The Nostalgic Punch of Ariana Grande’s <em>Charlie’s Angels</em> Soundtrack

But isn’t feminism already the text, not the subtext, of much modern pop? Does Lizzo not put out the equivalent of a Charlie’s Angels action scene with every tweet? Perhaps the sense of redundancy explains the underwhelming streaming numbers thus far for the soundtrack, which have Grande already trying to downplay the project as a lark. Certainly the sound of the album does not shy away from retreads. There’s obviously the original TV show’s late-’70s cheese to play with: Mighty horns and surf drums blare from the start of the opener, “How It’s Done,” to the closer, an EDM remix of the Charlie’s Angels theme. There are also more recently discarded tropes, like, for example, EDM remixes—though you’d need to be truly jaded to eye-roll at Gigamesh’s gloriously fidgeting take on Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls.”

The pop of the early 2010s is, really, the mode most energetically revived here. That’s the bright-and-bouncy era when Max Martin’s team ruled the charts with less competition from internet-rap revolutionaries, an era whose sound arguably peaked with Grande’s 2016 album, Dangerous Woman. On the Angels soundtrack, Danielle Bradbery of The Voice seems to put on a Sia wig for the sad-resilient ballad “Blackout.” For “Bad to You,” Normani, Grande, and Nicki Minaj provide a sequel to the ad-jingle reggae of Grande and Minaj’s hit “Side to Side.” “Eyes Off You” sees the relatively obscure trio of M-22, Arlissa, and Kiana Ledé competently recycle the ’90s house that Disclosure and Calvin Harris trotted out when everyone was still into Mr. Robot.

Unoriginality on a would-be blockbuster soundtrack is hardly a scandal, though, and there’s something generous in the sudden shipment of uncomplicated cardiovascular-workout fare right before the holidays. Where Grande and her team make slight innovations is in the seamless stitching of a range of feminine voices. The Brazilian star Anitta gets her own track to taunt and flaunt in Portuguese. The album’s opener bridges American and U.K. hip-hop in the devilish voices of Kash Doll and Stefflon Don. That song also includes the Madonna-worshipping Kim Petras, whose rising-star status is both a success story for trans acceptance as well as a queasy tale of music-industry compromises. (Petras is signed by the producer Dr. Luke, who has fended off Kesha’s sexual-assault allegations cannily enough to still be included in the thank yous for the soundtrack.)

Grande herself gets a few showcase moments, though they each feel like castoffs from her recent solo albums. Her diet–Muscle Shoals collaboration with Chaka Khan lives up exactly to the description that Khan hilariously gave it in a viral interview: “It’s a cute song. It’s a song, y’know, about Charlie’s Angels. It’s, y’know, it’s … It’s not gonna change the world, okay?” Then there is the slinking R&B of “How I Look on You,” which production-wise is the most current-sounding tune in the mix. In it, Grande tells a tale of dating some jerk who just used her for the fame. Is this a relatable struggle for all of womankind? No, maybe not. But amid a Hollywood blur of prefab excitement and catchall slogans, the glimpse of a heroine’s actual lived life lands like a punch.

Spencer Kornhaber is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers pop culture and music.