Lorde’s
Melodrama is a euphoric house party, but it’s also the drunken midnight dramatics that threaten to ruin it and the self-conscious critique that comes with its clean-up. And while that sounds like grounds for manic expression, Lorde manages to skillfully weave the tale together on the LP. Split between tragic piano ballads and glossy-grandiose synth-pop, the 14 tracks are both dark comedy and romance noir. And while the soundscape is undoubtedly top-notch, it’s the deliberately-picked bow Lorde ties each track with, like literal ear candy, that keeps you coming back. It’s the tiny bomb explosion she mimics with her mouth on
Homemade Dynamite. The gun-cock she vocalizes on “Perfect Places.” The unbridled roar she opts for in place of a melodic lyric on “Supercut.” The sample of Paul Simon declaring his “favorite tape” on “Loveless.” The beat bottoming out entirely on “Sober” so she can crisply whisper “Jack and Jill get fucked up and possessive when it get dark.” And it’s more phrasing like that, these Instagram caption-sized confessionals, that make it a lyrical wonder, too. “Well, summer slipped us underneath her tongue / Our days and nights are perfumed with obsession.” “I overthink your p-punctuation use / Not my fault, just a thing that my mind do.” “I am my mother's child, I'll love you 'til my breathing stops / I'll love you 'til you call the cops on me.” And, finally, “They’ll hang us in the Louvre; down the back, but who cares?—Still the Louvre.” So, about that house party and its aftermath,
Melodrama is also the days-later relieving revelation that everything’s gonna be
fiiine.
—
Danielle Cheesman