April 9, Melodrama by Lorde

Genre: Pop
Year: 2017
Runtime: 40:58
Total tracks: 11, including a reprise of an earlier track.
Songs you might know:
– “Green Light”
– “Perfect Places”
– “Homemade Dynamite”

My prior relationship with this album: I had listened to Melodrama before but had never really fallen in love with it. I remember it as respectable, but nothing that resonated with me on a deep level, though I have always loved “Green Light.” However, after listening to both Bleachers albums last week, I was craving Jack Antonoff so this seemed like a great time to work Melodrama into An Album a Day. This isn’t a case where Antonoff just worked on a track here and a track there, he has writing and producing credits on all but one song. Him and Lorde are the ONLY writers on 9 out of 11 tracks. This makes Melodrama the closest thing there is to a third Bleachers album, and it’ll certainly be interesting to compare a collaborative album to his solo work.

My impressions this time around: Melodrama is interesting in that most of the individual songs are just okay, but yet listening to the whole thing can still be an emotionally moving experience. Lorde has a gift for making music about the same bullshit the rest of pop music is singing about but somehow never feeling cliche. The album explores themes of love and heartbreak and all the confusion in between, and is vivid enough to make us feel like we’re living through it alongside her.

I think part of what has kept this from being a real favorite of mine in the past is that “Green Light” is not all that representative of what the rest of the album sounds like. Most of the other songs are not super catchy, radio friendly songs that get stuck in your head. That may or may not be a good thing depending on your tastes, but it is something to be aware of if you’ve heard “Green Light” but never listened to the album before. While many of these songs lose some of their appeal outside the context of the album, there are still some highlights. I’ve always liked “The Louvre” but on this listen I realized “Supercut” and “Perfect Places” are great too. I feel bad for neglecting them for the past couple of years.

Who would enjoy it? People who like Taylor Swift’s 1989 album. The two have a lot of similar themes both musically and lyrically, though Melodrama is slightly more experimental.