As a result, My Everything is a less cohesive project than Yours Truly, although its best moments eclipse the highs of Grande's 2013 debut.

Yours Truly kept you singing until the moon shined and My Everything will make you want to dance until the sun comes up.

Turns out, so-called mini-Mariah can hold her own in 2014; and while the best songs here may not be timeless, they certainly feel right for right now.

What leaves an impression is Grande herself, deeply cheerful yet with guns blazing, an innocent newcomer no more.

Despite its shortcomings, My Everything succeeds in its primary objective. This is a pop record, clear and simple. She may have some kinks to work out, but for now Grande can run with the big girls.

She has a more virtuosic voice than Selena Gomez, Katy Perry or nearly anyone else on the radio in 2014. [...]It sounds like there's no limit to where Ariana Grande can go from here. But as My Everything proves, she's already a major force.

Perhaps Grande doesn't embody the songs the way an old-fashioned diva would, but she functions as a likeable pop ringleader, stepping aside when the track calls for it and then unleashing a full-throated wail when it's her time to shine

It's hard to spot anything specific to Grande—an ethos that would help her find a niche in the crowd of Top 40 prima donnas. She's got the voice. Now she just needs something to say with it

At least Grande herself never flags. She consistently makes the most of the material, provided by writers as normally dead-on as David Guetta, Max Martin and Rodney Jerkins. It’s not enough to merely say Grande is a superior singer to most of her young female peers. In fact, her physical power and agility towers over them.

It's difficult to engage with much of the synthy froth here. Despite a cast list that includes Childish Gambino and The Weeknd (and, if you're that way inclined, Harry Styles), there's often a facelessness that defeats even Grande's lush vocal performances. Global hit Problem is by a long way the most distinctive thing on the record: lewd saxophone and the interplay between the lusciously full-voiced Grande and bratty-kid MC Iggy Azalea make this one of the songs of the year.

My Everything further establishes Grande as a consummate performer and vocal interpreter, but also serves as a reminder that she’s still working toward figuring out her own pop star niche.

It’s all well and good to deal with tough topics through music, but My Everything puts on a breezy pop face that severely hinders the potential poignancy of Grande’s words, morphing them into a more disquieting figure.

With the run-up to the release of sophomore album “My Everything”, it seems that everything Grande touched turned into a chart hit, her appeal wider than ever, but as the album plays on, Grande sounds more and more like a guest vocalist on her own album, her grab bag of producers leaving their own distinctive marks instead of truly letting her own personality flourish.