Year: 2017.
Country:
Lorde discography rank: 1 (out of 6 listed on BEA)
2017 rank: 2
2010s rank: 40
Overall rank: 305
Average rating: 81/100 (from 800 votes).
Tracks:
1. Green Light
2. Sober
3. Homemade Dynamite
4. The Louvre
5. Liability
6. Hard Feelings/Loveless
7. Sober II (Melodrama)
8. Writer In The Dark
9. Supercut
10. Liability (Reprise)
11. Perfect Places
indicates a top-rated track.
Top voted comments:
"I think it's a kind of silly to suggest that people/critics are 'overhyping' this album because they are wary of underrating it like they may of done with Pure Heroine. I believe it's more to do with Pure Heroine being a slowburner; I remember not being very keen the first 5 or even 6 listens but now it's probably up there with my favourite pop records. Pure Heroine was great and so is Melodrama, perhaps greater. Pure Heroine was pretty leftfield as far as pop records go and had a great skeletal sound which some, including myself, are very fond of. Whereas Melodrama, while still maintaining and capitalising on the interesting qualities of the album before, is MORE of a pop record (catchier hooks, drops in the instrumentals etc.), which I feel isn't a bad thing but I can understand why others may be turned off. I do have to say, Melodrama's lyrical themes are a lot more interesting and matured then those of Pure Heroine. Now in doing this, Lorde has two releases that I enjoy for very different reasons and for a pop artist to stay fresh release after release can be quite an ask, particularly in such a washed out, bland pop industry. I don't think it's a case of overrating, this album is just more of a solid and accessible pop record that still maintains the interesting qualities of it's predecessor. Who knows; perhaps this record won't have the longevity of Pure Heroine for years to come but right now I'm impressed and jamming it pretty hard."
- Sometype
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"Don't get me wrong, it's a fine album, but I can't help thinking this unanimous wave of glowing reviews is a bit of "Be Here Now" syndrome. Pure Heroine got kind of middling reviews upon release, and it ended up being this kind of zeitgeist record in the pop world. Now critics don't want to underrate this one for fear of getting it wrong again. Like I said, it's a fine record, but nowhere near as good as Pure Heroine. That album's brilliance was in its simplicity: the understated production and the seemingly mundane (but ridiculously insightful) lyrics. While you have to give her credit for trying something new on Melodrama, you also have to fault her for not making a lot of it work. The production is overstuffed, the melodies seem repetitive across the songs. (That rapid-fire breathy bit in the pre-chorus of Green Light? I feel like it's all over the album.) While the album tracks are still mostly very good, the singles feel like shameless attempts at radio hits. It was a vicious cycle. Pure Heroine lit a fire under the pop world's rear end, inspiring countless new soundalikes (Halsey) as well as established artists (Taylor Swift) to go for that sound. Now, in trying to craft more radio hits, Ella has in essence xeroxed a xerox of herself. I realize this all sounds incredibly negative, but it's not. Homemade Dynamite is an absolute gem and one of the best things she's ever done. Loveless is also one of the hookiest things she's written, though I wish it was its own track and not just an epilogue to Hard Feelings. Writer in the Dark, with its Kate Bush chorus, is fantastic and euphoric. This isn't a bad album by any means. It's just a bit of a disappointment after the perfection of the first album."
- thatbeatleskid1 (Rating: 70/100)
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About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here. _________________ Bluesky · Facebook · Spotify · X
Earnest, extravacant sophomore from a gorgeous well-writing popangel (in the dark), or should I say....the future of music. Written almost entirely in trains - underground. When Royals became famous, it actually annoyed me. I kept hearing an average and boring song on the radio. Plus when Pure Heroine was dropped, I did not understand the hype or meaning from it. Recently [I wrote this desc in summer 2017], Melodrama came out, and surprisingly got acclaimed, critically (a score of 92 on Metacritic - okay I know they're untrustable but please forgive me). That's it, I'm giving her a chance.
In June 2017 (around the same I wrote most of this description, at least when I'm describing the songs), I went to Iceland and in Reykjavik there was a small record store, and (both because the internet still was talking bout it and because I trusted it at the time) I bought a cheap copy of it. Little did I know it would end up winning my heart in the long term (wrote this sentence in June 2023). First time I heard it, it was just another decent-good pop album, but the more I listened to it, the closer I got to the stories and mindset Ella was portraying.
For anyone who doesn't know what Melodrama actually means, and I strongly think what she intended for to mean, it's a heightened sense of something. Maybe it's overly dramatic, it's playing up on ur feelings, plus even stretching the truth of events just a bit, to make everything more exciting - a sort of manipulation in your head. And now, I realize that Ella took the events that spill out over the course of the past four years, analyzed her own reactions, and translated all of it into a tightly woven 41min neo-classic.
And now that I say "neo-classic" I do not mean an album that stands tall as a defining piece of its respective era in music, I mean neo-classic as an album that's gonna stand the test of time, without having yet, but going to; I coulda imagine this being released in 2004, but it illustrates how worthless timeline is for an album, it's the substantial depth surrounding it (plus emotion and replay value, as well as the day you connect with it yerself), that really matters..
On Melodrama, I step into the Adidas' of her's that's been covered in loneliness, one-night stands, partying etc. The songs are stringed with odd choruses (shouldn't get stuck in your head as much as they do, but somewhere deep in the soul, is brilliance) and hardhitting verses, and these two elements - combined - is rare to find in modern music. It is actually quite difficult to describe not only what makes this stand out to other pop records of its time, but to the majority of music to me. At least it goes to show I am not just a pop music hater. I do state that it's utterly extraordinary how she can take typical teen topics, and lyrical clichés and turn them upside down ("Ain't a pill that can touch our rush" is one that instantly come to mind).
Musically, it's pop with atypical emotional intensity. Her vocal ability has matured like the album cover is a mountain above her debut's (who prefers artist and title name over an impressionist-portrait?). Intuition in her delivery as well as the swinging harmonizing on tracks like Sober, and The Louvre ghostly reaches out a hand for an empathetic whirl, highly seductive yet calmly. On the flip-side, the tear-weeper Liability to the heartbreaking Writer In The Dark, she's singing these songs with tears running down her cheeks, and obviously makes me (personally) want to give her the firmest embrace she's ever gonna feel. She is singing clean yet so imperfect. She's human.
One of the best things about Melodrama is its concept that it not-very-obviously shows, plus all verses are well-written. E.g. Homemade Dynamite, the freezing delivery of her vocals is unbelievable. Plus the "d-d-d-dynamite" is genius, due to the sound before the bomb goes off. Tie that in with the experiences of being sober while everyone's drunk, and nobody around understanding you, as well as the click-clack sound before the chorus on Perfect Place, a perfect little closer. The stories even give the completed project a bit more consistency, I mean, there's a part II of Sober (both songs are excellent). (shoutout to ARTV). What do we do when we're sober, she sings on the first part. And the second part creates the answer; parenthesis melodrama. Like, this album is a floating collage of relatable, enjoyable, yet melodramatic (?) stories, told from the most tender soul you could conversate with on a night out, astonishingly well. _________________ My Top 100 :
www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=4...amp;page=1
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