Follow-up to a Great Album: PORTALS - By Melanie Martinez

 

Melanie Martinez has had a good run as far as I'm concerned. If you can start your career with an album like Crybaby and then proceed to follow it up with K-12, you're balling. Like, certified balling. 

The problem I have with PORTALS is that it sounds generic. 

Considering the amount of time and money that went into it, this should not be happening after you've proven that you can outdo yourself with less. The generic sound and overall flimsy narrative is also not part of a gag or meant to be a statement about anything—at least not how I read it, which really detracts from the work as a whole for me. 

It looked like a concept album, the song titles set us up for the expectation of a story... And yet— It has nothing to show for itself. "NYMPHOLOGY" is the closest we get to concrete connection to the apparent themes of the album, and it is only because its so explicit. 

No, the themes aren't "subtle" or "just not surface level", they're not present. The album suffers for it. 

 (I would like to include that I have no words for the film—Melanie claims she's been sitting on the script for years and after K-12's film, I'm awaiting the release very intently.)

I did like some of the songs. But it hails back to the reason why her first two albums did so well. "DEATH", "NYMPHOLOGY", "MILK OF THE SIREN"—all sounded sincere, and had profound things to say about female sexuality and marginalization; realizations of the feminine self in the disturbed context of previous, less accepting eras.

"Our mothers, the witches they banished and burned
All of our sisters were killed and abused

By sword-swinging men who would always accuse" - "MILK OF THE SIREN"

Not only are those some of the hardest bars in history, but the whole song making the metaphor of becoming a siren, is a kick in the dick. Sirens are historically items of lust that kill men. DO I HAVE TO SAY A WORD MORE??? The metaphor reinforces itself unaided. Mwah. 

These tie in with album art and compliment it well. To single these out- they're really good standalone pieces of work. 

Overall, the launch package and album art are visually stunning, but the follow-through, live shows, and instrumentation are lackluster—it's a mess of lots of really cool ideas and themes that reads more as an unremarkable grab from her record label to create an easily digestable, super-loveable pop-punk release. If I had to guess, this is how she's going to be funding the film, so there's a another reason why it might be how it is. We still love Melanie and hope to see what she does in the future—though, I would like to see more of the real Melanie spunk and style peek through.

 

(*Editor's note: this review is specific to the 2023 release of PORTALS (Deluxe))

Many thanks for those of you who took the time to read! Let's pick this up again, some other time. 

 :)

- Patch