Lorde - Melodrama (2017)

oh goodness "someone to call my lover" is so much more dynamic than this, it actually has like... a beat. even "unpretty" is more interesting texturally

oh yeah it's much more dynamic but just the lush vibe

i like some jack antonoff produced albums but i don't think of him as someone who elevates artists via his production, specifically, if that makes sense

like, jimmy jam and terry lewis, to use one example (lol), were (are) genius musicians full stop. i think even major jack antonoff defenders wouldn't hone in on his musicianship or musical ideas as what he brings to the table. reading quotes from the artists he works with, it's all about the ease and comfort he allows for in the studio, who he is as a person, it seems like he has more personal connections w/ his artists than he does musical ones. so tho i i do think the production is a problem w/ these songs, he's never really gonna blow you away in that department one way or another. i would describe a lot of his productions on a musical level as like... functional. supportive. i feel like a better, more genius musician could've done something to these songs that really would've given them some oomph. they're missing some juice to me, something i can sink my teeth into, but that's not a quality i really associate w/ jack antonoff production, even on songs/albums i love (chemtrails over the country club, lots of his taylor swift collabs)

it's interesting looking back at melodrama how much of it had co production by frank dukes, kuk harrell, malay ... even flume and t minus have co production credits. all guys who have extensive experience in rap, R&B, and pop production. i think you can really feel that element missing from these songs in a way that doesn't flatter them at all

i would love to hear "mood ring" as filtered thru t minus or flume or whoever, you might actually get something that approximates "someone to call my lover"

i think he's decent at fleshing out the visions of the artists he works with, but doesn't really bring much character of his own to the table most of the time. that usually ends up with pleasantly tasteful arrangements, with the only times his production has sounded bad to me being most of his work on reputation and a little bit of lover, but i figure he shares the blame with taylor there for some of those dreadful synth sounds, i really have no idea what they were thinking.

sometimes this approach does give really good results (his work with lana & his better work with taylor) but i don't think it's ever going to lead to more than just a more refined version of what the artists were already capable of at best?

on some of his earlier productions ("out of the woods" and a few others) you can hear his own taste come through more, sounding not too far from his solo work, but that doesn't really happen anymore

i also wanna hear that hypothetical "mood ring" remix, it could certainly have been much more exciting, but i think it succeeds on its own terms as pleasantly chill background music, unlike "solar power" which ends up deciding it wants to be anthemic way too late leaving it feeling confused & anemic overall?

sounds like Antonoff (about whose working methods I knew not at all) is like Jimmy Iovine.

antonoff is a lot more hands-on than someone like iovine though, being heavily involved in the songwriting & performance on top of the technical expertise & general guidance that someone like iovine provides

When I hear these songs in department store five years from now, I wonder if it will it be Kohl's or Nordstrom Rack?

Lyrics to this one are pretty much Aja.

Antonoff sounds a bit like Jeff Lynne.

Not feeling any of the singles tbh. Don’t hate them either but there’s something missing for me. It’s frustrating because “mood ring” is actually dangerously close to hitting hard a soft spot for 90’s nostalgia but it misses the mark.

I actually really like this one.

And for what it’s worth, Unpretty is a great song.

it's all about the ease and comfort he allows for in the studio

I believe this is called "the hang," and I assume it's why a lot of busy producers get a lot of work from pop/rock stars. It's their personality as much as their particular skills. That said, the recent Tape Op interview with Antonoff was great, he's just a nice guy and a nerd that knows a lot about making music. He's no Iovine, who has a sort of tough-love bully reputation. Jeff Lynne might indeed be a good example: like Lynne, Antonoff productions neither rock nor rock the boat, but they serve their purposes and typically suit their stars.

Re: this new Lorde stuff specifically, I could have sworn I saw a (rightfully) defensive interview with her a couple of days ago where she stressed Antonoff did everything he could to aid her vision, and that everything on the record was the way it was because she wanted it that way and he helped her get there. Compare that to someone like, sure, Jam & Lewis, where they're more clearly the creative drivers, with others hitching their respective talents to the Jam & Lewis train.

I hear Unpretty but I also hear some Natalie Imbruglia… guitar pop from the late 90’s is definitely a frame of reference in that song.

Reviews are pouring in. They’re sort or mixed.

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