Lorde - Melodrama (2017)

suits the songs narrative well tbh

Sorry I'm not getting this song... for me the appeal of her first album was how stripped down and homemade it sounded. This one sounds... I don't know... more commercial? Which is ironic because I doubt this one will make it anywhere as big as Royals. It sounds more generic, more like something you hear on the radio everydau. Way too snappy for how I wanted her to sound. Maybe the full album changes my mind but so far I'm not liking this at all.

This is great imo

---I also railed against crushingly boilerplate melodies as a teenager

Having the same opinions at 30 that you had in yr teens isn't a good thing

(There should be a "necessarily" in there but I was trying hard to not just say "Grow up", so)

i have heard this song twice and really couldn't be more satisfied. can't wait for this album.

Lorde sounds like she's trying to impart profundity to everything she sings, which imo her material doesn't justify

otm

Imago I don't like this song very much and agree it's pretty generic (except the vocals that people are hating on, which are the thing that gives it a bit of personality). But I'm going to guess that you have virtually no formal music training and minimal understanding of music theory because it's pretty insulting that you keep defaulting to phrases like "boilerplate melodies" and "my first chord progression", the way you keep reaching for this sort of pseudo-objectivity to justify yr moral high ground whenever your "actually I really love pop music and all its untapped potential" mask slips. You like lots of artists with boilerplate melodies and the rest of the stuff you rep for, even the good stuff, isn't exactly Mozart.

ok well, to be more precise in my criticisms, the pre-chorus melody being the same as the chorus melody, and this melody taking up more than half the song, is deeply cloying to me in a way that perhaps my lack of formal music training can't fully articulate, especially as it's such a simple and obvious melody that we've all heard a zillion times before

someone like carly rae jepsen or rihanna usually avoids being cloying in this manner despite also being Pop as anything. i wish i had the musicological chops to explain why

also yeah, the sonic palette of this song is really cool & engaging and i'm sorry to be all aspie about the melody when a single chord-change would probably have me loving the song ;_; you may continue piling on

You could just say it's cloying? I mean I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that.

It's not the most offensive thing in a thread where people are comparing it to Kate Bush and Katy B. Niki & The Dove feels more on point or maybe one of Florence's more recent stadium bankers but not much more than that.

For the record, I think I said I thought of Kate Bush due to a distant echo of "Big Sky," but the song doesn't really sound like Kate Bush at all. I agree it's a pretty lazy track, but not bad.

the pre-chorus melody being the same as the chorus melody

this is a good pop trick imo bc the character of the melody changes based on the arrangement behind it

i'm with the people here who don't particularly dig the stately piano melodrama of the verses; rest of it is reasonably enjoyable

lmao i just woke up and was unconscious of using the word "melodrama" into that description

I don't think this sounds anything like what's on American pop radio (that interlude about the shark's teeth!), but what do I know?

idk the beginning makes me thing i'm gonna get "wrecking ball" or something. she subverts that considerably but at the cost of making the song feel uneven. still, pretty cool & fun

Wrecking Ball is 1000 times better than this.

My fondness for this song has waned. I still like all the flailing around she does in the video though.

Wrecking Ball is 1000 times better than this.

― “Remember,” he says, “Noddy Holder is a gangster.” (contenderizer), Saturday, March 4, 2017 12:28 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was a description not a value judgment

someone like carly rae jepsen or rihanna usually avoids being cloying in this manner despite also being Pop as anything. i wish i had the musicological chops to explain why

often when people find themselves thinking this sort of thing about music the answer is "I like Carly Rae Jepsen or Rihanna on a persona/meme/received-opinion level and do not like Lorde on that level"

just my opinion, but lorde sucks

testing out some of these "i think ill post in the hip hop thread" ilx posting styles

insane that she went 5 years without releasing a follow-up and everyone is still anticipating this lol.

we are running out of melodies

― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, March 3, 2017 11:52 AM (yesterday)

Weren't modernist classical composers suggesting this 100 years ago?

why is this song stuck in my head ffs ffs ffs

Lorde as an event artist is so bewildering to me, she had one racially-problematic hit a few years ago and what else

I wish all the Niki & The Dove comparisons would lead people to the amazing N&TD album from last year

why is this song stuck in my head ffs ffs ffs

― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Saturday, March 4, 2017 7:44 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

deep down you really love this song

i dont even think royals is problematic tbh ... its good tbh. but the idea of her as like a serious artist we shd take v v seriously is seriously weird imo

I think it's less what you (and I and etc) might think about taking her seriously and what others do.

i think acting like lorde is a one hit wonder or rita ora-type is somewhat disingenuous. her debut album has sold over 5 million copies and is 3x platinum in the USA

also she was like...15 when her debut single was released iirc so i don't begrudge her taking a little time to grow up a bit and figure out what she wanted to do next

i dont even think royals is problematic tbh ... its good tbh. but the idea of her as like a serious artist we shd take v v seriously is seriously weird imo

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Saturday, March 4, 2017 11:01 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree w/the sentiment behind this, but it's not really weird to me considering this is ILM

the reason this feels so uneventful (though competent), to me, is that lorde was among the early wave of "alt-pop" (for lack of a better term) artists achieving mainstream pop success, a wave followed by dozens. so now this sounds like it could be by anybody,

i do also agree w that analysis

also she was like...15 when her debut single was released iirc so i don't begrudge her taking a little time to grow up a bit and figure out what she wanted to do next

― monotony, Saturday, March 4, 2017 10:21 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

teenage rappers dont get nearly this level of 'understanding' lol

She featured on that Disclosure track (co-wrote?) and worked on a few songs for the Hunger Games soundtrack in the 3 and a bit years since her LP. It's not like she's done nothing. Not many pop artists releasing every two years but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looking forward to hearing the rest of her album.

the Hunger Games is more sonically adventurous despite not being about anything.

Piano in-between bit is dope, idk about the rest though

she recorded a song with Why? at my friend's studio a few years ago, but it has never seen the light of day, which is too bad because by his account it is fantastic

i think tuneyards mixed it.

New track out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtvJaNeELic

Sounds a bit like a fun. track. I'm a fan of fun. but I don't know if I like this sorta torch-song thing on her. Also it's kinda unsubstantial for a single.

I am not quite getting the logic of sitting at the bottom of her range so much

This song gets better as it goes along but is kind of boring

Yeah I got bored and started singing "All the Young Dudes" halfway through.

I am not quite getting the logic of sitting at the bottom of her range so much
maybe they think it's her unique selling point, and Royals was prob around there too, but if I were Lorde I'd be dreading that SNL performance...

does it kinda sound like she's singing with a very pointy mouth? is it just a nz accent?

every other singer sounds like that -- Ellie Goulding, Alessia Cara, etc

I've listened to it once and so here's my knee-jerk, ill-informed opinion: I really like the switch to the 90s-style house piano on the bridge because it's so unexpected (I was expecting that sort of minimalist, stately ballad thing she did on her first album). Always nice to hear something genuinely surprising in a song. That aside, the song is fine but it never quite lifts off; it's one of those songs where the build-up to the chorus is better than the chorus. I would not be happy enough if this song came on in the gym. Big praise indeed.

I like Alessia Cara! she does sing too low but whatever

"Liability" just reminds me of another song using a Pachelbel Cannon-like melody. Pretty dull