Music

Lorde latest album, Melodrama Review and Melodrama 2018 World Tour Dates!

Four years ago, the world was introduced to a precocious New-Zealand singer and songwriter who went by the name Lorde. She burst onto the global music scene like a highway robber onto a carriage blissfully making its way along and stole the hearts and minds of an audience jaded with pop culture banality.

Clothing herself in the colors of an outsider, Lorde’s appeal lay in her contrast to the pop culture that dominated the entertainment scene with flash, glamor, and artifice. She emerged from obscurity fully formed, at the tender age of sixteen, to give her uniquely unaffected perspective and provide an antidote to the lethargy plaguing the global music scene. She was an outsider in the best sense of the word.

Her debut album Pure Heroine, struck a nerve with audiences yearning for something new to divert themselves with and disport themselves to, propelling the young starlet to the distinction of having the first million-selling debut album since superstar Adele. The album, featuring cool, finger-snapping-catchy anthems such as Royals, won her a Grammy Award for song of the year, with the album going triple platinum.

….How much of an outsider can you be after that?

We find out in her follow-up album Melodrama, in which the 20 year old will have us believe that the years and the fruits of commercial success haven’t dulled the edge of her ‘girl outside’ shtick.

Created mainly in collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff, the album seems to push her contrarian persona to the fore, with her delivering lines such as Í hate the headlines and the weather, in Perfect Places. The Grammy Award winner offers up her denunciation of pop stardom by informing us of the fact that she Hated hearing my name on the lips of a crowd, in Writer in the dark. Powerful stuff indeed.

The album is superbly crafted, balancing Lorde’s characteristically scraping and burr-filled delivery of dramatically ranged vocals and gorgeously tender croons with producer Antonoff’s eclectic sampling of 80’s era New-Wave sensations to give rise to a unique sound.

Seems like Lorde has moved on from disillusionment to exploring a chaotic range of emotions and textures. These songs from Melodrama reflect a grander turmoil than all her previous works. Written after a breakup with a longtime boyfriend, the album bursts with expressions Lorde might have previously refrained from –

Baby really hurt me, she sings in Liability. “The truth is I am a toy that people enjoy / ’Til all of the tricks don’t work anymore / And then they are bored of me.”

Musically, Lorde has stretched herself as well. The world of Melodrama is less self-contained as she plays around with her style to present a refreshingly new album.

In related news, Lorde has also announced details of her first Melodrama World Tour which is going to New Zealand, UK, Europe and Australia.

Here are the Melodrama 2018 World Tour dates –

March 1, 2018 – Milwaukee, WI — BMO Harris Bradley Center
March 2, 2018 – St. Louis, MO — Chaifetz Arena
March 3, 2018 – Kansas City, MO — Sprint Center
March 5, 2018 – Denver, CO — Pepsi Center
March 8, 2018 – Vancouver, BC — Rogers Arena
March 10, 2018 – Portland, OR — Moda Center at the Rose Garden
March 12, 2018 – Sacramento, CA — Golden1 Center
March 13, 2018 – Oakland, CA — Oracle Arena
March 14, 2018 – Los Angeles, CA — STAPLES Center
March 16, 2018 – Glendale, CA — Gila River Arena
March 18, 2018 – Dallas, TX — American Airlines Center
March 19, 2018 – Houston, TX — Toyota Center
March 21, 2018 – Tulsa, OK — BOK Center
March 23, 2018 – St. Paul, MN — Xcel Energy Center
March 24, 2018 – Lincoln, NE — Pinnacle Arena
March 25, 2018 – Des Moines, IA — Wells Fargo Arena
March 27, 2018 – Rosemont, IL — Allstate Arena
March 28, 2018 – Detroit, MI — Little Ceasars Arena
March 29, 2018 – Toronto, ON — Air Canada Centre
March 31, 2018 – Columbus, OH — Schottenstein Center
April 2, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA — Wells Fargo Center
April 3, 2018 – Boston, MA — TD Garden
April 4, 2018 – Brooklyn, NY — Barclays Center
April 6, 2018 – Newark, NJ — Prudential Center
April 7, 2018 – Uncasville, CT — Mohegan Sun Arena
April 8, 2018 – Washington D.C. — The Anthem
April 11, 2018 – Tampa, FL — Amalie Arena
April 12, 2018 – Miami, FL — AmericanAirlines Arena
April 14, 2018 – Duluth, GA — Infinite Energy Center
April 15, 2018 – Nashville, TN — Bridgestone Arena