arts // no. 8

Breakups and hangovers in ‘Melodrama’

> ‘Melodrama’ album review

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

wk kk

or three months, everyone at the Other
Press has been waiting for 20-year-
old New Zealand singer-songwriter Ella
Yelich-O’Connor’s (a.k.a. Lorde) next
album Melodrama to be released. Now,
as of June 16, it is out, and all of us can
finally listen to this much-awaited album.

Ina note that the artist wrote
in her bed, she describes the album
as “Two years of breathlessness
and hunger—A new sound. A new
scene; A drink. A drumbeat,” and she
hopes that you will “listen for every
breath and broken heartstring.”

The album involves a series of
breakups and hangovers, going back
and forth throughout the record.

Each time Lorde dates someone,
she breaks up with the person, goes
to a party, and has a hangover.

Melodrama begins with the first hit
single from the album, “Green Light,”
with its British pop sound. Just like the
music video of the song, she breaks up
with someone, goes to a club, dances
on top of a van, and ends up on a bridge
in the morning. In “Sober,” she has a
night out with a boy, drinks liquor with
lime, and they end up with hangovers,
which is explained in the second part
of the song, “Sober II (Melodrama).”
She dates another boy in “The Louvre,”
except that she upsets the people around
her and she uses the famous museum

 

as a metaphor for their situation.

The second hit single from the
album, “Liability,” involves a boy
breaking up with her because, he says,
“You're a little much for me.” “Loveless”
sounds like background music and a
transition between “Hard Feelings”
and the second part of “Sober.”

In “Writer in the Dark,” Lorde
sounds like singer Feist. Lorde dreams
about a relationship in “Supercut,” and
it is interesting that the song ends with
the line, “We were wild and fluorescent,
come home to my heart.” The album
ends with the third hit single from the
album, “Perfect Places,” which talks
about Lorde trying to find perfect places
due to all the bad that is happening in
the world. She asks the question, “What
the f**k are perfect places anyway?” The
answer to her question is that perfect
places are just that: perfect places.

With a running time of just over 40
minutes, the album is short, but it has a
lot to digest. Some of the songs on it have
similar music to what Lorde used in her
previous album Pure Heroine. Although
the album does not have an explicit
content warning, there are swear words
in some of the songs, which means that
we hear her swear in a song for the first
time. Melodrama has a combination of
the music that Lorde usually makes and
British Pop music. The young singer/
songwriter had some help on the album,
as Swedish singer Tove Lo partially wrote
the song “Homemade Dynamite.”

When you find out what Lorde
has been doing in the past two years,
you will experience melodrama.

> ‘Friday’ board game review

Ed Appleby
Illustrator

 

ometimes we all need a little help. If only we

would listen to those who know better.

Friday (2011) is a deck building game for
one player designed by Friedemann Friese and
published by Rio Grande Games. In the game,
you play the literary character Friday as you
attempt to teach the inept Robinson Crusoe
skills to help him survive his island adventure.
You win the game if you can get Crusoe through

three stages and defeat two pirate ships.

If you're looking for a casual time waster like
some form of advanced solitaire, this is not that
game. There is a delicate balance that needs to be
struck between winning to gain cards you want
and losing to get rid of the cards that you don't.
Ironically, patience and common sense are the name
of the game. You also need to pay attention to the
end game goals and the pirates you will be facing, as
they will affect your strategy throughout the game.

The game itself needs a little room to set up, as it

has three draw piles and life points in addition to the

play area. The rules can be a little hard to understand

until you start playing, and you will need the

instruction book nearby for the first game or two to

understand how some of the card modifications work.
The game is fun, but far from easy. If you’re

into a challenging deck building game like

Dominion and don’t always have your friends

around to play, Friday is a great challenge.

 

Chairman of the Board: Stayin’ alive

 

theotherpress.ca

 

 

Melodrama by Lorde Album Art

Illustration by Ed Appleby