Reviewing 2017: Album of the Year

This year had a lot of solid album releases, including the debuts of SZA and Aminé with CTRL and Good For You, respectively; Kendrick Lamar’s critically-acclaimed DAMN; and the shockingly mature and amazingly-produced Flower Boy by usually-raunchy rapper Tyler, The Creator. However, another comeback album with a more mature sound takes the cake for the soundtrack of the year of 2017, and that’s Lorde’s Melodrama.

Released four years after her critically acclaimed debut Pure Heroine when she was a mere sixteen, attention waned for Lorde during her musical hiatus. However, she is back on the scene with this beautifully-produced sophomore record, as well as being one of the few artists who follow up their stellar debut album with an even better second album. While this could be attributed to Lorde’s coming of age as a musician and adult, along with hanging out with world-famous pop titan Taylor Swift, it’s still a feat nonetheless.

Straying from her teenage minimalist musical style, Lorde goes for bigger and better on this record. She now adds a more intricately-produced instrumental while still keeping those beautifully-overlapping vocal harmonies and almost choir-like tones. While denying Taylor Swift ghost-wrote any songs on the album, the album as a whole, especially tracks such as the pop-friendly singles “Green Light”, “Supercut”, and “Perfect Places”, sound like they would fit perfectly on Swift’s Grammy Award-winning 2014 smash, 1989, and it isn’t hard to imagine Swift singing these songs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the album is great in its own right, but it goes to show how spending a lot of time with someone can make you more like them, in this case, musically.

While there’s a lot of Swift’s influence, the vocal melodies and beats are all pure Lorde. Tracks such as “Sober”, “Homemade Dynamite”, and “Hard Feelings/Loveless”, sound like the older sister of some of the Pure Heroine album songs. There are also new, surprising sounds such as the beautiful ballads “Liability” and “Writer in the Dark”. While she may not be people’s favorite vocalist, the emotion and layers she puts in songs like these, as well as the album as a whole, are a great testament to Lorde as an artist. The complex lyrics Lorde is able to produce at such a young age as well is startlingly impressive, making her one of the music industry’s top lyricists.

Although the album was released post-breakup from her long-time boyfriend, Melodrama is not a breakup/revenge album pop artists typically release. Melodrama follows Lorde as she comes of age in the spotlight, as a person, and as an artist. So make sure to take a listen to The Red & Black’s Album of the Year, if you haven’t already, along with those mentioned in the into, as they are all great listens to reminisce about this tough year.