Melanie Martinez may be the most reluctant star ever to sell out two nights at Madison Square Garden. Even as she rose to stardom as a teenager on “The Voice” a dozen-plus years ago and platinum status with her early albums, she never seemed comfortable with the trappings of fame, especially as a female artist, and became less so as the years went on. That situation that seemed to reach a conclusion with the imagery around her last album, 2023’s “Portals,” which found her wearing a bulbous, Bjork-esque mask (that she also wore onstage for the album’s tour).
However, that mask is nothing compared with the songs and especially the lyrics on her sprawling and ambitious new album “Hades,” nearly every one of which includes at least one “Did she just say what I think she said?” moment. With Hades signifying the evil in the world, each song on the album tackles a different horror: political and climate crises, toxic masculinity, relationship abuse, misogyny, body shaming, homelessness, hypocrisy in religion, the psychological abusiveness of the entertainment industry toward women, the greed of billionaires, toxicity in social media, revenge fantasies and finally, after all that, love. That she does so while singing those lyrics in her high, often-sweet voice — punctuated with the occasional murderous shriek or creepy sound effect mirroring the lyrics — only makes the contrasts even more jarring.
And what’s in those lyrics? “His face made me wet when I pulled out a knife/ His ignorance slipped and so did my fist/ Punched him real hard, bet it felt like a kiss.” “Their ignorant brains call genocide war/ Protect white feelings while they swipe and ignore.” “My face still has fat/ Someone told me their doctor could get rid of that/ But I’ve already got a surgeon who knows me/ Tonguing down anesthesia while he cut me/ And implanted 500cc of sexy/ I won’t lie to you that man really blessed me.” “Spent so many years being cute on the TV/ Before I could blink I became nearly 30/ I got bigger boobs so I that could transcend it/ Now all that I read is ‘Hey I think she’s pregnant.’”
Get the idea? With 18 songs spanning 70-some minutes, the album is a lot to take in — we had to stop in the middle on the first listen — but despite the sometimes shockingly intense lyrics, it’s totally approachable musically; it’s not like listening to a death metal album at all. The music, primarily in produced and co-written with her longtime collaborator CJ Baran (Marina, Carly Rae Jepsen, Panic! at the Disco), basically follows a melodic, electronic-alternative-pop framework that, like her vocals, occasionally veers into menace.
And those moments are where “Hades” positively seethes: Her voice will start out sweet, but then gets more and more deranged — and then even more. It’s exciting, terrifying and awesome all at the same time, as you wonder, “Oh shit, is she going to keep going?”
Suffice it to say, she does. And also suffice it to say that “Hades” is a stinging, powerful and important statement against the horrific state of much of the world, and a fiery musical commentary on it.
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