Growing up in public has been a rite of passage for pop stars since at least
Frank Sinatra
but, as with any classic storyline, what matters is the execution.
Lorde
, the preternaturally talented New Zealand singer/songwriter who became an international sensation at the age of 17, knows how to execute not only songwriting and public narrative but also a melding of the two.
Melodrama
, arriving nearly four long years after her 2013 debut, picks up the thread left hanging on
Pure Heroine
, presenting
as a young woman, not a sullen teenager. Tonally and thematically, it's a considerable shift from
, and
feels different musically too, thanks in part to
's decision to collaborate with
Jack Antonoff
, the leader of
Fun.
and
Bleachers
who has been nearly omnipresent in 2010s pop/rock.
Antonoff
's steely signatures -- a reliance on retro synths, a sheen so glassy it glares -- are all over the place on
but
is unquestionably the auteur of the album, not just because the songs tease at autobiography but because of how it builds upon
.
retains her bookish brooding, but
isn't monochromatic. "Green Light" opens the proceedings with a genuine sense of exuberance and it's an emotion she returns to often, sometimes reveling in its joy, sometimes adding an undercurrent of melancholy. Sadness bubbles to the surface on occasion, as it does on the stark "Liability," and so does
's penchant for blunt literalism -- "Writer in the Dark," where our narrator sings "bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark," thereby suggesting all of her songs are some kind of autobiography -- but these traits don't occupy the heart of the album. Instead,
is embracing all the possibilities the world has to offer but then retreating to the confines of home, so she can process everything she's experienced. This balance between discovery and reflection gives
a tension, but the addition of genuine, giddy pleasure -- evident on the neon pulse of "Homemade Dynamite" and "Supercut" -- isn't merely a progression for
, it's what gives the album multiple dimensions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine