Melodrama

Lorde has released yet another personal glimpse into the eclectic kaleidoscope of the teenage heart; however, instead of being in the midst of it like ‘Pure Heroine’, her music metamorphoses into something more beautiful and strong. She spent years in between albums being just what she was - a kid - and as a result, navigating the uncharted waters of losing a first love. ‘Melodrama’, an indie-influenced studio album released on June 16 through Republic Records, is an 11 track intimate experience of love, heartbreak, and picking up the pieces afterwards-as well as an exploration of the bittersweet epilogue of teenage youth.

This album, now charting No. 1 on Billboard 200 in America (a first for the indie star), certainly was not a dark horse on the horizon of pop music. ‘Green Light’, the opening song and first single of ‘Melodrama’, burst onto the scene on a wave of bouncy synth beats, exclamatory lyrics and buoyant piano work. Where was the detached ‘Royals’ star from New Zealand, the world’s favorite reigning queen of teenage boredom and pretentious commentary? It seems that with ‘Green Light’, and ultimately ‘Melodrama’, Lorde has partnered herself with a different muse, dancing now not as an angsty teen but as a young woman with clarity. In all honesty, I was put off by ‘Green Light’; I feared that Lorde had been lost in the midst of the churning radio pop single whirlwind. But then you listen to ‘Sober’, the album’s second track. You listen to the entrancing melody, the characteristic lyrical mocking of whims and wants. You’re hooked onto this soft serenade of storytelling. And then you keep listening.

As mentioned by the artist herself, all of ‘Melodrama’ was mostly imagined in the hazy landscape of a house party-an overused trope, yes, but Lorde salvages this concept by offering a refreshing and honest perspective behind the drinks and the hookups. From the willing pitfall into a night of oblivion and bliss (Sober) to the crying-in-the-bathroom moment of vulnerability (Liability) to the resentment and resignation you’re left with when the party’s over of a love long gone (Writer In the Dark)-the feminine narrative is too perfect and too familiar to listen to without a simultaneous nod and wince of the heart. It’s difficult to capture the raw brokenness of rejection and a soul forlorn; as sang in ‘Liability’, “I am a toy/that people enjoy/til all the of the tricks don’t work anymore/and then they are bored of me.” A melancholic, piano-accompanied ballad that examines the seemingly useless shell Lorde sees herself to be? Never has she rendered herself so exposed, and never has she seemed so genuine. And of course, even when swimming in a pool of new songwriting material, Lorde still articulates her sentiments in a cooly wrapped package of crisp, witty candor and elegance.

‘Melodrama’ is delivered in a raw outpouring of hurt, of reminiscence, of both darkness and colorful nocturnal memories of youthful fluorescence. In countless interviews, Lorde has recounted the incorporation of her synesthesia into her songwriting, and the results are poignant. Close your eyes to the entirety of the six minute track ‘Hard Feelings/Loveless’, and one can picture a dusky scene accompanied by a metallic synth interlude and violin serenades, the depiction of a scene where the love you once enjoyed is no longer flowering, but stagnant. Supercut’s chorus is built up by a harmonized repetition, then crescendos into a pattering of glimmering beats. Here, in this sing-along melody, you can hear the fragile bones of ‘Ribs’, one of the standout songs from her previous work ‘Pure Heroine’. And one of my favorites of the album, ‘The Louvre’, details an intimate collision of a love affair, whispered in its lullaby and muted in its ocean of sound, set free after this declaration: “you’re the one to blame,all that you’re doing/can you hear the violence?/megaphone to my chest/broadcast the boom boom boom boom/and make em all dance to it.” Lorde’s world is one of sensation-of touch, of sounds, of a subtle imagery that haunts every mind that stays up one too many hours past midnight and wonders about what was lost and what is left to gain.

What is probably one the most defining characteristics of the artistry of Lorde’s work is the acknowledgement of the theatricality of youth in her lyricism. After all, she titled her album “Melodrama”. For young love is explosive and irrational-it’s sensation and it’s rush and it’s the realization of a perfect disaster aligned by the stars. Simply put, it’s dramatic. Looking back as a young woman accentuated with grace and poise, Lorde encapsulates this defining period of growth with all the eternal eccentricity and nostalgic fondness and eventual triumph that it is. What does the next phase of life hold for this artist? Only the journalism of a future album will be able to tell.

Rating: 9.5/10