Written and produced by Grande, Max Martin, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Oscar Görres amongst others, Eternal Sunshine is a pop and R&B record with dance, synth-pop and house influences, characterized by mid-tempo synthesizers, subtle guitar and string elements.

Upon release, the album received acclaim from critics for its restrained vocals and music, and the emotional vulnerability of the subject matter, while some critiqued the songwriting as unrefined.

Grande promoted and discussed the album on programs hosted by Zach Sang, Zane Lowe, Penn Badgley, and Sean Evans, and was the musical guest of Saturday Night Live on March 9, 2024.

[9] She captioned the post "See you next year" and tagged several accounts, including Swedish musician Ilya Salmanzadeh, music video director Christian Breslauer, and Republic Records.

Beauty's On Your Collar lipstick in the shade "Attention" including a defocused close-up shot of Grande's red lips and the caption of an Instagram post she would make a few days after delivery, were sent to fans.

[14] She explained that the record spans from "really vulnerable" songs to playful tracks which see her emulating "what people kind of expect me to be sometimes and having fun with it".

[20] Jem Aswad of Variety felt that Martin and Salmanzadeh imbued the album with a "very Swedish vibe and structure to the tracks" inspired by classic pop, a style atypical of Anglo-American musicians.

[19] Eternal Sunshine begins with the opening track, "Intro (End of the World)", which primarily includes strings and a morose guitar.

[26][27] The third track, "Don't Wanna Break Up Again", is a gloomy, '90s influenced pop and R&B song that discusses conflicting feelings Grande has towards the end of her relationship with her partner.

[28] The album's interlude, "Saturn Returns", prominently samples a YouTube video of astrologer Diana Garland, as she discusses the importance of the age of 29 in a person's life.

[30] Billboard ranked "Supernatural" number 8 out of Eternal Sunshine, and compared it to "Breathin'" from Sweetener, as both songs are "undeniable home runs and surefire pure-pop smashes.

[46] In July 2024, Grande revealed that a deluxe version of Eternal Sunshine was in development, but not set for release "any time super soon" due to her promotional commitments to Wicked.

[68] The second was when Grande shared a few lines of Alexander Pope's poem Eloisa to Abelard on her Instagram, including: "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!".

Explaining her reason, Grande said that she wanted fans to "experience [Eternal Sunshine] in full this time", but did confirm that singles will be released after the album.

[97] "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" also topped the Global 200,[98] and the charts in six other countries, including New Zealand,[99] Malaysia,[100] and United Arab Emirates.

[104] The eighth track on Eternal Sunshine, titled "The Boy Is Mine", went viral on TikTok due to a dance trend associated with the song, and received multiple celebrity cosigns online.

[107] The music video for the song—co-starring actor Penn Badgley and featuring cameos from Brandy and Monica—was released on June 7,[108] four days before it impacted US contemporary hit radio as the album's third single.

[122] Grande served as the musical guest for the June 6, 2024, episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed "The Boy Is Mine".

[125] In a rave review, Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone commended Eternal Sunshine for having "some of the most honest and inventive music of her career" and dubbed the album as an "instant classic".

[18] Various other critics, such as NME's Nick Levine,[17] AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung,[126] Clash's Emma Harrison,[127] The Guardian's Laura Snapes,[129] and The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz, dubbed it one of Grande's stronger, most sophisticated albums yet, highlighting the perceived maturity of its subject matter.

Poppie Platt of The Daily Telegraph and David Cobbald of The Line of Best Fit regarded the album a "slickly" produced pop record, albeit with some underwhelming tracks and simple lyrics.

[128][130] According to Tafoya, Grande often settles for "stock phrases or scrambles for syllables",[131] while Siroky observed a lack of conceptual focus in the lyrics,[22] and Green claimed some tracks to be insubstantial.

[20][18][129][128] Sona credited Grande's "concise" team of producers—Martin, Salmanzadeh and Davidior—for helping the album feel like "a singular and shapely work of art" unlike Positions.

[113][149][150] On the former, ten tracks appeared within the top-25 region,[151] led by "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)," which debuted at number-one on both charts, the album's second chart-topper after "Yes, And?".

[98] Eternal Sunshine debuted at number-one on the US Billboard 200 chart with 227,000 album-equivalent units, including 194.92 million on-demand streams and 77,000 album sales in its first week.

[152] At the time of its release, Eternal Sunshine achieved the largest US sales debut of 2024, surpassing Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign's Vultures 1 (148,000 units).

[159][160] Following the restocking of a signed CD on Grande's webstore, the album ascended to the eighth spot of the chart on the issue dated July 6, 2024, spending a seventh non-consecutive week in the top ten region.

[191][188] Eternal Sunshine and its second single "We Can't Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)" were expected by several publications and critics to receive nominations in the Big Four categories at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

[194] Whether she's layering harmonies over a melody line or vocal arranging an entire bridge on the fly, the superstar's mastery over her instrument only continues to grow with each new album.

Vanity Fair's Savannah Walsh stated that in the hours after the album's release, viewership of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind had doubled on Vudu, according to Fandango.