. Some of the songs on positions end up blurring together, and if a few of them were removed from the tracklist, it would have made for a better top-to-bottom experience. Positions will undoubtedly make most Ariana Grande fans happy, but it doesn’t have as many obvious standout moments as projects like Sweetener and thank u, next. (It’s still easily one of the best things to happen to us in this terrible year of 2020, though.) —Eric Skelton

3.‘Dangerous Woman’ (2016)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Tommy Brown, Max Martin, Johan Carlsson, Twice as Nice, Ilya, Steven Franks, FKi 1st, Thomas Parker Lumpkins, Travis Sayles, The Magi, Ali Payami, Peter Svensson, Billboard, Peter Carlsson

Features: Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Macy Gray, Future

To say Dangerous Woman was just a stepping stone in Ariana Grande’s path to success is an understatement. In hindsight, it was more than a great album; it was a pivotal era, a sharp turn into the sexy-pop genre Grande has been meticulously curating over the past four years. She may have been carving radio waves before “Side to Side” and “Dangerous Woman” dropped, but the effortless slip into her now distinguishable, care-free attitude was a welcomed surprise. Her third album was a progression into more mature songwriting, thoughtful sequencing, and an overhaul of Grande’s bubbly innocence that was suddenly sporting a tasteful latex bunny mask. Her willingness to reach deeper into the R&B-blended genres of the idols she’s often compared to clearly paid off, because we’ve been eating from her trough of magical and formidable anthems ever since. Revisiting Dangerous Woman feels like a sweet ode to Ari’s sultry and triumphant rise to the top. —Mallorie List

2.‘Sweetener’ (2018)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Ilya, Max Martin, Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Tommy Brown, Brian Malik Baptiste, Charles Anderson, Michael Foster

Features: Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott

The first song Ariana Grande recorded for her fourth studio album was the title track, “Sweetener.” Co-written and produced by Pharrell Williams, the song set the tone for the rest of the project. For three and a half minutes, Ariana floated over an upbeat, Pharrell-produced sonic backdrop that blurred the lines between hip-hop, pop, and R&B. Relaxed and confident, she was in total control of her famously powerful vocals, but most strikingly, she sounded like she was having the time of her life. That feeling of joy is the glue that holds this album whole together. Having found a genre-blurring style that fit her true sensibilities as an artist, Ariana sounded more comfortable and effective than she did on previous releases. As a result, the songwriting was more honest, and the production was more in-tune with her personal aesthetic. Ariana had already established herself as a singer with an incredibly powerful voice, but on Sweetener, we finally heard what she could do with those vocals in an artistic setting that more closely matched her own tastes and perspectives. You can sense the euphoria of that creative process leaking into the songs themselves (even when she’s tackling difficult subject matter) which is a major reason why this will be remembered as one of her best albums. There’s nothing better than getting to hear an exceptionally talented artist come into their own in real-time. —Eric Skelton

1.‘thank u, next’ (2019)

Label: Republic Records

Producers: Charles Anderson, Brian Baptiste, Tommy Brown, Michael Foster, Ilya, Max Martin, Happy Perez, Pop Wansel, Nova Wav

Features: n/a

Thank u, next, an album born from (and perhaps best enjoyed with) champagne and therapy, is Ariana Grande’s magnum opus. A project built on immaculate production and flawless vocal technique, it’s the most complete album of her career so far. And it’s important to remember that Ariana took risks that extended far beyond the twelve songs on the final tracklist. By releasing it when she did, she dispelled the notion that female pop stars must be held to a tired, dated, meat grinder of a release cycle: teaser, single, pre-order, radio impact, video, rinse, repeat. “I just want to fucking talk to my fans and sing and write music and drop it the way these boys do,” she told Billboard. On thank u, next, the megastar invites listeners in on her most personal album yet. “I know that it breaks your heart when I cry again/Over him… We’ll get through this, we’ll get past this, I’m a girl with a whole lot of baggage,” she sings on “ghostin.” The strength called upon to write about enduring a series of tragedies like this makes thank u, next a personal triumph, an album she needed to write perhaps more than we needed to listen. It’s full of urgency, alternating between heartbreaking confessionals and confident anthems over trap beats. She finds plenty of room to talk her shit, too, specifically on songs like “7 rings,” a trap-pop banger complete with a Biggie interlude that occurs shortly after she channels the 1965 classic, The Sound of Music. With the song, Ariana notched a couple more Grammy nominations and sent a message that her therapeutic musical outlets can also double as streaming chart monsters. Thank u, next is a reflection of everything Ariana is great at: remaining effortlessly cool while exuding vulnerability and honesty. —Waiss Aramesh