Review Summary: I knew I want it! This album, I want it! (Then goes jump on the car and try to dance like Ella)
Back when I was 15, I was a Swiftie(For those who don't know, a Swiftie is a diehard
Taylor Swift fan) that felt everything about Taylor Swift should not be despised, and I tried everything to bash those who criticise her. When I came across a video that diss Swift (in order to find celebrities that I should hate), I found a little pop singer/songwriter named
Lorde, aka Ella Yellich-O' Connor, who unintentionally bash her. Back then, I knew her as a singer who just set her place in pop music with the Grammy-winning mega-hit "Royals" and its parenting record Pure Heroine. I just simply forgave her for that, because, well, she didn't intend to criticise her at all, and she later became her friend and once joined the Swift squad.
However, I didn't pay much attention to her until I came across an airplane entertainment service that provided music during a flight to home, and found Pure Heroine available for listening. Since then, I was hooked up with her raspy voice and smart songwriting, with songs such as "Team", "Tennis Court", "Buzzcut Season" and (ding-ding) "Royals". Then, I discovered that she didn't release any new material since 2015 for the Hunger Games:Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack, so I patiently waited for her follow-up, hoping she could churn up something impressive.
And boy, when Ella released a video for the lead single "Green Light", I was simply stunned for her direction, a dance-pop anthem that talks about her romantic breakup, with scathing lyrics like "She thinks you love the beaches, you such a damn liar/Those great whites, they have big teeth/Hope they bite you/Thought you said that you would always be in love/Be you're not in love no more" and "All those rumours, they have big teeth", were some of the most scathing yet elegant breakup lyrics that you might heard of. Not to mention, the killer chorus line:"I waiting for it, that green light, I want it", keeps you humming along, while helping the song to serve as a joyous yet harrowing love song, thanks to luminous production that contrasted against the somber and angst-filled lyrics.
Other songs are highly worthy to mention about, too, such as the following "Sober" dealt with loneliness under the jerky beats (the repeatable "Midnight, lose my mind" makes you realise that being lonely can be atrocious to you mentally); "Homemade Dynamite" celebrates the sudden romantic crush with a stranger under the minimalistic electronic beats(Perhaps no lyrics sound so intimate than "I'll give you my best sides, tell you all my best lies" that is deliver to a stranger you crush on);"The Louvre" returns to the theme of breakup, only with a heartbreaking side laden with synths and neutral strings, lamenting about a relationship that was traded with everything in her life yet end up nothing("But lover, you're the one to blame/All that you're doing" and "Blow all my friendships/To sit in hell with you/But we're the greatest/They'll hang us in The Louvre"), all in the while trying to unleash such pain to others(the unforgettable "Broadcast the boom, boom, boom/And 'em all dance to it").
These four songs alone, already centred the theme of the album:A melodrama about us in the young adult stage, including facing loneliness, encountering sudden crush and hookups and disappointing romantic relationships. A theme that many could relate to, or even write about, yet Ella's intimate and highly refined songwriting makes it so unique.
The rest of the album still continues the astounding trend of goodness:the piano ballad"Liability" laments about being lonely (again) as a result of being betrayed and ignored, loathing about she herself as a liability, something that do nothing but being a burden to others.(Perhaps no lines like "The truth is I am a toy/That people enjoy/'Till all the tricks don't work anymore/And then they are bored with me" really made abandonment so painful in an eloquent way);"Hard Feelings/Loveless" may be the weakest track among the bunch, as it somehow repeats the theme of "The Louvre"("I care for myself the way I used to care about you") and "Green Light"("'Cause I'm gonna mess your life up"), but the dense industrial beats helps to keep the astounding trend of the album tracks; "Sober II(Melodrama)" was definitely the track with the most grandiose production among the songs(which is weird for the two-and-a-half-minutes-long song), that laments about the melodrama of adult life and relationships, fitting the beautiful strings and sudden beats of the song;"Supercut" memorises the happy memories of her relationship("Because our are the moments I play in the dark"), with the up-tempo beats and synths, yet the lyrics are still laden with melancholy within; the piano-accompanied "Writer In The Dark" conquers heartbreak, despite being a bit cheesy, yet still multi-dimensional of being menacing and vulnerable("Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark" and the chorus "I am my mother's child, I'll love your till your breathing stops/I'll love you till you call the cops on me/But in our darkest hours, I stumbled on a secret power/I'll find a way to be without you, babe") Then, the reprise of "Liability" comes, which extended the fragile lyrics of the original song, which helps the album to be darker, more grander and, most importantly, more melodramatic.
However, it's the triumphant closer "Perfect Places" that seals the deal, as it laments the reality of having fun and escaping from reality to a so-called perfect place, with the lyrics "Have another drink, get lost in us", the chorus "All of our heroes fading/Now I can't stand to be alone/Let's go to perfect places" and the lacerating yet fragile question in the end:"What the *** are perfect places anyway", makes you realise you might be wasting your precious youth on having fun and causing troubles, instead of making the most of it.
To sum up, it is definitely not a collection of sweet romantic classic songs like Taylor Swift's Fearless, or may not be a melancholy and dark blues like
Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence, or a grandiose despair-drenched baroque pop like
Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials, but it represents Ella herself as a young women to face realities of being an adult and a pop star, showing a progression and deepening of herself after the youthful laments and satires in Pure Heroine, making subjects that is too universal and generic so beautiful and not so cheesy like the latter two of the albums I mentioned above, sealing Melodrama as perhaps the magnum opus of pop.
Now, time has changed. I am no longer a Swiftie, as I shift my enthusiasm on pop to alternative music and rock and her disappointing Reputation album puts me off, and Ella is herself no longer a part of her squad. But, in my opinion Melodrama, still stands as one of the best pop albums ever made in the 21st Century.
Recommended Tracks:
(Every single of them except "Hard Feelings/Loveless")
