Lorde - Melodrama

Lorde
Melodrama
2017
Spotify

Melodrama doesn't follow the rules. The first track "Green Light" tilts between a bumped up dance track and a sultry awkward breakup tune. This record feels eerily specific to a girl in her late teens going into her twenties, and the different way the world perceives her. Lorde has always felt like an old soul, but her reflections on this period of life go far beyond her years. The music is triumphant and desperate all at once. Melodrama is not the kind of album that makes sense right away, it is one of those records that you have to sit with for awhile to really figure out. "Green Light" on the surface is a pretty weak attempt at a summer anthem, but as you dig deeper there is so much more going on. Lorde is taking a stab at a new kind of pop which is singular just to her. "The Louvre" has such an interesting almost 80s inspired outro but it never feel derivative of anything other than herself. "Liability" is the one time Lorde is just a little to much Lorde for her own good. The anguish is just so heavy handed on this track it's hard to not cringe. Yet "Hard Feelings/Loveless" constantly surprises you and almost flat out refuses to sound like you expect it to. The frantic background adds to this pulsing track giving it something that it never could have had before. The first singles from this albums release were in a word confusing, but that was because they weren't in the context of the full album which is so necessary to really get this record.

Both "Sober" and "Sober II (Melodrama)" feel like way to much Lorde. If you love Lorde being peak Lorde than there are more than enough tracks where she will give you just that, but it does feel like a whole hell of a lot sometimes. This album also doesn't have a "Royals" type banger, but also feels more complete than 2013's Pure Heroine. Lorde just sounds so incredibly confident on this record, far more confident than any 20 year old should. For Lorde fans this is going to blow people away, but for the casual listener it just does not seem like Melodrama has the crossover appeal. From a production standpoint however the album is so well done. Each track is rich yet uncomfortable keeping the listener constantly on edge. She delivers her vocals with such a punch throughout the record and the grander songs like "Sober" grow into these massive works. Melodrama may have taken awhile to get here, but it just goes to show that Lorde is not going to be content in her career with just another pop record. This album feels wrenched out of her like every note had some modicum of pain to it. Lorde's take on pop is so fresh, and so new that it will likely take some time for this record to really land, but it still is quite quite good.

8.0 out of 10