MELODRAMA
| Lorde
MELODRAMA
Melodrama is the second studio album by New Zealand singer Lorde, released through Universal, Lava and Republic Records on 16 June 2017. A departure from the minimalist style of Lorde's debut album Pure Heroine (2013), it is a pop and electropop album incorporating piano instrumentation and maximalistelectronic beats. It was produced by Lorde, Jack Antonoff and several high-profile producers including Frank Dukes, Flume, Malay, S1 and Joel Little. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
a masterful study of being a young woman, a sleek and humid pop record full of grief and hedonism, crafted with the utmost care and wisdom
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Rolling Stone
Lorde’s writing and fantastically intimate vocals, ranging from her witchy, unprocessed low-register warbles to all sorts of digitized masks, make it matter.
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NY Times
she understands temptation, complicity and self-sabotage.
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The Guardian
Her ear for a fabulous image remains intact.
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Consequence of Sound
Even the budding icon's over-reaches and missteps come across as charming.
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NME
It’s a rudely excellent album, introspective without ever being indulgent, OTT in all the right ways, honest and brave, full of brilliant songs with lyrics to chew over for months.
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Variety
the whole thing is so good that it makes that precocious first album seem like child’s play
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Atwood Magazine
Full of intoxicating highs and heart-wrenching lows, Lorde lays her whole heart out for us
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Crack Magazine
Confused, unsettled and ultimately optimistic.
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Stereogum
Melodrama sounds sleek, modern, and ornate.
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Slate
an extraordinary album.
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The New Yorker
After a while, the record feels less like a subversion of pop tropes than like a hyperintelligent narration of them.
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Loud and Quiet
the album sounds so uplifting and intoxicating on top of that is a joy.
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Vulture
The ballads grip with naked honesty and gently plucked pianos. The dance tracks are boisterous and offbeat.
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Pretty Much Amazing
a triumph
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AV Music
the music itself is so rich and cohesive ... it barely needs a theme to tie it together
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Esquire
Lorde Just Made it Impossible to Ignore Her Greatness
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Aber Student Media
2017’s most buzzworthy sophomore album
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The "Vocal Point"
Lorde truly bared her soul to put out this album, and it wasn’t for nothing. The strongest work of the year and of her career was the result.
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Entertainment Weekly
it’s Lorde’s own storytelling.
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The Fire Note
Miraculous and groovy.
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The Telegraph
this imaginatively audacious triumph is just too good to resist
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The Epic
She finds a way to describe relatable, sometimes common experiences in life.
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The Politic
This album is truly something special.
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RIOT Magazine
a masterpiece.
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Paste Magazine
is the red-eyed, no-rules afterparty, where the lost and loveless go for comfort
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Drowned in Sound
one of those records that makes a point of capturing both the giddy highs and the excruciating lows of the final stage of the transition into adulthood
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The Irish Times
Lorde’s lyricism occupies a stratosphere beyond the standard of pop
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Punk News
a raw, real album under its sparkly clean production. One written for the masses but able to resonate with each individual listener.
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Ghetto Blaster Magazine
a euphoric pop record that is endlessly self-assured despite her young age
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Xavier Voigt-Hill
Melodrama pushes Lorde into new directions with aplomb, like the orchestral grandeur of “deflated room” moment ‘Sober II (Melodrama)’ and impassioned, hyperbolic enshrining of the relationship’s death (‘Writer In The Dark’)
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The Stanford Daily
an album that deserves all of the intense discussion it’s received
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New Zealand Musician
an immersive and powerful sophomore album
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an intimate album filled with intense music and deeply honest lyrics
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The Daily Iowan
is an intimate album filled with intense music and deeply honest.
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The Atlantic
the singer who once attacked convention takes on familiar pop themes—but keeps her fresh musical sensibility
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Medium
Melodrama isn’t a bad album, but it’s not worth the hype.
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Bearded Gentlemen Music
it’s a mature sounding album.
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The 405
There are moments of utter euphoria (‘Green Light’), passionate intimacy (‘Sober’), heartbreaking quietness (‘Liability’), reflection on excess (‘Perfect Places’), and beyond.
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Prefix
she’s reasserted her status as today’s ultimate alt-pop artist with a record that balances the contemporary with the classic in typically immaculate style
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Idolator
as cathartic as the name suggests and a solid listen that effortlessly hops genres while remaining true to Lorde’s melancholic alt-pop roots
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All Music
the addition of genuine, giddy pleasure -- evident on the neon pulse of "Homemade Dynamite" and "Supercut" -- isn't merely a progression for Lorde, it's what gives the album multiple dimensions
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The Berklee Groove
her music is built on showcasing an unsanitized version of her true thoughts, vulnerabilities, and feelings
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Spin
embodies a strange, studious undoneness, the blacklight black-and-blue of a perfectionist trying to capture imperfect feelings
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Young Hollywood
With emotions ranging from lively and upbeat to scraping the depths of despair, she introduces us to a world that is as real as it is entertaining.
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City FM89
there’s an ebb and flow to the tracks.
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Cosmopolitan
Now Lorde is at the top of her game, having shown that she’s capable of the reflection, emotional depth, and power that define the pop stars we never stop caring about.
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Spectrum Culture
rejoices in the simple fact that pop and art are not mutually exclusive, that the boom-boom-boom of a big radio song can express more truth than a thousand sad-eyed singer-songwriters.
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The Jakarta Post
is such a cleverly sequenced, propulsive record that it wiped away my doubts that what she needed to do was repeat herself.
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Amplify
so deeply probing that it could mean a multitude of things to anyone
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The Edge
What a ridiculously powerful and emotional album - brb, playing it on repeat for the next year.
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DIY Magazine
It takes the downs as cleverly and emotionally as the ups.
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Mashable
Lorde's 'Melodrama' is rush of meticulously structured chaos
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philmarriott.net
Lorde allows herself to become a relatable being whilst inviting listeners to experience her vulnerabilities, all-while being an artist whose fame is larger than life.
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Interns
It takes in every detail (the weather, the setting, the feeling) and translate it with unfiltered emotional honesty.
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Albumism
At its broken heart, Melodrama is what a breakup sounds like. With all the heartache, laments, moments of melancholy and hopes of moving on intact.
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Cherwell
A considered and uncontrived album that makes even the drama of a hangover seem profound
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Yakima Herald
lives up to, and even exceeds, my expectations
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johnfassold.me
There is not a single song on Melodrama that feels out of place.
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Cavs Connect
Lorde delivers with incredible writing, vocals and beats.
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High Snobiety
a smart piece of pop perfection.
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Varsity
captures the whole experience, moving and indescribable, in the best way – by making you feel like you’re not doing it alone.
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Under the Radar Magazine
swirls of strings and bursts of glimmering synths show a pop star in her prime.
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Exepose
the pure unadulterated, unapologetic emotion. There is no irony, no playing it cool.
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Jakob's Album Reviews
It is packed with fantastic hooks, for one.
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Metal Lifestyle
is as harrowing as it is sublime, and I think the fact that it present an easy resolution just makes the entire experience that much more powerful.
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The Murray State News
the next step in her method of madness, and it’s a masterful one at that.
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KXSU Seattle
Melodrama is physical proof that lightning can strike twice.
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The Young Folks
it’s going to be hard to doubt her talent now more than ever with the release of sophomore album, Melodrama
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Speaker TV
time away has allowed Lorde to hone her voice and skill for a refined album that bucks the trend of the sophomore slump, standing heads and shoulders above her .
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Music OMH
Melodrama delivers everything pop music should, but yet it manages to find more.
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South China Morning Post
there’s a sincerity and rawness to Lorde’s lyricism that sets her apart as one of the best songwriters of her generation
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Bitch Media
it’s safe to call it one of the best records of the year, an album of growth and confidence .
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Beat Route
The flourishes of horns, the sonic shifts and dense vocal layering accentuate the vocals rather than step on or muddle them.
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Daily Trojan
each song progressively moves Lorde’s narrative forward while also adding depth to her personal story.
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T'HUD
This album is pure brilliance, plain and simple.
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Post-Grad Music Reviews
we get the album we might deserve – a pop singer pushing herself to the edge of her capabilities without intentionally going overboard.
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Cryptic Rock
it is a Dance album with a conscious and this is not a mass-producing generic song machine that is being heard.
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The Tung
Lorde’s pop is of a totally different kind. She embraces the sound, but imbues it with such an abundance of head and heart that it’s impossible not to find real life in it.
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The Arts Desk
The Kiwi songstress's long-awaited second album ticks all the right boxes
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Saint Audio
The artist lyrically puts the listener in specific places—a party, a car, an empty living room—and emphasizes the intimacy of those locations, bringing out the good and bad parts of being alone.
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No Rip Cord
With a dazzling set of songs, she's also given other broken hearts a path to the green light at the end of the tunnel.
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Irish Examiner
It’s a dark, riveting affair — a masterpiece of off-kilter pop that confirms Lorde as perhaps the most fascinating figure the music industry has produced since pop supplanted rock as the medium of the age.
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The Line of Best Fit
Lorde invites all of us to join in her anguished party of the damned, convincing her believers that if we just keep on dancing the ills of the world won’t be able to catch up to us.
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Digital Journal
Most impressive about this collection is that every song on here tells a story.
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Since I Left You
Melodrama succeeds most when Lorde is at the forefront, above the production
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Ranting About Music
This album has gone from one of the most anticipated ones of the year to one of its most talked about. Melodrama deserves the chatter.
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The Weekly Spoon
stands tall as a bastion of traditional songwriting. Four years was a long time to wait, but it’s been worth it.
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news.com.au
another delightfully strange pop album.
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Soul Feeder
A signal of Lorde’s maturation into a seat at the pop-music table.
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Vendor Culture
On Melodrama color and emotion become entangled in wild strokes of emotive.
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The Pace Press
the album was otherworldly and deep-rooted in the violent, melodramatic emotions that often overtake parties
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Affinity
It’s powerful and weird and vulnerable and resilient and interesting and different and complex.
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Toronto Sun
Songcraft this sensory and sophisticated rarely comes pouring out of a head this young
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Nylon
It’s powerful music to glow up to. It’s powerful music for anyone experiencing growing pains. It’s powerful music to soundtrack a generation—and an artist—coming into their own.
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Undercover Mix Tape
an incredibly mature, phenomenal record, which feels timeless.
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GQ
she’s given rein to let her vocals do things we’ve never heard before.
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Billboard
pairs the chattering beats and deep bass of her past work with piano, springier synths and rich backing vocals.
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The Fluff
is like trying to pick a favorite painting from Monet's Water Lilies ... But they all meld together to create a beautiful, tortured, realistic but somehow still optimistic portrait of hometown heartbreak and other misadventures.
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The Musical Hype
a gem
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Blackfire
“Melodrama” is an album about discovering one’s place amongst all the noise and chaos of the world – especially young women fighting for autonomy in a society where their voice isn’t always taken seriously.
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The Statesman
she crystallizes the universal yet ephemeral emotions that surround love and immortalizes her 19-year-old self forever.
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The Daily Listening
delves into more mature topics while still maintaining the singer’s signature mystique and fascination with the small stuff, once again showcasing how the tiniest detail can often produce the loudest sounds
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The Awl
Lorde’s new album is carefully plotted surprise, and it gets you every time.
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Pop Magazine
has embraced her pop star status creating her generation’s caterpillar turned butterfly masterpiece in teenage to young adulthood.
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New Statesman
the work of an artist who isn’t running out of things to say any time soon
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The Post
she overpowers her malaise and basks in the comfort of imperfection.
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QRO Magazine
a powerful, yet intimate, follow-up
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The Daily Mississippian
Human emotion at its finest shines through with her words of surrender.
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Brent Music Reviews
the alternative-pop artist returns soundly, delivering one of the most intriguing albums of 2017.
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Student Edge
we should have suspected that it wouldn’t be all fun, all the time.
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The Kellow Miscellany
takes on a clear and defined theme that runs through all the tracks
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VADA Magazine
a remarkable success on every count
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Noisey
feels like a soothing balm and a knife in the chest—sometimes both—because it relays your own experiences back to you in every way.
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Thomas Bleach
It’s flawless from start to finish.
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Ambient Light
its diversity is sublime.
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Media Hype
A refreshing take on the art of album storytelling.
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The Perfect tempo
throws the rules out the window once again with another mature, beautiful and heartbreaking masterpiece.
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The Highlander News
a fluorescent melodrama
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The Wooden Man
moments on the album betray a wisdom and confidence far beyond Lorde’s barely-twenty age
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Salute Magazine
a damn good album that just happens to be 100-percent transparent
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HR Huber-Rodriguez
has some excellent lyrical and production moments
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Pursuit of Pop
There’s always a pressure if you have an amazing first album to follow it up with an even better second ... it’s safe to say she’s done that!
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Renowned for Sound
is vibrant and full of life delving into the depths of hurt and loneliness and rising up to a celebration of transformation, colour and sound.
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Byte
one of the most varied and consistent pop records this side of 2010
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The Chronicle
beautifully put together as a musical statement
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The Gryphon
such an impressive album
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Niner Times
delivers a mature and fascinating peek inside the mindset of a teenager set ablaze.
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Breath Heavy
the dark pop masterpiece we needed
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Indie Central Music
restores hope for all those suffering from heartbreak.
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13th Floor
a step up in terms of production lyricism and artistry.
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New Zealand Herald
is a hot mess - in the best of ways
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V Magazine
a simultaneously heartbreaking and euphoric account of where she's been over the past four years.
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Ben's Beat
this is another very strong, ambitious and beautifully written effort from the rising star.
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Hot 101.7
another solid album.
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Transistor
big, bold and devastating.
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The Fresh Committee
the intertwined poetry within Melodrama‘s lyrics becomes more impactful with continued listens.
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Electric Graffiti Magazine
It is just on the right side of chaotic ... a production phenomenon.
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XFDR Magazine
the enormous sensationalism that so aptly titles Lorde’s album.
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Daily Bruin
each song is sophisticated enough in its arrangement to take the listener on an emotional rollercoaster in just a matter of minutes.
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Thorne Snow
LORDE’S MELODRAMA IS PURE HEROINE
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The Daily Gamecock
"Pure Heroine" made you pause, analyze and think. Now "Melodrama" is here to make you melt, break and feel.
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The Crimson White
Lorde’s new album lacks any redeeming aspects.
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The Straits Times
glorious artistic pop
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Couturely Sound
I love how it showcases Lorde’s raw talent and uniqueness.
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Hello Giggles
is unapologetic; unapologetic about being too much, feeling too much, or even partying too much.
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Liam Austen
It’s a tsunami of passion and devastation, an unrefined exploration of the intensity of becoming an adult.
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TN2 Magazine
There is a sonic clarity seen throughout Melodrama
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Gulf News
is grand as Lorde’s name.
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The Ringer
is intimate, crushing, and bad at math. It’s also one of the best albums of the year.
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WSUM 91.7 FM
Lorde follows a promising debut with a masterstroke.
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Puremzine
well-arranged and very cohesive entirely.
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Odyssey
I don’t know how an album could fit my life or my coming of age as much as one does, but this album really does that.
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Slant Magazine
it’s cathartic, dramatic, and everything else you could want an album titled Melodrama to be.
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The Oregonian
introspection is a superpower and keen observation is her Batmobile.
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The Sydney Morning Herald
another collection of flawless modern pop that proved worth the wait.
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Panther Print
Now 20, her true mastery comes through in all its glory, making her second album nearly on par with her first.
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Noted
she manages to tear down the pretence and bravado and expose the whole cavalcade of fame for what she sees it is.
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Flood Magazine
Melodrama indeed does land as something larger than itself.
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dgnomega.org
filled with lush soundscapes that Lorde utilizes and tells her stories over.
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Rock NYC
one that will define a generation, get people through heartbreak, and remind us of how resilient we really are.
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The Daily Dot
The result is a cathartic record free of irony or cynicism that forces listeners to confront the heartache of their past with painful clarity.
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The AU Review
lives up to the hype
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The Daily Campus
It eloquently puts into words something many of us can’t: struggling with the loss of a relationship and picking up the pieces of yourself afterwards.
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The Sound Board Reviews
is far more expansive than Lorde’s debut could have ever hinted at.
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Outlet
Melodrama is a modern masterpiece, and it if were a painting, I think you’d find it in the Louvre.
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Immortal Reviews
It's a fantastic record that'll really get you thinking.
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Treble
This record is suffering and catharsis, brooding and exclaiming, and it is one of the year’s best releases thus far.
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THAOMASMJ99's Music Blog
Fundamentally Lorde’s writing is more ambitious, assured and confident, both in what she says and how she chooses to say it.
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B-Sides and Badlands
Each time you listen to a track, you pick up a sonic element or a turn of phrase that you missed last time, and it makes each listen to the album more enriching than the last.
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Spectrum Pulse
this is still an absolutely terrific pop record that celebrates pop, then dissects and satirizes it, then loops around to celebrate it all the harder.
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Verve
Rich in its layers of lavish production, heart-spoken lyrical content and elaborate theatrics.
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Gig Soup Music
Her haunting voice, the emotional obscurity in her vocal melodies and note/chord progressions are simply unmatched.
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Cult MTL
Her choruses are powerful as ever, perfectly capturing relatable emotional strife.
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Popfection
comes from a deep integrity of artistic knowledge in songwriting and album creating.
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Press Play OK
filled to the brim with moments of high-octane emotion.
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The Village Voice
her excellent second album.
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cleveland.com
a breakup album for the ages, driven by heartache, self doubt and loneliness that's more relatable than 99 percent of today's pop music.
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Redbrick
a delightfully strange, beautiful album.
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Stack
None of this 11-track foray wastes a moment, and if you were at all a fan of Pure Heroine you’ll adore Melodrama.
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Lemonade Magazine
There is never one spot on the album where you don’t think Lorde is being 100% genuine. Every word, every beat, and every vocal.
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Soundigest
It will easily be hailed as one of the best albums of 2017.
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Breathe Heavy
it is this impeccable narrative structure that tells an interesting and relatable story that ultimately makes this album one of the best of 2017 so far
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A Bit of Pop Music
every single beat and lyric seems to be in the right place.
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Olivia Management
full of hauntingly truthful lyrics about growing up, coming into your own, and all of the mess along the way.
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Lander Solon
deftly employs a fascinating palette of timbre and rhythm that weaves a whole-album listening experience with a degree of richness that is quite rare in any genre of pop music
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Elkantler's Reviews
It’s a confident sounding sophomore album, but not entirely a better one
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Marble Music
an absolute triumph that is going to influence as many people as it amazes.
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Strangely Pop Cultured
this album truly cements Lorde into her position as princess of alt. pop.
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JAS Reviews
it's a masterpiece.
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Recommended Listen
it will go down as another touchstone in the evolution of mainstream pop and the life of Lorde.
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Positively Underground
Her choruses are powerful as ever, perfectly capturing relatable emotional strife, with those backing vocals appearing here and there over a much more lush, orchestral landscape.
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Neive's Ramblings
My only fault of Melodrama is that it’s only eleven songs.
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Moonlit Eyes
a roaring success.
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Hannah Chambley
the stories in her lyrics cross over one another, layer by layer, sending you into a trance and when it’s over, you step back and realize what it is was the whole time.
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Monika Weatherly
Melodrama magic.
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