Melodrama Review
An Album by Lorde
Lorde has finally come back to bring the world more music, and she sounds better than ever. Melodrama is an album full of different themes and moods. On this album, Lorde is experimenting, whether if it’s with how she sings, with her lyrics, or with her song structure, she definitely sounds different. She also sounds more mature, which is a great thing for an artist to sound like.
Throughout this entire project, Lorde sounds like she’s having fun with what she’s doing. She also sounds like she has more emotion in her vocals, whether if she’s lively, angry, or sad, she brings out more in her voice.
Not only does Lorde sound different from her past work, but she now sounds a lot different from other pop artists in the music industry. She has a wide range when she sings, she flows in her verses, she has a different perspective on topics, and she’s an amazing writer. Most pop artists don’t come with all the skills Lorde has, which makes her stand out. Lorde also has a very unique voice, it’s elegant, soothing, and her accent adds character to her vocals.
I love the production on Melodrama. The production sounds much better from her last album, Pure Heroine, and the instrumentals differentiate in genre and mood throughout this album. On songs like Green Light, Sober, and Perfect Places, the production is definitely a pop or dance kind of sound. But on songs like Homemade Dynamite, The Louvre, and Supercut, the production has an electronic feel to it. Lorde also has some songs on Melodrama that bring out some flavors of Hip Hop like on Sober II (Melodrama), and a little bit on Hard Feelings/Loveless.
Lorde made sure to have some slow songs on this album, too. Each slow song on Melodrama has a piano instrumental and lyrics that are personal and melancholy. Liability, Writer in the Dark, and Liability (Reprise) are all focused on Lorde’s relationship troubles, but they aren’t your ordinary “Taylor Swift” kind of relationship songs. They have an original story and Lorde puts her own personal thoughts in the lyrics that make the songs more of her own.
The bad things about this album are mainly the structure of the album, and how Lorde didn’t really make more songs that had a different subject matter than other tracks in the record. She didn’t really need to have songs like Sober II (Melodrama), or Liability (Reprise), instead of songs that had a different subject or story. I feel like the album could’ve been a little bit longer so she had an opportunity to put more stories in the album.
Another fault in the album is how she has songs like Liability in the album, then transitions into a song like Hard Feelings/Loveless. It just feels a little strange to put some of these songs next to one another in the album, but that wasn’t a big issue for me when I was listening to it. I feel like it was a little strange that she began the album with a lively pop track like Green Light, then ended the album with a similar track, Perfect Places. She could’ve ended with a song like Writer in the Dark, but again, this didn’t ruin my listening experience at all.
Overall, this album is a great comeback for Lorde. She’s definitely grown more as a singer, and a writer. She now has a solid album in her discography, and she can grow more off of it. This album is full of different kinds of songs that can fit for many occasions or moods, and I’d recommend for people to give it a listen.
Album Grade: 7.5/10