Melanie Martinez - Cry Baby

Melanie Martinez
Cry Baby
2015

Coming from a reality singing game show usually means a cavalcade of cookie cutter pop songs however not for The Voice alum Melanie Martinez. Cry Baby is a concept album that takes the somewhat benign song titles that could be on Raffi albums and explores the dark issues that plague modern broken families. Most of the story is told from a young girls perspective and though she's young she clearly isn't afraid to explore adult issues and use adult language. The result is a surreal concept, you are enticed by her Lana Del Rey-esque delivery and sound but the themes are so dark they take away any sort of sexuality that may be there. "Soap" is so very close to a potential club banger but then you listen to the lyrics and very few people will dare to sing this at the top of their lungs. Clearly Martinez was going for the shocking when she made this record because the contrast of the themes and the actual beats is totally something interesting, but the concept after a while starts to become a bit grading. After a few tracks you realize what she is doing and get the point, but then it just keeps going and going.

At some point the concept loses something because it gets diluted after so many tracks. The original jarring nature of the record fades in the later tracks and it has to be judged more on it's musical value then proof of concept. Musically everything is pretty ok, but these are all beats that you have heard before. "Mad Hatter" meant to be a rally against conformity proclaiming "All the best people are crazy..." comes off as contrived and overblown. By this point in the album we are well aware that Martinez likes the odd, so the need to throw it in our faces again just seems overdone. The final third looses the impact that songs like "Cry Baby", "Dollhouse" and "Sippy Cup" had. While it is easy to complain about a concept record very few artists would have to the balls to create something like this, let alone release it as a pop record. Give Cry Baby a listen, you may not go back to it but you will not regret that you heard it once.

6.9 out of 10