Lorde - Melodrama (2017)

I don't think this sounds anything like what's on American pop radio (that interlude about the shark's teeth!), but what do I know?

idk the beginning makes me thing i'm gonna get "wrecking ball" or something. she subverts that considerably but at the cost of making the song feel uneven. still, pretty cool & fun

Wrecking Ball is 1000 times better than this.

My fondness for this song has waned. I still like all the flailing around she does in the video though.

Wrecking Ball is 1000 times better than this.

― “Remember,” he says, “Noddy Holder is a gangster.” (contenderizer), Saturday, March 4, 2017 12:28 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was a description not a value judgment

someone like carly rae jepsen or rihanna usually avoids being cloying in this manner despite also being Pop as anything. i wish i had the musicological chops to explain why

often when people find themselves thinking this sort of thing about music the answer is "I like Carly Rae Jepsen or Rihanna on a persona/meme/received-opinion level and do not like Lorde on that level"

just my opinion, but lorde sucks

testing out some of these "i think ill post in the hip hop thread" ilx posting styles

insane that she went 5 years without releasing a follow-up and everyone is still anticipating this lol.

we are running out of melodies

― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, March 3, 2017 11:52 AM (yesterday)

Weren't modernist classical composers suggesting this 100 years ago?

why is this song stuck in my head ffs ffs ffs

Lorde as an event artist is so bewildering to me, she had one racially-problematic hit a few years ago and what else

I wish all the Niki & The Dove comparisons would lead people to the amazing N&TD album from last year

why is this song stuck in my head ffs ffs ffs

― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Saturday, March 4, 2017 7:44 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

deep down you really love this song

i dont even think royals is problematic tbh ... its good tbh. but the idea of her as like a serious artist we shd take v v seriously is seriously weird imo

I think it's less what you (and I and etc) might think about taking her seriously and what others do.

i think acting like lorde is a one hit wonder or rita ora-type is somewhat disingenuous. her debut album has sold over 5 million copies and is 3x platinum in the USA

also she was like...15 when her debut single was released iirc so i don't begrudge her taking a little time to grow up a bit and figure out what she wanted to do next

i dont even think royals is problematic tbh ... its good tbh. but the idea of her as like a serious artist we shd take v v seriously is seriously weird imo

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Saturday, March 4, 2017 11:01 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree w/the sentiment behind this, but it's not really weird to me considering this is ILM

the reason this feels so uneventful (though competent), to me, is that lorde was among the early wave of "alt-pop" (for lack of a better term) artists achieving mainstream pop success, a wave followed by dozens. so now this sounds like it could be by anybody,

i do also agree w that analysis

also she was like...15 when her debut single was released iirc so i don't begrudge her taking a little time to grow up a bit and figure out what she wanted to do next

― monotony, Saturday, March 4, 2017 10:21 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

teenage rappers dont get nearly this level of 'understanding' lol

She featured on that Disclosure track (co-wrote?) and worked on a few songs for the Hunger Games soundtrack in the 3 and a bit years since her LP. It's not like she's done nothing. Not many pop artists releasing every two years but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looking forward to hearing the rest of her album.

the Hunger Games is more sonically adventurous despite not being about anything.

Piano in-between bit is dope, idk about the rest though

she recorded a song with Why? at my friend's studio a few years ago, but it has never seen the light of day, which is too bad because by his account it is fantastic

i think tuneyards mixed it.

New track out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtvJaNeELic

Sounds a bit like a fun. track. I'm a fan of fun. but I don't know if I like this sorta torch-song thing on her. Also it's kinda unsubstantial for a single.

I am not quite getting the logic of sitting at the bottom of her range so much

This song gets better as it goes along but is kind of boring

Yeah I got bored and started singing "All the Young Dudes" halfway through.

I am not quite getting the logic of sitting at the bottom of her range so much
maybe they think it's her unique selling point, and Royals was prob around there too, but if I were Lorde I'd be dreading that SNL performance...

does it kinda sound like she's singing with a very pointy mouth? is it just a nz accent?

every other singer sounds like that -- Ellie Goulding, Alessia Cara, etc

I've listened to it once and so here's my knee-jerk, ill-informed opinion: I really like the switch to the 90s-style house piano on the bridge because it's so unexpected (I was expecting that sort of minimalist, stately ballad thing she did on her first album). Always nice to hear something genuinely surprising in a song. That aside, the song is fine but it never quite lifts off; it's one of those songs where the build-up to the chorus is better than the chorus. I would not be happy enough if this song came on in the gym. Big praise indeed.

I like Alessia Cara! she does sing too low but whatever

"Liability" just reminds me of another song using a Pachelbel Cannon-like melody. Pretty dull

surprisingly the SNL performance made me like Green Light a fair bit more, the chorus percussion comes through much stronger in that performance. verse is still really weak though

I sat with my excited 11-year-old (who's pretty musically sophisticated) at the kitchen table this morning and we ran both performances after each other on repeat until it was time for school. Both awesome.

Yeah, I think she sold those songs surprisingly well on SNL.

Agreed. If I had first heart them via the SNL performances I would have been sold from the get go. She gave them the boost of energy they needed.

I know about what you did and I wanna scream the truth
She thinks you love the beach, you're such a damn liar

not enough energy in the damn world

i am lorde yah yah yah lorde lorde lorde yah yeah

she handled that SNL performance very well

I missed the second song but I thought "Green Light" was great. Also makes me wonder why they picked the takes they used for the studio version when she sounded much more comfortable in her lower register live.

It was a good SNL performance - I always had the idea she wasn't a good live performer, I was wrong - but it just makes it more clear how superior the 'house piano' section on the pre-chorus is to the rest of the song. I always forget the verses and the chorus annoys me a bit but for a brief moment in there it feels like the song is going to do something amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf0Np2bup9I

another new song. it seems like she's throwing a bone to fans who wish she hadn't strayed so far from her Pure Heroine sound, but I don't care, it's a good bone with a nice texture

Jesus, how many songs in the last 15-20 years have been called "Sober?" And were there any before then?

really like the record! it's meticulously po-faced with the occasional playful interruption (childlike explosion noise on "Homemade Dynamite", the way the reference to being immortalised in the Louvre is phrased, the absurd likeness to The Dreaming-era Kate Bush on "Writer In The Dark")

I am forced to admit despite my apathy that this is pretty good

meticulously po-faced

A fair description but I did laugh at "They’ll hang us in the Louvre/Down the back, but who cares—still the Louvre."

First impression: good album, stronger than the first overall but maybe not as many hooks. Some of the songs will take a few listens to sink in.

I agree about the onion rings. Thank god there's someone speaking truth to power on this subject now. The whole industry needs accountability.

I like this a lot. It sports the second good song with Louvre-as-metaphor in less than a year.