Lorde’s sophomore effort, Melodrama, which dropped in June 2016 absolutely establishes her impact in pop music as a trendsetter and an artist. Following up her debut album, Pure Heroine, was no easy task, yet she manages to improve and evolve as a writer and vocalist with ease.
Where Pure Heroine revolved around the notion of the boring summer monotony of being a teenager, Melodrama showcases a new, changed Lorde, who has been through a heartbreak and has one hell of a story to lament to listeners.
Lorde is the sole writer on the majority of the album’s tracks; she recruited Jack Antonoff for production on every single song except “Homemade Dynamite.” Antonoff is known for his work in Bleachers and Fun. He also worked extensively with Taylor Swift on her latest album reputation.
Focusing around the retelling of the highs and lows of a single house party, Lorde expertly takes her emotion and projects it onto the listener in just 11 tracks. From the anthemic, roaring “Green Light,” to the soft-spoken, unexplored territory that Lorde conquers in “Liability,” Melodrama is a full dynamic of feelings that she insists the listener joins her for.
Throughout the LP, Lorde explores the unforgettable highs love inebriates her with while contrasting the loneliness and pointlessness of her attempts at relationships perpetuate. On “Sober,” Lorde questions what she and her dysfunctional lover will do when they aren’t viewing each other through the rose-colored glasses of intoxication, or perhaps simply the lust that envelopes the very early stages of romance. “Writer in the Dark” seems to be a further development in this saga, as Lorde tauntingly ponders if her lover “rue[s] the day [he] kissed a writer in the dark.” Her wailing and emotional delivery reminds the listener that Lorde is a hopeless romantic. She is heartbroken, yet this test of independent leads her to find a world of beauty as she moves on in the culmination of the track.
Where “Liability” is a ballad of being repeatedly told that Lorde is a “little much for” her past romances, “Liability (Reprise)” represents a second thought on the matter. Over slick production, Lorde provides a breathy message to herself: “but you’re not what you thought you were.” She is no one’s liability.
A final highlight and perfect choice for the last track on Melodrama, “Perfect Places” leads Lorde to at first encourage those around her at the party to just get drunk and more lost with her. She cannot deal with the reality of what is around her. On the chorus, she comes full out and admits, “all of the things we’re taking, because we’re young and we’re ashamed take us to perfect places.” It’s not something Lorde would ideally find herself doing. In the final moments of the song and album the danceable, synthesized production is replaced with just piano chords. Lorde questions the entire idea of trying to find these perfect places, anyways. There are no perfect places, and no amount of alcohol will change that.
Melodrama is a thrill ride of human emotion, articulated through precise lyricism. Lorde doesn’t falter for a second on her triumphant return to music with this album. After appearing on just about every year end list and nabbing a Grammy nomination, it is clear that Lorde is no replaceable pop star; she’s here to stay and her next release will be highly anticipated.
Listen to Melodrama on Spotify below:
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