Lorde - Melodrama (2017)

This is basically what I wish Jamie XX's music sounded like.

This is a jam.

Interesting production. Melodically about as dull as it's possible to be

like your opinions then

j/k :* :)

Also, perfect album title.

I hope that this go-round I like more than half of the album.

MeLorderama

co-written by lena dunham's boyfriend

Really? I usually don't care too much for his stuff.

it takes a special kind of performer to almost ruin the energy of a track like that

I like this. Very catchy. She's a big fan of the processed hand-clap percussion though.

the housey piano is the best bit - ensuing chorus kinda ruins it

Phenomenal song. Disagree about her sucking the energy out of it; it's her droll/incensed/kinda bizarre vocal performance that sells it.

Sounds like it could be a "Hello"-sized smash to me. It's gonna sound incredible hearing this at bar close and on pop radio megamixes all summer long

Definitely has a lot of remix potential. It doesn't quite feel like the dance track I want it to be, but perhaps it's a grower.

I'm not wild about the production but it feels like it's going to be big regardless.

The chorus backing vocals make me think of Kate Bush, so I can't dislike this. Anyone else getting a Katy B vibe as far as direction?

This isn't bad. I had planned to hate her for all eternity after that Tears for Fears cover.

Kate Bush is a good call - not in the way it sounds, but in the way she's maturing as an artist.

Not sure about this on first listen - there is so much going on - but think it may well grow on me.

i like the parts w/the house piano

aka the good parts

on second listen it's a total earworm

can't stand the video, that being said

I like the pre-chorus/chorus, but not so keen on the verses, which feel kind of disconnected to me.

Kate Bush is a good call

Visually as well.

It would/will be more obvious should she breaks out of 1st person relationship songs. As far as I know, Lorde's not an instrumentalist. I wonder what would be today's equivalent of a Fairlight to get in her hands?

The backing vocals on the chorus sound so much like Niki & The Dove.

the last minute is the best part

Pretty good song. Dull lyrics but the delivery's convincing. Suspenseful verses building up to a big, booming chorus, the sound of something exciting happening RIGHT NOW.

Kate Bush comparisons seem criminal.

predictable but decent I guess

'She thinks she loves the beach you're such a damn liar' ✓

I like this a lot, and think it's full of energy. She uses three or four different sounding vocals in this and I think it really works. Booming chorus.

'She thinks you* love the beach etc'

I want to like this but it just makes me want to listen to Miike Snow instead. Silvia specifically.

the last minute is the best part

OTM, the detuned synth lead steals the whole song

terrible single on first listen, no coherence between verse and bridge

her voice is not great on this, sounds like she's stretching for those low notes, no idea why they wouldn't just have transposed it, I'm certain she'll be far off key live (not bcz she's not a good singer but bcz the song is out of her register)

I like this.

literally can't believe you're all handing out these props to that My First Chord Sequence chorus

are we really only demanding this of our pop

(the synth line at the end is decent I guess)

shut up

I love it when LJ starts talking about chord sequences and composition like he knows what he's talking about.

This does feel like it was written for the opening ceremony of a major sporting tournament in a city with no clear identity though.

yeah, it doesn't seem very... lordey to me

feels like a belting singer would have served the material better

i don't dislike this but it sounds pretty generic for someone considered an Event Artist (the reasons for which are beyond me)

feels like a belting singer would have served the material better

― niels, Friday, March 3, 2017 9:45 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my guy

1st person relationship songs

aka 95% of pop music in 2017

Or indeed, most pop music ever.

we need more of this https://youtu.be/8NO8h_uTkdU

the chorus is the weak part to me but the childish backing vox still end up stuck in my head so *shrug*

i agree that it sounds like it would be better for someone else's voice

I wonder what this would sound like if Selena Gomez sang it

better I think, Gomez has that plasticky generic voice that's perfect for basic pop whereas Lorde sounds like she's trying to impart profundity to everything she sings, which imo her material doesn't justify

Gomez's robotic intonation of luv-u-like-a-luv-song-bébé >>>>>>> any moment on this

Lazy to do a copy paste of each but here’s the thread on the popheads subreddit with links:

https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/p7egt7/lorde_solar_power_album_reviews/

amazing flex to hire matt chamberlain and barely use him

Hahaha same thought, just found out he was involved in this.

Lynne's a musician, though, an artist in his own right -- closer to Eno. Iovine like Rubin doesn't play instruments and is known for good ears.

but antonoff is a musician and an artist in his own right

I'm not comparing Lynne and Antonoff -- I compared him to Iovine and Rubin.

wait, Robyn does a corny spoken word cameo on this?

"fallen fruit" is pretty good imo

Dancing with my girls, only having two drinks, then leaving
It's a funny thing, never thought you’d gain self control

i still find the lyrical position of this album like super obnoxious

"the path" and "solar power" resemble each other so much that it's like the album begins twice. "california" and "stoned" are the worst two songs on the record for me, the latter's "i've got nothing to say, and that's ok" attitude reflects poorly on the project

i also keep longing for any kind of textural variation in this record to give me a sense of, idk, flow, instead of what it does, which is mostly sunbathe in one spot. i even like some of the songs that are so soft they're on the verge of disappearance, "man with the axe" especially, but it's part of a suite of songs that are all super quiet and yearning

"mood ring" is actually a highlight in that context in that it suddenly reminds me of, oh yeah, nelly furtado's folklore, which i appreciate being reminded of. "oceanic feeling" strikes me as what more of this record should've sounded like, but even that's only remarkable for how loose the song structure is, getting sort of dubby and ambient at the end, but even this is like not really quite enough for me. i feel like if it just... stretched out a little further... it could almost do a john martyn "small hours" thing, but it doesn't. maybe that's the wrong angle to regard this album from, but idk, it's also stoned beach music

idk why i felt the need to weigh in on this record other than i felt like a hater and didn't want to be an uninformed hater

i still find the lyrical position of this album like super obnoxious

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson)

It's a flyspeck, but the POV shift in these lines annoys me.

there are a few good ideas on here but it's way too mellow overall and i wish it actually did anything with those ideas

like if the whole album had gone in on the balearic ambience of "oceanic feeling" instead of mostly forgettable very mellow 70s folk stuff it could have been great

Listening to the album now for the second time and while there are no particular stand out tracks (so far), it's got a pleasant vibe imo.

I had the weird comparison pop into my head that Lorde’s music career is hitting half of the plot beats from Mean Girls (“outsider” shows up, gets elevated to popularity, sheds the things that made them interesting in the first place and turns into the new iteration of the popular) and I can’t stop thinking about it

Yes it’s a stretch and falls apart on closer look, I know this already but I can’t stop giggling about the surface comparison

Are we sure she’s not being ironic with this? Solar Power seemed super-sarcastic to me.

she went out of her way to describe "mood ring" as satire

a lot of reviews are like "satire that resembles the real thing isn't satire," which is extremely untrue, but imo the writing isn't strong enough to make the satire function anyway

She's often hard to read, and while I often blame myself Lorde proves the exception. "Royals" still confounds me.

also the satire just sort of stops at "haha isn't this woo-woo new age healer ridiculous and caught in some kind of grief cycle that they're using nonsense to cope with." knowing that lorde is doing this doesn't improve the song for me and instead cuts off any emotional connection i could have with it xp

Brad OTM; it doesn't really matter if it's satire if it's also bad

I guess that’s true in terms of issuing a verdict on the album, I’m not postmodern enough to think it doesn’t matter at all.

a lot of reviews are like "satire that resembles the real thing isn't satire," which is extremely untrue, but imo the writing isn't strong enough to make the satire function anyway

i think it's more that she doesn't feel distant enough from what she's satirising in the first place, like her public persona is already hippie-ish enough that it'd be easy to believe she was getting super into new age wellness nonsense for real?

so y'all are saying it would be better if she leaned into it and was earnest about this goopery

absolutely not

Even if it’s ironic, going after instragramming goopers seems lazy. The world is a target-rich environment for satire and disdain, many of whom are way worse than hot girls.

Pandemic pop has really sucked.

my daughter reckons it's a fake-out and she's going to drop something deep and dark soon

glad the kids are keeping the secret second album conspiracies going

Even if it’s ironic, going after instagramming goopers seems lazy. The world is a target-rich environment for satire and disdain, many of whom are way worse than hot girls.

Yeah, she's satirizing something that really doesn't need satirizing, and doing it in a way that feels both heavy-handed and inadequate (she says it's an indictment of white people co-opting indigenous traditions, but the song barely touches on that.) I feel like this is Lorde's "57 Channels and Nothin' On." Like, oh no, I'm a rich person living in a bubble and I can't think of anything to write about, so here, let me "satirize" a bunch of tired pop culture shit that everyone already knows is dumb.

Also I keep getting stuck on the fact that mood rings are children's toys; is there some expensive Goop version of a mood ring that I don't know about?

What's confusing is that "Mood Ring" was clearly satirical, but the earlier two songs (which had the same sound/vibe/theme) didn't seem to be? Idk - I haven't listened to the rest of the album and probably won't.

there was an element of it to "solar power", just not as directly

oh no, I'm a rich person living in a bubble and I can't think of anything to write about

This is half of pop music now.

that's not really anything new either

there was an element of it to "solar power", just not as directly

― ufo, Friday, 20 August 2021 23:58 (yesterday) link

idk she intro’d it with… ‘There’s someone I want you to meet.
Her feet are bare at all times. She’s sexy, playful, feral, and free. She’s a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. I’m completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too.
‘

yeah that just goes to show how muddled it is lol

the stuff that read to me that way in "solar power" was "i'm kinda like a prettier jesus" and the whole video

I thought the “prettier Jesus” thing was her paying tribute to a fan meme

just made my own Solar Power sequence:

Leader of a New Regime
The Path
Solar Power
Secrets from a Girl (Who's Seen It All)
California
Mood Ring
Fallen Fruit
Dominoes
Big Star
Stoned at the Nail Salon
The Man With The Axe
Oceanic Feeling

actually, I'd probably make "Stoned" a hidden track at the end of "Oceanic Feeling"

New EP in... maori !

Indeed, and this article about it is a must read

https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/09-09-2021/lorde-interview-maori-lyrics-solar-power/

and this one - https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/tokenism-in-full-force-my-take-on-lordes-album

Lorde just told the crowd at the Anthem that she swam??? In the Potomac??? To get a feel for D.C???? The crowd is in SHAMBLES

— natalie escobar 🎷🐛 (@_NatalieEscobar) August 30, 2022

Possibly one of the wildest things I’ve heard of being said on a stage here.

LOL I love her pic.twitter.com/TtmpuQ2DaS

— Jimmy (@jimmyeppley) August 30, 2022

Maybe next time she wants to appreciate the local waterways, someone could take her around the Anacostia Community Boathouse.

lol

In between songs, the singer reminisced about the themes of each of her three albums, noting that Pure Heroine “was about not being a teenager,” Melodrama “was about a boy,” and Solar Power is “about the climate.”