Creative Reasearch Assignment

An album structurally exploring the concept of a house party and the different moods and emotions you experience during the night, combined with the theme of solitude, Lorde’s album Melodrama is “About being alone. The good parts and the bad parts (Lockett, 2017).” Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, known as Lorde, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter known for her thoughtful lyrics and unconventional musical style within the pop industry. Released in June 2017, this album’s cover offers insights into her last years as a teenager, dealing with fame and the solitude that accompanies it (Wikipedia, 2021).

Painted by Sam McKinnis, a 36-year-old, “American abstract and figurative postmodern painter” (Wikipedia, 2021), the collaboration for Lorde’s cover originated from her fascination with Sam’s work as she felt like she could relate to it. She particularly liked his portrait painting of Prince, 2016, from the Purple Rain album art, showing him in his purple suit on a motorcycle, and creating as most of his work does, the perfect ambiance with a wide range of colors. His painting, Swan II, 2016, shows a similar style and color palette to Lorde’s album. Colors are extensive and valuable in his work, which is why his cover art captures so well the essence and emotions of Lorde’s album. He has not done any other work for Lorde; however, his collaboration brought him much attention within the popular media, including feature articles in Vogue, Time, and Vulture (Eckardt, 2017).

The cover, portraying Lorde in a bed at dusk, reflects not only her concept for the album but also her music. Fitting into her concept, this cover could represent getting back home late from a party, exhausted, head still spinning, suddenly feeling lonely from the sudden silence of your bed. However, the theme most present in both the cover and her music, in my opinion, is solitude. Her gaze, seemingly sad indicates the loneliness you feel at night alone in your bed as your negative thoughts start swarming through your mind. The colors of the album sets up this ambiance and helps us connect it with the music. The strongest color, blue, mirrors her theme of loneliness as it evokes feelings of sadness and emptiness. Combined with the fiery colors of a sunrise it suggests hope and new beginnings alluding to the passage of time and a new chapter in her life (Gremillion, 2020). Also reflected in her music, her songs mostly insinuate “nighttime attitudes” (Eckardt, 2017) with a contrast of ballads and deep, sad lyrics joined with a lot of drums and upbeat melodies, which I associate with the contrast of the blues and oranges/pinks. Some songs also show this “hope”, like “Homemade Dynamite” which embodies the freedom and invincibility you feel as a teenager, the perfect song for driving late with your friends feeling exhilarated. However, most deal with loneliness, for example, “Liability”.

The song I find that embodies the essence of the cover art the most is “Liability”, both metaphorically and literally. The song’s lyrics reflect her going home at night, lonely and sad. The song shows a similar vulnerability as the cover art. In the song, you can hear the pain and sadness in her voice, and in the cover, you can see the same in her gaze. This song symbolizes her starting to fall apart, struggling with people and the media’s constant criticism and scrutinization. It also deals with fame, and the loneliness that follows as it is too much for people; friends and partners, “They say, You're a little much for me, You're a liability, You're a little much for me, So they pull back, make other plans, I understand, I'm a liability (Youtube, 2017).” The song is one of her slower ones, mainly accompanied by a piano, which gives it a sad and heart-wrenching feeling. This is the same feeling, for me, as the blue in the artwork and the vulnerable/spiraling insinuation of the cover.

I am not particularly a big fan of Lorde; however, I do love certain songs from this album and instantly fell in love with her album cover. I thought the cover to be both compelling and intriguing as it appeals to my emotions and shows a rich and beautiful color palette. As a teenager myself I feel like I can relate to a lot of her songs and feelings. As a rather introverted and shy individual with anxiety, it is harder for me to make friends and I often feel as if my friends might leave or get tired of me which is why her song “Liability” particularly struck me. I also connect to the artwork as I often feel lonely, especially with covid and lockdown, and often find myself restless at night, overthinking and getting myself down.