Four Years Later || "Melodrama" by Lorde

As I sit here in the wee hours of the morning in my Melodrama hoodie, listening to Melodrama, like many of you, I'm reflecting on the last four years. It wouldn't be an understatement to say Melodrama has been a saving grace for many of us. Melodrama came at a point in my life where being a teenager was the most confusing, emotional, exciting, and dramatic experience. There was heartache, sadness, happiness, anger, and angst; everything Melodrama is. As I grow older, I resonate more and more with the situations and cycles of various forms of heartbreak Melodrama encapsulates so well, which is why this album never gets old. Before I continue, I should say this review will be biased because Melodrama is my favorite album of all time.

In 2017, after a four-year hiatus, Lorde came back into our lives with Green Light. We had never heard Lorde sound like this before. She sounded more confident and in your face than in her earlier work, where she was more like the introverted girl in the back of the classroom watching everyone else screw up their lives, while she was waiting for the final bell to ring, so she could leave. On my initial listen, I remember being so confused when the somber-sounding piano in the first verse became upbeat in the pre-chorus right after. I loved it. Green Light might seem like an ordinary pop song, but it is much deeper than that. In Green Light, Lorde sings about wanting to leave a relationship, but she can't just yet. She sings, "Cause honey, I'll come get my things, but I can't let go. I'm waiting for it, that green light. I want it. Oh, I wish I could get my things and just let go." She uses green light as a metaphor for a sign to tell her when it's time to leave the relationship. It worked perfectly as the lead single, as well as the first track on the album.

After Green Light, we move into Sober - a really odd song. Throughout Sober, you hear jumbled vocals, saying, "Night, midnight, lose my mind," as well as some really dramatic trumpets in the chorus. In Sober, she wonders if she's getting along with her partner because they're drunk and worries that when they do become sober, they'll be left with the realization that the relationship is about to end, or as Lorde puts it, "dancing with the heartache and the treason and the fantasies of leaving." It was a great decision on her part to make a part two of Sober, named Sober II (Melodrama), which is the morning after the party she talked about in Sober. In one of my favorite lyrics from the album, she is finally coming to terms that the relationship is ending, by singing, "They'll talk about us, all the lovers, how we kissed and killed each other."

As we move deeper into the album, we begin to see the relationship unraveling. Liability, being one of the saddest moments on the album, is an intimate piano ballad about Lorde accepting that she's a liability, most likely because her ex-partner told her she was just too much for him. She sings, "The truth is I am a toy that people enjoy till all of the tricks don't work anymore, and then they are bored of me." Immediately after Liability, we head into one of the best songs in Lorde's discography, Hard Feelings/Loveless.

Hard Feelings/Loveless, being six minutes and seven seconds long, is an entire experience. At this point, Lorde acknowledges that the relationship is ending and she knows she must let go, as she sings in one of my favorite lyrics, "When you've outgrown a lover, the whole world knows but you. It's time to let go of this endless summer afternoon." The instrumental in the bridge is absolutely insane, especially for the Loveless section, where the production sounds like gunshots.

We can't talk about Melodrama without mentioning Writer In The Dark. Lorde sounds bitter in the best way possible. She sings, "Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark. Now, she's gonna play and sing and lock you in her heart." At this point, Lorde is slowly getting over the breakup, but as a songwriter, she knows she might be writing about him for the rest of her life, which is honestly bad for him, but good for us as listeners.

We also have to talk about The Louvre. The fact that she used her actual heartbeat for the instrumental is pure art. It makes it a more intimate listen, as she sings about being in a relationship that's not great, but it's still valuable to her, in the line, "But we're the greatest. They'll hang us in The Louvre. Down the back, but who cares? Still The Louvre." I also love the lyric, "Our days and nights are perfumed with obsession."

Supercut was an introspective moment where Lorde sings about having flashbacks of times she spent with her ex-boyfriend, but because time has passed, she only sees them in bits and pieces. Perfect Places ends Melodrama on a high note. It's an energetic pop song about being young and reckless, searching for a perfect place, but ultimately realizing there's no such thing as a perfect place.

Overall, Melodrama will go down in history as one of the best pop records ever created. Lorde and co-producer and co-writer Jack Antonoff wrote an album that withstood the test of time. Melodrama progressively gets better and if you haven't listened yet, this is your sign to give it a try. No matter what genre of music you like, I guarantee you will enjoy this album. There are pop songs, piano ballads, trap beats, experimental production, weird sounds, great lyrics, and so much more. You will feel every emotion, but you will leave these forty-one minutes and two seconds a changed person with a greater appreciation for music.

I want to end this review with this line from Writer In The Dark. Dear Melodrama, "I'll love you till my breathing stops. I'll love you till you call the cops on me."

Favorite songs: Green Light, Hard Feelings/Loveless, Sober, Perfect Places, The Louvre, Sober II (Melodrama), Liability, Writer In The Dark

Rating: 9.5/10

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