Lorde - Melodrama (2017)

it's ok

it's the season of the lorde, you have to listen to it

it pairs well with an summer shandy. look for UFO Big Squeeze on your local market's shelves!

now let's get down to it: how are we all making money today?

should I listen to this y/n?

― trap door to hell opens underneath (rob), Sunday, 13 June 2021 16:43 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

you aren't even part of the cultural discourse until you hear this and offer a take

are any of you WORTH anything? can any of you increase my wealth? if not, i'm going back to the beach, it's lorde season

I listened and here's my take: Lorde looks a lot like a young Michelle Gomez

i listened to it and it is really quite a bit better than i expected. it does truly threaten to cross into some of the same awful territory as some of its comparison points noted above but for me i think it does stay on the acceptable side

I know this is ILX and all but I find it funny how much thought and theorizing and research/googling is going into a song that barely justifies its running time

― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Sunday, June 13, 2021 9:12 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the rest of the internet is doing this way more than we are

has this thread even touched on the potential social commentary of the video... ugh...........

doing something that sucks on purpose is subversive man

that's the first set of posts so far to almost tempt me into checking it out tbf

"has this thread even touched on the potential social commentary of the video... ugh..........."

was there social commentary in the video? I barely paid attention to it.

A very clunky, calculated attempt at being an early contender for Song Of The Summer that doesn’t quite land.

“I throw my cellular device in the water” line is really weird. Strong Boomer energy there. Either that, or I’m so out of touch that Gen Z are now calling their phones or iPads or whatever “cellular devices”.

Loaded was also the song I first thought of when hearing it, and then there was one other similar sounding song that had been on the tip of my mind-tongue for a couple of days and I just realised it’s Take Your Mama by Scissor Sisters.

xp maybe that term is meant to highlight a phone’s “cold” artificially, or something?

dropped my cellphone down below
I’m so high it makes my brain whirl

Wasn't there another recent song that nodded to "Loaded?" Vampire Weekend?

finally listened to this.
bit crap isn't it?

xp yeah vampire weekend's "harmony hall"

why has she stopped singing fairly well and adopted the annoying affectations of a thousand much worse singers?

finally watched/listened

it's nicely mixed I guess? her voice is really not suited to this sort of hook at all and the takeoff is completely botched

did not detect any politics whatsoever in the song or video tbh

Simon H, politics detector

when she rejects the golden horn she's obviously eschewing the gold standard in favor of cryptocurrency

no wonder she's also endorsing solar power

i am curious why this hits some kind of must-hear tipping point that other pop stars dont. Whats with the lorde crossover that didnt happen w like idk ... selena gomez? To me the pop songs doja cat is putting out are much better and she's a much more engaging pop performer on other levels too.

and its not like we DONT talk about that stuff. but this lorde song was like a 'broke the internet' type moment everyone was talking about and i dont really get it -- even prior to the song being underwhelming i dont get it

i think part of it is that she just doesn't release music that often

Yeah, she's a major artist and it's been four years since her last thing.

riding a wave of goodwill from the last one, New Jersey style

I also think it was designed to be Zeitgeist-y, and obv pulled it off.

(despite being not-great)

cover art playing into that as well

it's more than that, i get what deej is saying. she appeals to a... certain set of ppl who tweet a lot because she seems cool, approachable, like she could be friends w/ music writers, but is (or was at one point) also an A-list pop star. there is a perception of authenticity (both as a personality and musically) that drives enthusiasm about her w/in a certain discursive bubble. that authenticity used to be matched by the wider world circa "royals," but generally speaking on a global A list level the world has moved on but music writers in the rock critic lineage have hung on. it's funny for lorde to "break the internet" (music writer twitter) at the same time as ppl go thru another round of poptimist handwringing bcuz lorde is in essence a pop star who is flattered by attributes we associate w/ rockism. it's pretty easy to see

lorde has established some sort of auteur pop cred (probably a little undeservingly she's not that interesting imo) & melodrama was generally really well-received critically and by online pop nerds even if it was a commercial flop

i thought her debut album was pretty bad, but there was the same level of excitement around melodrama and then it at least kind of delivered?

can we put "less engaging that Doja Cat" on the sticker for the eventual album

You guys may v well be right (and are obv plugged into this stuff), tho I also don't think any random comeback single by her would have had the same "impact." There's something specific to this song and (yes) the cover art.

It's a Whole Vibe™

are you still talking about the cover art or

I can tell you that my daughters (15 and 19) revere Lorde as a young auteur with integrity, in the pantheon with Mitski and Billie Eilish. They’ve been waiting for this return for 4 years and are deeply underwhelmed.

There's something specific to this song

i guess there's very much a feeling of wasted potential to it? that makes it a little more interesting to discuss than if it had just been a bland failure or something. or more of the same in a decent but uninteresting way

but... it is just a bland failure, the issue is because it's LORDE people are acting confused about her putting out a boring song as a single instead of burying it on the back half of the album

xp I agree - we've certainly gotten a lot of mileage here out of discussing how it sort of reaches and fails, its relation to similar & more "successful" tracks, etc.

Mitski rules

"Stoned at the Nail Salon"

"secrets from a girl (who's seen it all)"

Wut

According to a press release, as an alternative to being released on CD, Solar Power will be available as “an eco-conscious Music Box,” which has visual content, handwritten notes, photos, and a download card. “I decided early on in the process of making this album that I also wanted to create an environmentally kind, forward-thinking alternative to the CD,” Lorde said in a statement. “I wanted this Music Box product to be similar in size, shape and price to a CD, to live alongside it in a retail environment, but be something which stands apart and that’s committed to the evolving nature of a modern album.”

I mean I wouldn’t buy it anyway, but digital download sucks ass.

the download card gives you a link to Mariah's Music Box instead

theoretically i love this idea and would love for someone to do something interesting with it, but ultimately lol @ $22 for a box full of paper