Following the success of “The Love Club” and “Pure Heroine,” Lorde is making a chart-topping return to mainstream media with her “Melodrama,” an album that provides a deep look into her life.
An album that combines traditional pop music style and sound with the niche aura of indie music, “Pure Heroine” put Ella Yelich-O’Connor, known as Lorde, on the map for most music fans.
Lorde had made her mark on the world of music. An album full of emptiness and atmosphere, it screams suburban adolescence. Following the success of “Pure Heroine,” an album she released at the age of 16, Lorde took a hiatus from the music industry. While she searched for herself, Lorde moved back to New Zealand to gather her thoughts. Working on her sophomore album, “Melodrama,” Lorde spent time in New York and New Zealand looking for inspiration.
Photo courtesy: iTunes
Released June 16, “Melodrama” received immediate critical praise. An album full of growth and sadness, the listener gets to see into the personal life of Lorde. Tracks such as “The Louvre,” where Lorde discusses the beauty of a relationship she has just begun, speaks to her insecurities about her ability to maintain a meaningful relationship, especially following the end of a long term relationship, as alluded to in the first track on the album, “Green Light.” While some might view this album as a run of the mill pop album about lost love, it is so much more than that.
This is an album that reaches the emotional depths of the listener. Toying with the self-doubt that creeps within the listener, one can imagine her inability to stop loving her partner on the track “Writer in the Dark,” despite his fleeting love for her, or a tinge of jealousy that Lorde experiences, despite knowing that her love is unmet. Human emotion at its finest shines through with her words of surrender.
The crescendo of emotion arrives on the fifth track on the album, “Liability.” Singing of the despair she feels following the end of the relationship discussed in the first four tracks, Lorde was too invested and attached to her partner to have a successful relationship, at least in her eyes. Repeating the line “You’re a little much for me / You’re a liability,” Lorde reveals her inner demons and self-doubt – the belief that no matter how she treats someone, she will always be a liability to them. Representing the anxiety one is faced with in social settings, Lorde captures this feeling beautifully.
The completion of this masterful album comes with the track “Perfect Places.” The line, “Now I can’t stand to be alone,” describes one’s inability to sit at home with their thoughts. “Have another drink, get lost in us / This is how we get notorious” portrays the party culture that Lorde has partaken in.
Looking for happiness, she has fallen into the world of sex, alcohol, and drugs. Despite the appearance of happiness, this “perfect place” does not exist without the love of her life, whomever that might be.
