Melodrama

Like most late-twenties white women, I was obsessed with this album as a teen and it still hits so, so, so hard nearly a decade later. Praise the Lorde!

I understand why people would like this album, but I don't. Maybe some of Lorde's other albums would be more appealing to me. Good lord! This all feels like generic, soulless, radio-pop music that's trying to be super deep. I made it straight through a few songs, then I hit my pain threshold and had to start cutting songs short. For me, no song stood out more than the others and there was no real highlight to any of the album.

“Hey Lorde can I copy your homework?” “Sure Taylor just change some of the song titles so no one notices.”

OK. 2/5

Pretty good. There's some interesting little things here and there in the background that reminds me of a bit of Björk, but Lorde isn't quite on Björk's level.

It just...fell flat? Lorde's vocals are fine, the production is clean, and the songwriting is decent, it just didn't do anything to impress me as a listener. A lot of the emotional beats of the album didn't grab onto me except for Liability, so much so I started getting bored. The anthemic feeling of Supercut felt pretentious? I got a little offended that it was trying to do something interesting after it couldn't get my interest with the climax and beat switch of Hard Feelings/Loveless, and after that I could only feel apathy for this album.

no. just no

Fun pop listen. No standout hits here for me but yeah it served its purpose.

обычный поп про тусовки, среднее. не мой вайбик

It's fine. Nothing too good or too bad in my opinion.

The thing about Melodrama is that it is a club album and club music is stupid. You can sort of tell immediately with Green Light, a song I like quite a bit. But the thing about Lorde that was so appealing was that dark sparseness, that wise-beyond-her-years tiredness. She lived in a city we never saw on screens! And now she is in the same club everyone else is, chanting “I'm waiting for it, that green light, I want it.” and this album becomes a bit less adult because of it. Pure Heroine was special because of that ch-ch-changes vibe… the children we spit on being quite aware what they're going through. This is the young adult who got richer and now is wasting away in dance clubs. (It's probably no surprise that the zeitgeist loves the club album and not the Kids Taking Control of Their Narrative album. This definitely has nothing to do with, say, the misinformation coming out of Europe right now, for example). It's not necessarily bad music. Lorde had an innate ear and sensibility that is missing from her army of clones (i'm looking at you, eilish). So you still do get layered harmony vocals in single “Homemade Dynamite” (d-d-d-dynamite chaaanges), but where Pure Heroine would have been reflecting a revolution of some sort, this is a club romance. Every pop album is a romance album trying to be different. So you get the flat out heartache song Liability, which again, isn't bad for what it is. But it's not Pure Heroine. It's barely even Solar Power, which reveled back into the personal, enjoying her Lordeness, commenting on the falseness she's seen as a big star now. Melodrama isn't Virgin, which still leaves me flat, but it is absolutely the easiest and safest and least threatening thing she's released in her young life. It's not the album that deserves the nod. You do get a little bit of that cleverness in the Louvre. The almost deadpan and dispassionate way she expresses making them all dance to the boom boom boom of her heart does make it a more complex idea than the youthful defiance that comes from youth dance culture nonanthems, and there is a bit of me that cannot help but be charmed of that self aware “who cares, still the louvre”. Perfect Places captures a little actual joy and a little glimmer of what a relationship song might have looked like in her earlier work. But you also get two reprises, and the absolutely childbrain coded “Loveless”, once again a regression. Even the melody goes nowhere, but the lyrics are a childs-first-crush level mantra on rough love sung to an interminable fade-out. The girl who wrote Royals was older than the woman who wrote Loveless. You kinda can't help but feel the negative influence of Taylor Swift here. Again, not badly done as such. Just banal and doubly banal when considering her other work. It lives in the ⭐️⭐️⭐️ bucket. But only just.

radioslop

The ugly face of shameless greed

I did not hate this. I did not love it.

Rating: 10/10 2017, when the beginning stages of my poptimism had really started to take hold, Melodrama was there to show me how a tumblr-core synthpop breakup album could be so artistic. A 20 year old Lorde writes with a poetic pen and makes some incredible songs, with Jack Antonoff, whose production style has become an influential landmark of modern pop music. Together they really paint a picture with an emotionally charged concept album. It's bookended by its biggest singles with Green Light and Perfect Places, and honestly they're arguably the two best songs on the album. The energetic anthems that they are definitely make them easy to love. But Melodrama is filled with other great tracks from front to back and became so big in their own right for a reason. Tracks 2-5 are all honestly iconic. Hard Feelings/Loveless and Supercut though have always been my favorites. If there's any weaker moments here it's in the kind of 'interludes' of the album, with Sober II and Liability Reprise. It's still one of the best pop albums of the 2010's, and sadly she hasn't released any music in the decade since that is nearly as great to me.

Listen. I understand music of all shapes and stripes and sonic variations is for everyone and no one at the same time. You’ll either like something or you won’t, nothing is designed for every person walking the earth. But looking at the reviews calling Melodrama radio slop or shallow pop music I don’t think some people even tried to give it a chance or engage with it in any real way. That’s fine, it’s their prerogative. Comparing her to Taylor Swift however, a not untalented songwriter whose stylistic pivots can be oft pinpointed to whichever pop artist she’s currently friends with, and a pop star that I vacillate between greatly enjoying and greatly wanting to punch, just isn’t done. Melodrama points to so many pop trends to come, the walk of sad girl pop to Miss Swift’s perpetual run. But it’s a run that doesn’t have the same blisteringly naked honesty and asks for aggressively underlined emotional frills. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s simply just not where we started in the 2010s. I adore Melodrama, I go months to years without listening to it and each time I come back I am floored once again by how meticulous, emotionally messy and (at the time) experimental within the confines of pop music it is. It’s a creatively crunchy album for Lorde and for Jack before he became firmly ensconced in the gloss of the Swift machine, the wayward romantic americana of Lana Del Rey and the catalog of pop stars thereafter. It’s surprising that I leave this album alone long enough for Melodrama to still impact me like this, but I do. And I am rewarded with the melodic frisson each and every time. Now Solar Power, that album is a different problem…

I've really only heard a couple of Lorde's songs and I thought they were pretty good, so I was looking forward to listening to this when it poipped up. Sadly, This album isn't nearly as interesting as I thought it would be. I'm not saying it's bad, it's fine, I guess, but it's just sort of a standard pop album. To me, it doesn't really stand out as being special, or worthy of inclusion on a list that purports to be albums you NEED to hear before you die. Would I rather hear this than another goddamned Beatles album, or a seventh Rolling Stones album? Absolutely.

A little repetitive, but she's managed to carve out a somewhat distinct style of her own. Catchy pop album.

Didn't love. She does that cursive singing that just bugs me (instead of "bar", she sings "bawyyyhh"). i tried. nothing really hooked me on this one. Liability was good. I don't want to be a guy who only likes when the girl pop singer is sad and mournful, but... here we are.

I'm glad I'm not going out every thursday/friday/saturday anymore. This reminded me of how garbage it was 90% of the time. Musically, not my lane. Synth, or synthy piano, breathy affected drawling vocals, excessive reverb... Unlike many other albums I could make those criticisms of though, I can see why this would hit some people. Standout was probably Liability.

"Mum, can we listen to Taylor Swift?" "We have Taylor Swift at home" ... Yeah. This.

Pretty great!

Probably more of a three and a half. It’s good, won me over a bit more at the end, she finished the album strong.

tough to beat Pure Heroine

Fav song: Supercut

I really liked this album. It could definitely be a go-to for listening to on repeat during a break-up. The lyrics are very strong and the contrast of the pain in her words and voice are in stark contrast to a lot of the pop and up-tempo instrumentals. I really only know Lorde for “Royals” (which was not a fave) and one other song from a more recent album. I would go back to this record though, especially “Supercuts” and “Perfect Places.”

7.9/10. I enjoyed this album, Lorde is very talented. She brought such a unique voice and song-building methodology, and the album was filled with deep topics and lots of emotion. She combines grand vocals and layered harmonies with simplistic instrumentals that help showcase her ability to create good music. I'm really impressed Randy Marsh had the time to create this while cosplaying as a woman, while working as a geologist/marijuana farmer.

The album isn't available in my country

Electropop, synth-pop, art pop.

Missed Lorde - too busy raising the boys. I've heard Royals. Not that it is here though. ----------------------------------------------------- Taylor slow. The beat/synth heavy passages have a sleek modernness about them that make for an easy listen. It feels like a nigh time car-ride. The taxi ride after a good night out? Just taking it all in. Otherwise this is very generic pop, that has never seen a musical instrument in it's life, but has seen hundreds of "producers". The vocal intonation is frustratingly forced, like a Kate Bush cosplay with mouth full of rocks. The song structures have been done a thousand times. The lyrics are a teenager's wet dream. There slow, whispery songs evoke naught in me. 2* (Add a Lordi album instead)

It's a pretty solid pop album from the late 2010's, it's a bit more moody and downtempo than other albums of the time, but otherwise this is pretty typical of the period. It's a bit too generically "produced by Jack Antonoff" to give the full 5 stars to, but I certainly enjoyed it.

"Gone With The Wind".

Somehow I knew Green light already. I love the general vibe of the album. 3.8/5

No notes

Actually pretty strong. Ironically sounds from a different time even though it's relatively new. I guess that's pop. High 2s.

C’est vraiment pas pour moi, j’ai réellement essayer d’aimer (principalement car Lorde me fait penser à Randy de south Park et je trouvais ça honteux de ne pas aimer ses musiques du coup) mais j’y arrive franchement pas, je trouve les musiques répétitive, et vraiment vide, inintéressante. Je pense peut être tester son album le plus récent, mais pour le moment c’est un grand non pour moi

I just kinda refuse to believe that anyone could rate this higher than a 3 or so without a poptimist outlook to overlook how... bland it is? I get that this was obviously part of the 2017 zeitgeist, but I'm pretty shocked at how this is like, #5 for ALL of 2017 on RYM.

After being shot out of a cannon at a tender age and putting some of her best work on other people’s albums, her sophomore album is cohesive with a theme and a bunch of good songs.

This felt as mid as mid could be. 2.5 stars, rounded down

I am Lorde

This album is OK, I prefer Pure Heroine. Still this has a fantastic lead in.

I liked it more than I thought I would

I've listened before. It's a great album, but not my particular taste usually

Not my favorite album produced by Jack Antonoff

I really don't have much to say on this one. Most of it faded into the background for me immediately. I tend to listen to these albums while doing at least something else; I don't think many of us have the luxury of taking 30 minutes to an hour out of our day every day to give an album our undivided attention. I enjoyed the first song well enough, everything after that I could barely muster up the ability to pay attention to it, and after a while I must have stopped trying. Pop is definitely not my thing by and large, so it's only the genre's exceptional stuff that will hold my attention. So far on this list I am yet to find such an album. I'm sure you'll get more out of this if you're more well versed in pop, and your mileage may vary generally, but I didn't find this anything other than unremarkable and not my thing. I'll take Lordi over Lorde every time.

Lorde builds on the subdued, nocturnal pop of her debut album by adding in some more traditional pop hooks. Songs like "Green Light" and "Sober" start off quiet but build to big moments, with some nice horns on the latter. While the songs pay off in the end, the softer moments are largely uninteresting, lacking in the little details that would make them pop. "Supercut" is an exception with its bubbling synth lines. Songs like "Liability" and "Writer in the Dark" are hard for me to take, as kind of melody-less ballads that strip even the small highlights away. This is further by the fact that I don't like Lorde's style of whispered, involved vocals; I don't think she's a bad singer, but she is a kind of singer I don't like. The album ends strong on "Perfect Places" but besides this and other highlights it doesn't really rise above the alternative pop wave it helped spawn.

before listening to this I had no idea why Lorde was huge in tumbler but now I can get it her song writing is so millenial, and honestly this is my first time I got a modern album from this site so extra point for that.

Not my vibe

I hate this haha

More less.

It's like signing up for the spin class with the Y's coolest instructor. At first it is fresh and inspiring, but after 30 min I'm ready to bail.

There’s an intimate quality to this album that appeals. The backing musical tracks are quiet, sparse and restrained, not bombastic like so much modern pop music, meant to frame Lorde’s storytelling and sophisticated reflections on adolescence (she was 20 when this came out). Her dry speak-singing voice, while limited in its range, conveys vulnerability to go with her highly interpersonal, literate lyrics and storytelling. She’s a unique talent.

This was fine, but since there's 3 Kate Bush records from her early, middle and late career on the list, do we really need to hear the sophomore effort of a literal sophomore whom she influenced?

no me interesa este tipo de musica

Ok

It's fine? I didn't really enjoy it back when it was released, and that has not changed with time. I really liked her first album but none of her work since has really connected with me. I also find Lorde's voice kind of grating in a way I didn't used to so maybe I'm just a grump.

Rating: 4.8/5 Short Review: God, this is good. Messy emotions wrapped in gorgeous, explosive pop production. Lorde makes heartbreak, jealousy, loneliness, and reckless nights feel almost euphoric. The album moves beautifully between huge dance-floor moments and quiet vulnerability. A few tracks hit harder than others, but there’s barely a wasted moment. Favorite Track: Supercut

Lorde is a more than decent songwriter, able to be relatively confessional and still reach someone like me who’s come from very different lived experience. If I were you I’d try this out.

singer-songwriter

Great single for the opening track but falls into the same issues I have with most pop albums, the album tracks feel so weak compared to the single and it makes the album feel a bit long. I do like Lorde's moody miserable teenager vibe though. 3/5.

Muy girlie....

Ruim demais

Vier Jahre nach „Pure Heroine“ legte die Neuseeländerin Ella Yelich-O’Connor, die als Lorde auftritt, am 16. Juni 2017 ihr zweites Album vor. Es erschien in den USA bei Lava und Republic Records, lizenziert von Universal Music New Zealand. Aufgenommen wurde es an mehreren Orten: in den Electric Lady Studios, im Rough Customer Studio, in den Westlake und Conway Studios sowie in den Jungle City Studios, gemischt wurde es unter anderem bei MixStar. Das Ergebnis ist Pop mit Indie- und Synth-Einschlag, der weniger nach Charts klingt als nach Schlafzimmer, Taxi und Tanzfläche. Das Album erzählt von einer Trennung und der Nacht, die darauf folgt. „Green Light“ beginnt mit Klavier und kippt in einen Refrain, der fast gegen die eigene Strophe anrennt. „Liability“ dagegen kommt mit Stimme und Klavier aus und handelt davon, selbst die Zumutung für andere zu sein. Dazwischen liegen „Homemade Dynamite“ und „Supercut“ als die auffälligeren Popmomente. „Hard Feelings/Loveless“ dauert über sechs Minuten und wechselt mittendrin von Wehmut zu Sarkasmus. Nicht alles zündet gleich stark. In der Mitte hängen einige Stücke im ähnlichen Tempo, und die Texte sind dichter, als es der Popkontext verlangt. Das Album hat dadurch aber eine Handschrift, die nach dem Hören wiedererkennbar bleibt. Zu den Stärken zählen Lordes Stimme, die sich zwischen Flüstern und Chor bewegt, und die Arrangements, die Lücken zulassen. „Perfect Places“ beschließt die Platte nicht als Triumph, sondern als Achselzucken. Als Album über eine einzige Nacht und ihre Nachwehen ist „Melodrama“ bis heute ungewöhnlich geschlossen.

7/10

Not my thing Why is every review of this the most pretentiously written thing you’ve ever seen

Moody minimalistisk pop, hvilket er meget cool (og lidt nostalgisk). Men det er lidt svært at abstrahere fra Lordes bizarre stemmeføring

Not my cup of tea at all

Grei pop

Positivt overraska

Not too offensive to listen to, had some genuinely good songs.

Strong start, but didn't hold up

Again, just a regular usual pop experience - I've enjoyed Heroin much more becuase it has some kind of a unique sound, and your experience is different

Green Light is a bop but otherwise this album didn't really connect with me or distance itself from 2010s recession pop. It sounds a lot like Taylor Swift at points, but not any of the Taylor stuff I like.

Fun listen

Melodrama just about covers it. Lyrically very uninteresting, pretty laughable in spots - 'hard feelings' really made me giggle. You can see where Olivia Rodrigo gets it. I went in pretty optimistic given the very positive coverage Lorde has got but this did nothing for me, preoccupied with uninteresting teenage drama (kissing is really quite something apparently) but she sings nicely at least. I suppose it's deliberate, given the name? But it's not funny or musically interested enough to carry the cringeworthy content. I didn't enjoy this and I won't be coming back for a second listen, but maybe it's not supposed to be for me. Sorry Lorde.

This is surely one of my favourite albums of the 2010s. For the second Friday in a row I get an album that was robbed AOTY at the grammys (I got Kendrick’s TPAB last Friday). There are so many elements to unpack in a 41 min album: the pulsating beats in Green Light, the whispering in Sober, the production in Hard Feelings… and then just when you thought Sober and Liability were good, wait, there are part 2’s of these songs! It’s truly amazing how can someone so young (Lorde was 20 here) could make an album so well written. There’s a level of relatability and a level of specificity in the lyrics to these songs. I’m sure many people have felt like a “liability” at several points in their lives. I usually tend to think that when people talk about an emotional “arch” in the order of songs in an album that it is exaggerated - but in this case this is truly a journey from song to song. After the sadness and bitterness of a breakup you arrive at “I’ll start letting go of little things ‘til I’m so far away from you” and the triumphant chant of “but you’re not what you thought you were”, which she repeats almost with a sense of delight.

I've always loved Pure Heroine. The subdued production and the more opaque lyrics really work, in my opinion. Melodrama's more on-the-nose lyrics and the obvious Jack Antonoff touches aren't for me. That said, there are still a couple great songs late on the album.

siento que ya escuché esto antes y es una voz diferente haciendo lo mismo, muy normal

First Lorde album. In love

Absolute pop perfection. The album of the generation, ironically. Captures girlhood impeccably. Would give it a 6/5. Jack Antonoff i will kill you tho

A little better than I was expecting. Still it mostly sounds like the music they play at my local Goodwill store.

FEELING GOOD ON A WEDNESDAYY

When I saw the release date, I knew it didn't have "Royals", "Team", or "Tennis Court". I then became instantly confused, because those are the only Lorde songs that apparently exist, right? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It starts off with a banger, and the first half of the album blew me away. She's so much more than just an early 2010s fad. Lord live Lorde! Favorite Track: "Green Light".

The problem with this is Lorde sounds nihilistic and depressed when she's not. I can't get behind this album like I could her debut of Pure Heroine

I think by the halfway mark the songs really started to interest me lyrically as well as musically/production-wise. Definitely a well done album, but not one I see myself being completely invested in. Fav Tracks: "Homemade Dynamite", "Liability" and "Hard Feelings/Loveless"

funny how my opinion on an album changes over time but my rating can stay the same. when this came out i didnt care much for its production. fast forward 10 years, now i cant bear her voice. funnily enough the production more or less stood the test of time.

Wasn’t really into it

Greenlight is a good song, I haven't heard it in years, it seems. Overall, a pretty solid album. The issue I'm running into these is that I wouldn't really go out of my way to listen to most of these. In the least critical way, I think this album would hit so hard if I was a teenage girl.

This was fantastic! Good beats with thoughtful lyrics. I really enjoyed this!

Interesting effects and vocals.

Some songs are OK, others are the dregs.

some catchy highlights, I definitely go to some songs more than others. strong 7/10. first listen tracklist ranking: 1. Writer in the Dark 2. The Louvre 3. Liability 4. Supercut 5. Perfect Places 6. Green Light 7. Sober 8. Homemade Dynamite 9. Hard Feelings/Loveless 10. Sober II 11. Liability Reprise

Good vocal control but too my fry and the instrumentals all seemed to blend togehter

- I heard complaints that this album felt overproduced when it first came out, so I'm interested to see if this is also the impression it gives me - her first album was very minimalistic and made a statement with it, so this ends up seeming a bit more in the realm of Katy Perry or Pink than what the world knew of Lorde prior to this release. the first track definitely gives me an "edgy" pop diva impression -- too much background synth going on to be that kind of dark minimalism that Lorde did so well before this. the influence from Jack Antonoff shows - okay, by the third track I get it. it's probably fine in its own right as a pop offering with a couple of unique moments here and there, but this is so different than Pure Heroine. there's too much going on in a track like "Homemade Dynamite" for it to have the same power as "Royals," and everything sounds almost watered down - I think she said it herself: "The truth is I am a toy/that people enjoy/'Til all of the tricks don't work anymore/And then they are bored of me." the album tries to capitalize on the things that made Pure Heroine unique (like her low notes, as just one example), but they missed the mark 80% of the time - fun parts: I thought "Louvre" was good, and the interesting instrument/sound effect part in "Hard Feelings/Loveless" was pretty cool and unique - but it ends on a sour note: the same kind of "look at us, we're so young and cool and can afford to make bad decisions" that we'd already heard with fun.'s "We Are Young" ~5 years prior to this album's release (and many, many other artists). I know her first album had similar themes, but it still doesn't feel like any kind of artistic growth. I'm left with the impression that Lorde sort of sold out with this one - ...just learned Jack Antonoff is in fun. -- it all makes sense now, case closed

6/10 - more poppy than I'm accustomed too but not bad

Randy Marsh made this? Really great pop album. I should give Lorde and pop in general more of a chance

Lorde's best song is Foil by Weird Al.

Not as good as Pure Heroine, in this reviewers humble opinion, but it holds up. Lorde just can't help but be very distinctive in her pop-girl persona. And that identity shines through her music. Never a dull moment on this album. My main complaint would be the melodrama of it all, but I can't exactly fault her for that can I? Choice Cuts - 'Sober', 'Perfect Places', 'Green Light' Great Lyric Mention: "We're the greatest/they'll hang us in the Louvre. Down the back/but who cares/still the Louvre"

I spent a few listens deciding whether to give this a 4 or a 5. And I enjoyed all of them. It's certainly an important pop album. It was fun to learn about the controversy of Jack Antonoff supposedly making all pop music sound the same. I think Lorde's talent as a lyricist and singer set it apart from the others though. Liability is hands down my favorite, and it's admittedly the most Antonoff-y. Just change the voice and I'm listening to Bleachers. The guy can write a good hook, idk.

i first listened to this to impress a girl i liked, one of the first albums i ever bought, probably listened through a hundred times in my freshman year of college. i think i do kind of hate lorde's voice and i hate all of her songs that have ever gotten radioplay, but listening back to this now there isn't a single skip (i will reluctantly go through Green Light as a sign of respect). favorite song is Perfect Places, also love Sober. unbiased easy fiver