Lorde - Melodrama
Put your headphones on. Let the beat sink in. Disappear into the sound.
On June 16, 2017, a 20-year-old Lorde distilled the entire meaning of youth into a 40-minute record — one that doesn’t just tell a story, but feels like a life. A full, unruly, dazzling life.
In collaboration with a then-rising Jack Antonoff, Lorde created not just a collection of songs, but a rare kind of modern pop classic. Melodrama succeeds in doing the impossible — each track stands strong on its own, yet together they form a perfect arc, a blue-tinged, bittersweet mosaic. This is the kind of album that leaves a taste in your mouth and a shade of blue in your eyes — even before you see its absolutely stunning cover.
From the green light of the dancefloor-ready, care-free opener, the journey rushes through the melancholic “Sober” and the bold, self-assured “Homemade Dynamite,” slips into the voyeuristic romance of “The Louvre,” and sinks deep into the self-destruction of “Liability.”
That verse:
So I guess I'll go home
Into the arms of the girl that I love
The only love I haven't screwed up
She's so hard to please, but she's a forest fire
I do my best to meet her demands, play at romance, we slow dance
In the living room, but all that a stranger would see
Is one girl swaying alone, stroking her cheek
is simply genius. And I’ll never stop saying that.
Then comes the whirlwind of experimentation in “Hard Feelings / Loveless,” the tragic “Sober II (Melodrama),” the aching “Writer in the Dark,” the cinematic “Supercut,” the nostalgic “Liability (Reprise),” and the epic closer “Perfect Places.” Every song feels like a tiny four-minute world — one that could represent an hour, a day, a month, or even a whole year of someone's life.
This is a story of recklessness and emotional overload. Of not caring at all and caring about everything at once, to the point where you’re curled up in a corner. It’s that strange, terrifying, intoxicating sense of freedom. The first heartbreak and the realization that there’s no glue to fix it. The people around you. The unforgettable moments you’ll smile about years later. The flirty glance. The unexplained tears.
Melodrama has always been more than just an album. It’s the youth of an entire generation, bottled. And it will never fade. We will remember that. And treasure that. And maybe that’s why it became an undeniable classic — a true landmark of modern music that we will absolutely pass on to the next generation.
10.0/10
