August 20, 20213 yr I appreciate that she’s come back with something so unexpected, but yeah, this album isn’t for me 🤡
August 20, 20213 yr Her lyrics about growing up always stab me in the heart because we're the same age, these in particular: "Don't you think the early 2000s seem so far away?" "Couldn't wait to turn fifteen. Then you blink and it's been ten years." 😭 the album has this sad, nostalgic feel to it but with a warm, breezy production style that occasionally dips in to psychedelic - the closer 'Oceanic Feeling' was probably the most interesting for me. I'm also really into 'Mood Ring' right now. I think I need time for more of the individual album tracks to stand out more for me but I enjoyed the general style. It's not really in the same league as 'Pure Heroine' or 'Melodrama', I guess her former dark electronic shtick was more to my taste as lovely as this is, but I don't feel massively disappointed or anything, knowing what the pre-album songs sounded like.
August 20, 20213 yr I really like the overall vibe of this and found it a really nice listen this morning. There was a patch on the second half where I felt the tracks merged a bit before Mood Ring but I probably just need to give them more time.
August 20, 20213 yr oh cannot wait for the vinyl to arrive, also got the blue one, but just got a notification it's been sent today so I guess it's gonna take a while...
August 20, 20213 yr I have listened to it ... omg, even worse than I was expecting. Can ah get a Witness, Witness... The only song that stands out, kinda, is California. Oceanic Feeling is ... okay, but it totally misses the mark. She wanted a dreamy, mystical Coldplay Mindight, All Saints dream pop, but it just ended up a meandering mess! Hard pass. All the songs sound the same, and you are waiting for all of them to pop off, only for them to peter out or stop abruptly. What is this??
August 20, 20213 yr The ONLY song that stands out... have you even listened to the album? :lol: 'Oceanic Feeling' is wonderful
August 20, 20213 yr Both of the bonus tracks on the deluxe would have worked on the album, wish she’d just put them on the standard version as they would have helped break the sound up without being too different.
August 20, 20213 yr Everyone is allowed a stinker of an album - GaGa survived Artflop! It's actually better if this does a Witness or Artpop, as then less people will be aware of the low quality, and be onboard more easily with the next album, thinkin it was just a big break. That is what saved GaGa: no one had even heard of Artpop or Joanne outside the fan circles. Lorde is more protected against stinker albums, anyway, as an indie pop artist. Lana put out some awful albums between Born To Die and NFR, and she just kept going, only to come back better than ever!
August 20, 20213 yr The short songs in the second half are largely skippable but everything else ranges from nice to very lush. My favourites are 'The Path', 'Fallen Fruit', 'Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All)' - that closing monologue !!!, 'Stoned at the Nail Salon' (my favourite on the album) and 'Mood Ring' which is just sublime. Overall, FARRRRR from her best album, but a nice listen.
August 20, 20213 yr I will definitely listen to this again in a couple of weeks and hope that more songs will grow on me then (I've only listened to it today because Bal wanted to do a Discord clique listenthrough on day 1, thought I may as well make an exception from my current streak of taking weeks to get around to listening to new music since it is Lorde :kink:) but on a first listenthrough this album is... a substantial step down from her other 2 (as I expected) but still quite good, assuming some of the tracks do grow on me a bit I think it's ending up being a little bit better than I was expecting it to be after the underwhelming lead single and fairly lukewarm reviews it's had so far. 'The Path' sounds to me like it is the song that 'Solar Power' was trying to be - that and 'Fallen Fruit' (the folksy instrumentation and the brief darker sounding beat switch halfway through *.*) are by farrr the standouts from the album tracks for me right now (joining 'Stoned At The Nail Salon' for my top 3 of the album as a whole). Aside from that I also thought 'The Man With The Axe' was really lovely, and 'California'/'Mood Ring'/'Oceanic Feeling' all struck me as songs that I currently think are decent/good but definitely have the potential to grow into bigger highlights. 'Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All)' reminds me a lot of beabadoobee's recent output, very 90s radio hit worship, unfortunately I'm not always massively into that style and I'm not sure I'm too sold on this song either, but it may also be a grower. I feel like I can probably safely dismiss 'Dominoes'/'Big Star'/'Leader Of A New Regime' as being unlikely to grow into anything more than pleasant but forgettable ('Dominoes' in particular is probably taking over as my least favourite song in her discography oops, it pretty much washed over me completely, at least it is over quickly). I think Pitchfork giving this a 6.8 is pretty much on the money (sad to say), I might rate it a little higher than that myself especially if more songs do grow on me but probably no more than about a 7.5/10. I'm just happy enough that there are at least 3 songs on there that I'd rank up there with the highlights of her previous albums as I wasn't too sure I'd even get that based on what she chose to be the lead single...!
August 21, 20213 yr I think I agree with all reviews that this is a good album but not as good as previous. But still good. For me, I miss a killer song, there is no song that is an 11/10 for me... and for me, I think I like my artists when they make sad depressing songs rather than happy songs but of course Lorde cannot fake it, if she's on a happy place she cannot write breakup anthems like Green Light...
August 21, 20213 yr The deluxe edition bonus tracks... SPmnbuKQTDY OeVUnv2SN60 I'm sure neither would convert anyone who doesn't like the main album but I'd take either over Dominoes through Leader of a New Regime.
August 21, 20213 yr Also... I've done my usual juggling of the album and I think the following works a lot better: A1 The Path A2 Mood Ring A3 Stoned at the Nail Salon A4 Hold No Grudge A5 Helen of Troy A6 Secrets From a Girl (Who's Seen it All) B1 Solar Power B2 Fallen Fruit B3 Oceanic Feeling B4 The Man with the Axe B5 California B6 Leader of a New Regime B7 Big Star As for the album as a whole, I'm enjoying it quite a lot now. It's not the masterpiece that Melodrama was but I really like that we have something from her that fits a whole different mood/vibe and it makes me really appreciate her as an artist - I love that I have no idea where she will go from here on in.
August 21, 20213 yr I like that you just removed 'Dominoes' entirely :kink: I didn't realise it had bonus tracks - hope they will be added to Spotify at a later date but I will make sure to check them out at some point regardless.
August 21, 20213 yr Also... I've done my usual juggling of the album and I think the following works a lot better: A1 The Path A2 Mood Ring A3 Stoned at the Nail Salon A4 Hold No Grudge A5 Helen of Troy A6 Secrets From a Girl (Who's Seen it All) B1 Solar Power B2 Fallen Fruit B3 Oceanic Feeling B4 The Man with the Axe B5 California B6 Leader of a New Regime B7 Big Star I like this but... I would keep Solar Power straight after The Path! Lyrically it works really well "hope the sun will show us the path" > into Solar Power is brilliant imo! Also it has to end with Oceanic Feeling too!
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