By Angus White
Lorde has finally dropped her eagerly anticipated sophomore album. The New Zealand native has taken her sound towards new heights. Delivering intense hip-hop infused pop and does what Lorde does best, capturing emotions within her tracks and this leaves us Melodrama, an album which narrates what its like to be a young woman, a life which is full of grief and hedonism.
Lorde’s refreshing style of pop brings a little bit extra to the table, full of huge choruses which will be chanted back throughout festival season and verses which not only help Lorde find her conviction during instability but they help us find ours. Unlike most pop stars, Lorde does not focus on partying, this record was influenced by her break-up with her long-term boyfriend and in the words of Lorde, “a record about being alone, the good and bad parts”
Melodrama takes us back to 2013, when Lorde shared her debut album just aged 17 (Pure Heroine). Now almost five years later, here’s a record which constantly hits us with unusual rhymes and a strangely comfortable moodiness. Can Lorde be called pop’s reigning queen?
I think we should, she wrote the majority of Melodrama, at only 18 years old. The standard of her song writing is impeccable. The lyrical wit, flow and just the simplicity just makes it impossible to resist. The depth of feeling and meaning leave Lorde exposed and extremely vulnerable but this is comforting on an universal level and provides a personal reward through Ella embracing her true self . The unfamilar sounds and warped beats (Hard Feelings/Loveless) only drag you deeper into the safe space that Lorde has opened up to the public. She is providing a breath of fresh air in the hurricane which is life. This is a story for the youth; breakups, being single, house parties, drugs and uncertainty.
The first track off the album, Green Light, it leaves us in a state of euphoria and is simply anthemic. A powerful yet heartfelt ballad about an ex which Lorde laments she will love forever but will manage to keep going. “Hard Feelings/Loveless” is a track about the feelings after the break up and describes the recovery from the heartbreak, the latter part of the song describes her thoughts about her generation and why she doesn’t care if her ex-boyfriend is jealous of her lifestyle. ‘Homemade Dynamite’ and ‘The Louvre’ tell us a story of when you first meet someone at a party, the explosive night that follows and the happiness you experience.
For me, the best track off Melodrama is ‘Liability’, new territory for Lorde; a piano driven ballad which sees Lorde opening herself right up and allowing everyone to see a strange part of her.
Ending the album with ‘Perfect Places’ seems enitrely fitting, a narrative about a house party, drug use and sex. Lorde’s message hits home, the experiences involved with these are far from perfect, despite feeling euphoric. In fact, from her experience, the teenage years anything but perfect.
Here’s album which captures the imperfect nature of the youth, restores hope for all those suffering from heartbreak and does it in a stunningly simple, fresh, most importantly and surprisingly in an easy to listen manner. Here’s one for the adolescents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6HWZwv658M
