Lorde - Melodrama [Album Review]

I -loved- Pure Heroine. It was one of those albums that you could listen to from start to finish without skipping any tracks, an album where every high and low, upbeat and slow down break, was perfectly paced out. The huge success and overplay of "Royals" I fear overshadowed how cohesive and wonderful Lorde's first album actually was.

Now that I'm done gushing about Pure Heroine, when Lorde released "Green Light", a quirky and danceable song as an introduction to her next direction, my expectations were high. And oh, my, god. Melodrama actually turned out to be everything one could want from Lorde, and maybe even more.

Melodrama unfolds like one of those epic night outs. "Green Light", "Sober", and "Homemade Dynamite" get the evening started. The front end energy is high, emulating that ecstatic feeling you get when your song comes on and all you want to do is dance. Even a brass section shows up to the party for some backing (so into it)! "The Louvre" is the album's downturn, something is going wrong with the party and Lorde wants us to know she's trying to hang on to her personal emotional highs. Us listeners then get to experience the realization, breakup, and aftermath of her relationship. "Liability" and "Hard Feelings/Loveless" progress Melodrama into visceral accounts of her heartbreak, and for someone who is only in her early 20s, the lyrics are mature and SO relatable.

Lorde has insisted that this isn't a breakup album, but having just come out of her first serious relationship in real life when writing the record, it's obvious she uses Melodrama to explore the feelings of loss, loneliness and doubt that we all share when a significant relationship comes to an end. By the close, "Liability (Reprise)" and "Perfect Places" lets us know that Lorde is going to be okay, she has dealt with the break which will soon hopefully turn into a fond memory. She is taking the future on with positivity - and after this crazy night, we can too.