The Daily Spin, October 20
Lorde | Melodrama
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: Melodrama (2017)
Artist: Lorde
Link:
It’s in listening to Pure Heroine and Melodrama that I am reminded of what an astounding pair Lorde’s first two albums are, but also what disappoints me most about Solar Power - but I’ll save that for another time.
Between those two, though… it’s still Melodrama. Every time.
To me, the record is about the best possible evolution of Lorde’s sound. Pared-down bedroom pop that moved slightly on the needle towards power pop, but still held plenty of that classically Lorde sound that had absolutely captivated the world a few years prior.
Lorde also wins in the experimentation game - though much of this was of a vaguely similar style, she moved between pop, rnb, and a muted version of hip-hop with delightful competency. Her ability to posit emotionally charged lyrics in tandem with snappy and nearly optimistic beats is an additional exercise in storytelling.
It’s not always perfect - there are some wobbles that it’d be hard to ignore in any condition, but by and large, it’s a really delightful journey through a tremendously competent person’s world.
Rating: 9.0/10
Best Tracks: Homemade Dynamite; The Louvre; Sober II (Melodrama)
Worst Tracks: Writer In The Dark