Review Summary: Envision Lana Del Ray. Now envision if Lana Del Ray was perhaps good.
Many indie pop bands have been getting quite a good amount of buzz in the last few years, ironically making an uprising. Though I believe few can really have such a talented start at such a young age. Ella Yelich-O'Connor, or better known as, Lorde, is a 16 year old female with a surprisingly sweet and smooth voice.
Now if we'd like to get precise, Lorde's style consists of synthpop and throwing in a little mix of a New Age feel. Again, her voice while isn't the greatest, she has her own thing going on, almost monotone sounding, but in a beautiful way. Along with this, she has the potential to write intelligently crafted lyrics for her age, although not being very deep as you would think for an indie artist, mainly sticking to making lyrics that can relate to anyone in the average day. Guess that is what you get for wanting to go mainstream huh? Breaking it down, you get upbeat and fun music that you would probably be jamming to in your mom's mini van...or in your wannabe hipster girlfriend's ipod.
Lead single, "Royal", has a slow, smooth, and deep grind, with Lorde's talking like vocals crawling the track until the chorus comes in, where she decides to let her chords fly a little higher, and I really like the short chanting vocals in the background of the chorus as well, certainly does makes you feel royal, though I don't believe it is the best track on the EP, this is definitely single worthy for its easy to understand, not really thought provoking lingo.
Two tracks, the title track "The Love Club", and "Million Dollar Bills", both have incredibly addicting opening grooves. "The Love Club" has a rather 'breath sounding' beat, where they start out low, and gradually, yet quickly, get higher. "Million Dollar Bills" sounds like something you'd play as background music while walking down the streets of China Town. My hat off to both tracks, as these two are pretty easily to get stuck in your head.
Unfortunately some cons are going to come into play right now. A lot of times I feel Lorde needs to put more emotion into her voice. It doesn't need to get angry or anything, but it feels too tame, especially on certain tracks, such as the opening track, "Bravado" and on "Royals." I'm not sure how I exactly feel about the last track "Biting Down". Part of me says I'd like to contradict what I just said, because her voice sounds elegant and sexy, I don't know about emotional though. I may say that this song has more of a natural emotion in it than the other tracks, but I can't put my tongue on exactly what drives me away. Although, the more electronic she gets in her career, you may as well kiss the hope of bringing more dramatic vocals goodbye. Not to mention the opening track again, I found it to be forgettable, and ultimately was the worst song on the EP. Some points I even hear bad ripoffs of Adele in the mix.
Half of the songs on the EP are sure to be a hit or miss, but I'm sure any pop fan can atleast find one song that they could probably tolerate, if not thoroughly enjoy. Her career though is off to a rapid start, and I'm interested in seeing the direction she takes in the future.
