What makes Melodrama a masterpiece

[Thomas P 18,479]

The Dangerous Woman thread inspired me to make one for another pop album that should be considered a masterpiece.

Melodrama is one of those perfect albums, imo, where there is no bad song, and no matter how many times you listen to it, you always find something new to appreciate. Lorde is a top-notch lyricist and combined with what I would consider some of the best pop production EVER from Jack Antanoff, Melodrama delivers on every single front. 

It's actually become my favourite album period (dethroning masterpieces like Born This Way and Lemonade for that title). Lorde isn't that much older than me, and I'm presently going through the transition she went through between Pure Heroine and Melodrama, so I connect to the songs even more now than I did when it was first released. 

She used sounds on here that have become what I define as my unique taste in music. The synths, plunky piano, and gradual build of songs like Green Light, and the beautiful guitar driven moments of The Louvre (my favourite song from the record), are things that I look for in songs now for them to really stick out. It's what made artists like Billie Eilish really pop to me, because the production on her newer songs give me (I'll be more electronically driven and much darker) Melodrama production vibes. 

When I was 12, Pure Heroine was released, and I became obsessed with this lyrical genius, but when Melodrama was released, that's when Lorde was put into the stratosphere of music in my books. 

Anyways, I'm clearly very obsessed with Lorde, and Melodrama, but I made this thread out of curiosity to see what drove others to declare this record an opus and a masterpiece. 

[bloody g 31,739]

YES YES YESSSSSS

Thank you so so much, you made me realise it is my favorite album as well 

[AlexanderMagno 10,746]

Well, I could tell you what makes Melodrama a masterpiece, but you exposed it beautifully.

 

And it's actually miles away from Pure Heroine. The evolution is enormous. Each Pure Heroine songs are great, but the album as a whole has a few misteps. Melodrama is really well thought as a full album. It's the finest pop. She deconstructed pop songs and put them back together, and gave us the best pop album.

 

One of the best albums to be released in recent years. And I find Lorde one of the most influential young artists of our time. Not only sonically, also thematically.

[Gracious Gaga 17,163]

Nothing cause it’s not 

Spoiler

 

[Guest Anisko]

melodrama released in a time when the music scene is extremely boring and successfully become one of my three fav albums ever (after born this way and born to die)  .. This album truly saved 2017 for me. 

The production and the cohesive concept of the album is what really makes the album a masterpiece for me.  

I still llisten to it almost everyday .. And i just can't get enough.

I hope someday that i could listen to melodrama with someone that really adore this album as much as me (like u ) 

Also i'm hoping that lorde will release a follow up ep called "melodrama-the after party" ..

[Thomas P 18,479]

57 minutes ago, Gracious Gaga said:

Nothing cause it’s not 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Nope you’re wrong 

[Thomas P 18,479]

1 hour ago, AlexanderMagno said:

 

One of the best albums to be released in recent years. And I find Lorde one of the most influential young artists of our time. Not only sonically, also thematically.

This is exactly why my friends and I love her. 

[Thomas P 18,479]

45 minutes ago, Anisko said:

Also i'm hoping that lorde will release a follow up ep called "melodrama-the after party"

I would be gagged 

[Reject False Icons 4,751]

This album is gold but is even more special cause I'm close to her age and all the feelings that she portrays are currently going on in my life.

It's like we are growing up together experiencing life at almost same pace 

[Thomas P 18,479]

1 minute ago, Dream Rider said:

This album is gold but is even more special cause I'm close to her age and all the feelings that she portrays are currently going on in my life.

It's like we are growing up together experiencing life at almost same pace 

Exactly. Having artists my age now is so awesome (be that I’m a little younger than her, but whatevs). 

I stan a lot of singers who are more than a decade older than me, so having a few in my age range is nice. 

[Cerny 4,270]

The combination of things, all of them firing on all cylinders.

Lorde is doing "the prestige artistry disguised as mainstream pop" thing and Melodrama is a spring forward not only for Lorde but also, pop music in general. It’s not just pleasant, it's sterling, superlative, sonically and melodically precious and lyrically well constructed and meaningful, and the title tells you everything you need to know about the album, it doesn't feel forced and it's certainly not misleading. Most importantly, Lorde and Jack genuinely created an intricately woven pop album, with a coherent structure and flow, not just a compiled number of tracks. Songs reference back to one another, and there are lyrical call backs to Pure Heroine. It's excellent.

 

Closing track from Pure Heroine:

"We're dancing in this world alone"

Closing track from Melodrama:

"Now I can't stand to be alone"

 

The transition from adolescence to adulthood, Lorde’s self-awareness, something that is very prominent on the album:

”These are the games of the weekend / We pretend that we just don't care, but we care. But what will we do when we're sober?"

 

“All the nights spent off our faces trying to find these perfect places. What the fuc k are perfect places anyway?”

 

“You know I think you're awesome, right?”

This so simple but her delivery makes it overwhelmingly expressive.

 

“They'll hang us in the Louvre

Down the back, but who cares—still the Louvre”

Again the delivery is just really good.

 

The acceleration out of the quiet moment that occurs in the middle of Supercut. It builds to this exuberant crescendo when the layered vocals kick in and then Lorde holds that level for a few seconds before it vanishes. This incredible joyful moment disappears all too soon and all you are left with, is a fading echo of the melody, like a fading memory. 

Which is what the track is about, wild fluorescent moments that spark and don't last, but leave warm memories and stirred emotions in their wake. That's Supercut. Green Light evokes that same feeling too, but in its lyrics.

All those introvert thoughts that you think you should keep to yourself, your passions that may be too out there to share, the secrets, all of it expressed with rapture, the decadence becomes vibrant, life as a party.

 

Which brings me to the lyrics once again, a cohesive piece, with many lyrical and thematic connections between tracks, that are quite rewarding to listen to, another example is the dual-reference to ribbons:

 

“I'm acting like I don't see every

Ribbon you used to tie yourself to me”

 

“In my head, I play a supercut of us

All the magic we gave off

All the love we had and lost

And in my head

The visions never stop

These ribbons wrap me up

But when I reach for you

There's just a supercut” 

 

The "ribbons" mentioned in Sober are manipulations her beloved employs, which she's rolling with due to infatuation and drunken lust. But after the carnage and drama of break ups, healing and time passing (Liability through Writer in the Dark), that infatuation makes the "supercut" of fond memories that linger onward. As the saying says, “You don't know what you've got until it's gone”.

 

There are a lot of lyrics and details that plant a big dumb grin on my face.

These are just some examples, the album is full of them.

 

Melodrama is seriously special and so is Lorde.

[ANTI WP 19,812]

Melodrama is 2nd fave album of all time 

[MelbHawker 6,583]

What made it a masterpiece for me was hearing the album performed live by Lorde.. she spoke about each song and the root of it from within herself, and it just added another element to it. I love the album, she's a genius.

[Pennywise 36,046]

I think it's the authenticity of Lorde. There's nobody like her. 

 

And you can tell that NONE of the songs are what one could call "filler". Each and every one of them are worked on extensively, and each could easily be a single. 

[Thomas P 18,479]

6 hours ago, Cerny said:

The combination of things, all of them firing on all cylinders.

Lorde is doing "the prestige artistry disguised as mainstream pop" thing and Melodrama is a spring forward not only for Lorde but also, pop music in general. It’s not just pleasant, it's sterling, superlative, sonically and melodically precious and lyrically well constructed and meaningful, and the title tells you everything you need to know about the album, it doesn't feel forced and it's certainly not misleading. Most importantly, Lorde and Jack genuinely created an intricately woven pop album, with a coherent structure and flow, not just a compiled number of tracks. Songs reference back to one another, and there are lyrical call backs to Pure Heroine. It's excellent.

 

Closing track from Pure Heroine:

"We're dancing in this world alone"

Closing track from Melodrama:

"Now I can't stand to be alone"

 

The transition from adolescence to adulthood, Lorde’s self-awareness, something that is very prominent on the album:

”These are the games of the weekend / We pretend that we just don't care, but we care. But what will we do when we're sober?"

 

“All the nights spent off our faces trying to find these perfect places. What the fuc k are perfect places anyway?”

 

“You know I think you're awesome, right?”

This so simple but her delivery makes it overwhelmingly expressive.

 

“They'll hang us in the Louvre

Down the back, but who cares—still the Louvre”

Again the delivery is just really good.

 

The acceleration out of the quiet moment that occurs in the middle of Supercut. It builds to this exuberant crescendo when the layered vocals kick in and then Lorde holds that level for a few seconds before it vanishes. This incredible joyful moment disappears all too soon and all you are left with, is a fading echo of the melody, like a fading memory. 

Which is what the track is about, wild fluorescent moments that spark and don't last, but leave warm memories and stirred emotions in their wake. That's Supercut. Green Light evokes that same feeling too, but in its lyrics.

All those introvert thoughts that you think you should keep to yourself, your passions that may be too out there to share, the secrets, all of it expressed with rapture, the decadence becomes vibrant, life as a party.

 

Which brings me to the lyrics once again, a cohesive piece, with many lyrical and thematic connections between tracks, that are quite rewarding to listen to, another example is the dual-reference to ribbons:

 

“I'm acting like I don't see every

Ribbon you used to tie yourself to me”

 

“In my head, I play a supercut of us

All the magic we gave off

All the love we had and lost

And in my head

The visions never stop

These ribbons wrap me up

But when I reach for you

There's just a supercut” 

 

The "ribbons" mentioned in Sober are manipulations her beloved employs, which she's rolling with due to infatuation and drunken lust. But after the carnage and drama of break ups, healing and time passing (Liability through Writer in the Dark), that infatuation makes the "supercut" of fond memories that linger onward. As the saying says, “You don't know what you've got until it's gone”.

 

There are a lot of lyrics and details that plant a big dumb grin on my face.

These are just some examples, the album is full of them.

 

Melodrama is seriously special and so is Lorde.

This is put so beautifully