Hard News: Friday Music: Melodrama
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Loving Melodrama "Broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make 'em all dance to it."
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Further to Andrew Schmidt's 1981 history: Simon Grigg's account of the Screaming Blamatics Tour – smack in the middle of the Springbok Tour controversy.
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Christchurch’s DarkSpace festival has announced a psych-heavy lineup for July 22, including Hex, Teeth and All Seeing Hand.
Should be a cracker, a couple of Dunedin bands in the mix incl. Opposite Sex Here's one of their earlier songs, Sea Shanty
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Opposite Sex also played recently in Dunedin with Colt 45 and The Terminals – and a cracker that was too.
I hear on good authority, in the absence of any listing, that the latter two are playing at the New City Hotel the night before Darxspace 3. NCH is a de facto space for Log Recordings – but it may become more than that, let’s see.
The Terminals will roll out their new ‘Antiseptic’ while Colt 45 will continue no doubt in the vein of… Snapper (Christine Voice and Dominic Stones in the line-up, a young chap called Jackson on guitar),
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And while Lorde impresses, so does Aldous Harding.with Party - check out the new video for Blend where she channels Apocalypse Now
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Wow: Melodrama is tracking at 89% on Metacritic. Raves from Pitchfork, the NYT, Guardian, etc.
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Yes good on Lorde for "Melodrama". Joel Little’s production on "Pure Heroine" always sounded hermetic to me but that now she’s got pianos and guitars and strings she’s sounding like the natural she obviously is. What is it though with favouring producers who used to be in previously useless guitar pop bands? Who’s next? Does someone from Fall Out Boy have a relevant CV?
I’m boosting SZA’s "CTRL" to anyone who’ll listen. She was on Rihanna’s ANTI which I own on vinyl and have built a small votive shrine to in the basement. Also, her name is pronounced “scissor” which is triple word score shit as far as I’m concerned.
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Perhaps a bit too much detail but this might be of interest to some. What is significant is Ella herself taking part in the process.
The Spinoff Exclusive: Lorde explains the backstory behind every song on her new album By Henry Oliver | Music Editor -
Russell Brown, in reply to
What is it though with favouring producers who used to be in previously useless guitar pop bands? Who’s next? Does someone from Fall Out Boy have a relevant CV?
Lol. I always thought it was sweet that Ella used to tease Joel about having been in Goodnight Nurse.
Funny thing is, I like almost everything all of them have done since they stopped being a terrible pop-punk band.
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It's not just that the reviews are extraordinary, it's the quality of the reviews I'm finding most interesting. They really 'get' Lorde and are engaging with her on her terms. Whether it's a commercial success at this stage pretty much irrelevant. The triumph is all hers.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/melodrama/lorde?ref=hp -
Russell Brown, in reply to
That's an excellent observation.
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I think this is the best thing I've read about it. "Best" meaning "I agree" of course.
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Sacha, in reply to
Interesting, thanks.
How did you respond to Royals, personally? -
lloydois, in reply to
Not the best thing I've read about Lorde by any stretch of the imagination. Alfred is way too cool and hedging his bets.
There's plenty of reviews to choose from on Metacritic, the joy is that most are simply great reviews that have thought long and hard about what she's done here and appreciated it for what it is.
A joy to listen to as well as a joy to process on a lyrical level.....that's a rare gig to pull off.
The absolute best thing I've listened to on the process has to be this. Lorde in her own words. You really get a sense of how smart she is.Worth dedicating a spare hour to.
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Carol Stewart, in reply to
I'd forgive him a lot for this line:
An incongruous guitar, like a wasp on a birthday cake -
Ken Double, in reply to
I enjoyed "Royals" but it never quite struck me as a revelation. She was a very clever, self-assured 16 year old but a 16 year old nonetheless. It's waaaay better than Janis Ian but when I listen to Pure Heroine the callowness of the pose spoils it for me. Melodrama is conspicuously more adult which, as an adult, I appreciate. I'm afraid I'm totally the guy that wants to give Holden Caulfield a slapping.
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And this is particularly lovely.
https://medium.com/@theneliad/listening-to-melodrama-18a34307af22If I was Lorde this would be all i'd need as affirmation.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
His comparison of ‘Liability’ with ‘All the Young Dudes’ is completely mystifying,
But this touches on some very interesting points:
I still remain ambivalent about “Royals,” and because there’s no reason why a good song couldn’t survive – couldn’t thrive on – an ambivalent response, I’m sure I’ll keep Melodrama around in November. I like her album but she’s still got traveling to do. Having worked Pure Heroine into an old-fashioned sleeper hit just before the era of album-equivalent units, she caught so many of us off guard a redress is inevitable. I think she will record better albums. But she’s so young that I worry she won’t survive another hype cycle. In a way Lorde reminds me of semipopular figures like Chris Isaak or a Suzanne Vega: artists who got lucky once and settled a couple albums later into quieter career patterns sustained by an immoveable fan base. We don’t live in that era any more, alas; artists can’t live on streams alone.
A Facebook friend with an unfortunate (and negative) bee in his bonnet noted other commentary suggesting that, basically, Lorde and her album aren’t optimised for the Spotify era.
And it’s true. Lorde will have a No.1 US album this week without having a single tune in the US Spotify Top 50. She’s No.1 on the iTunes worldwide chart, nowhere on the Spotify global chart.
And maybe that’s just how it’ll be. The top of the Spotify global chart (Luis Fonsi, DJ Khaled) is utterly risible and really nothing to do with what she does. Being Chris Isaak wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but I don’t think that’s a good comparison either. I find it hard to believe that the age of streaming means there will be no place for artists who make albums.
Also to note: Melodrama will be No.1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with first-week sales (including "sales equivalents") of 80,000-90,000. That's two places better than Pure Heroine's first week – but Pure Heroine hit No.3 with 129,000 sales. It's not Lorde, it's the whole damn industry.
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From the New Yorker review:
After a while, the record feels less like a subversion of pop tropes than like a hyperintelligent narration of them. “I know this story by heart / Jack and Jill get fucked up and get possessive when they get dark,” Lorde confesses on “Sober,” a song that is perhaps about a drug comedown; it’s also about the experience of being too lucid to ever really feel drunk. Once an outsider comfortable exploring the superego of pop, she’s now inside it, grasping for the keys to its id.
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Ken Double, in reply to
Being Chris Isaak wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world
Indeed. Or (cough) Neil Finn. Someone once asked Joe Boyd who he thought had the best career in music and he said "Richard Thompson, even though he probably doesn't realise it". Lorde's ambition is Taylor Swift's audience but unless she commits to raising the banger count she might have to settle for Vampire Weekend's. And that would be no bad thing.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
glad all over...
I’m totally the guy that wants to give Holden Caulfield a slapping.
of course you realise his middle name is Morrisey!!
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Ken Double, in reply to
Ha! Hand me the switch Mother!
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nzlemming, in reply to
I'm totally the guy that wants to give Holden Caulfield a slapping.
Get in line! #whinylittlebitch
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nzlemming, in reply to
It's not Lorde, it's the whole damn industry.
And has been for a long while now.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
It’s not Lorde, it’s the whole damn industry.
And has been for a long while now.
It's not actually the revenue, which is stabilising – and has increased for two years running in New Zealand. It the way whole damn thing actually works.
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