I have been slowly convinced that this is not just a masterpiece of pop, but of music as an art form. It is currently in my top ten. I never would have expected a modern chart-pop album to end up in my top ten, but there it is. It's so fine tuned, so well crafted, so monolithic at its most powerful and so desolate at its most... desolate? Maybe its because I come from a rock background (basically an anti-pop background, really) but I feel like I don't have the right vocabulary, lexicon, even mindset, to talk about pop music correctly. It's spoken of in different terms. Reading pitchfork reviews alone can tell you that talking about pop is just different. What makes pop pop is its ability to tap in to a more primal, immediate enjoyment, it seems. But even that sentiment seems wrong. Oh well. I'll have to resign myself to saying its the best darn album I've discovered this whole year, and leave it at that.

95/100 (Superb)

O grito de uma jovem adulta que resumiu sua geração. Inquietos, transitante entre o escapismo e a militância.

I don't get why this album is ranked so highly. As a huge fan of her first album, this one seems to lack all the things that made the original so appealing. The production is sharper, but lacks the same kind of meloncholic tinge that made the first album so impactful. The songwriting seems flaccid. This album didn't come at a time when Lorde's sound was so necessary; context matters, and when her first album dropped it was something new in a sea of sameness. Ever since people have aped her style and now this is like self-plagiarism.

Damn, that voice! Hard Feelings is the highlight for me, that's such an interesting and bold solo thing. Love it. But the rest is so good as well

85/100 (Very Good)

From the moment I heard Pure heroine for the first time I knew that this girl was special. Four years later, she released this killer album. Lorde's mature and poignant commentary on fame, youth and modern society comes to fruition thanks to her always solid lyrics and mesmerizing voice, and the production is now richer than it was on her debut. She is one to keep an eye on, for sure. I only wish more pop records were as good as this one. Favourite tracks: Homemade dynamite and Sober.

Completely out of my usual listenings. That definitely raises the value of this review, I think...
A brilliant expression of this decade, a quality product from a certainly charismatic singers, which is Lorde. A complete work, never equal to itself, containing the little big jewel Liability, probably the best song of the year.

Great album.

This is album is great. I didn't catch the hype at the beginning but then it got me and I could appreciate the greatness, beauty and emotions that these tracks emanate. Excellent melodies, singing and composition. It makes me happy that Lorde has evolved positively since the beginning of her carreer

Melodrama was one of my favourite albums of the year. I like how it works as a cohesive unit of music, and the emphasis that has been placed on the 'complete experience' of the album as opposed to individual standout tracks. Recurring beats, rhythms etc. make everything work well as a whole. Standout tracks for me are Sober, Supercut and Hard Feelings/Loveless

I'm revising my rating a little as I'm warming up to this. I still think Pure Heroine is the better and more significant record. On repeat listens I'm noticing some beautiful vocal melodies and her songwriting seems more cohesive than at first listen.

While I miss the focused, minimalistic production of Joel Little, she's a competent enough songwriter to make up for the production team that seems stuck between wanting to make a commercial electro-pop sounding record and a pseudo experimental atmospheric one. The production in my opinion is a mixed bag because at sometimes it ends up sounding really crisp and pretty but other times it sounds overproduced and the instrumentals are so generic to the point of being distracting. Of course her voice sounds great no matter what.

Lyrically I'm less pissed off at it too as I'm noticing it is on the whole more critical of the "dance dance party party" than embracing it. I think it's still intentionally ambiguous, which makes it pretty great. I still think she's capable of making a record that blows anything she's done to date out of the water. She doesn't need Joel or the Fun lead singer anymore than Kyrie needed Lebron and I truly feel she'll eventually put out something to really prove this.