music news Lorde is confirmed to be working with Jim-E Stack for L4 (no Jack Antonoff)

[State of Grace.]

1 hour ago, Kimi said:

and he clearly peaked with it, he has no creativity left

Melodrama is easily one of my fave albums this century, but that's debatable. Saying "he has no creativity left!!" doesnt make much sense when NFR!, folkmore, Dance Fever, and Ocean Blvd have been released since then and they all have some of his greatest material. 

 

37 minutes ago, TheFireLexus said:

 

She absolutely is to blame for the quality (or lack thereof) of the music as a whole. She's the performer, songwriter, and co-producer so the buck stops at her table. However, Jack alone is to blame for giving her work that sounds like his productions for other artists.

 

There's no way for Lorde, Lana, or anyone else to know while working with him that he's recycling the same guitar and piano melodies with other people.

 

That said, the problem with the album wasn't the derivative production, it's that the music just wasn't that good. For that, she (and whatever weed she was smoking) will always be to blame.

That's a fair point and I agree with this, although I don't think recycling is exclusive to Jack. Other ATRL faves like Max and Dr Puke have been doing it for ages as well. I think it's more noticeable with Jack because he works with a smaller group of artists (and they're mostly alternative leaning)? He also has this habit of working on several big projects simultaneously so ofc some of them will suffer.

 

I actually consider myself a Solar Power apologist, I do enjoy most of the album and I think people did the most because its far from being one the worst albums ever, and it just suffered from being the Melodrama follow-up. That said, I hate it when stans shift blame solely on producers when the writing and overall vision of the album were a bit messy and Lorde herself is the decision maker.

Edited August 21, 2023 by State of Grace.

[collin]

The remixed production makes the SP songs sound better.  

[conquxror]

1 hour ago, Beyonnaise said:

Regardless I think this is definitely a WIN. The partnership with Jack wasn't able to mold into different sounds as successfully as he has with Taylor and Lana, for whatever reason.

I’m probably gonna get dragged by swifties for saying this but I don’t think Jack and Taylor’s collaborations made anything new for her or for music in general like it did for Lorde and Lana. In fact, it kinda feels like Taylor’s music this past few years has been severely inspired by both of them resulting in a washed out NFR (folklore) and a washed out Melodrama (Midnights). Could be just me tho

[Kayseri Mantisi]

4 minutes ago, conquxror said:

I’m probably gonna get dragged by swifties for saying this but I don’t think Jack and Taylor’s collaborations made anything new for her or for music in general like it did for Lorde and Lana. In fact, it kinda feels like Taylor’s music this past few years has been severely inspired by both of them resulting in a washed out NFR (folklore) and a washed out Melodrama (Midnights). Could be just me tho

Not just you bestie  

[Letemtalk]

On 8/21/2023 at 6:14 AM, LustSpell said:

  Reveal hidden contents

ALLEGEDLY, Jack and Lorde fell out post the plagiarism accusations of Stoned at the Nail Salon & Wild at Heart. Because Jack produced both songs and Lana's team apparently wanted an admission Stoned at the Nail Salon was inspired by Wild at Heart or they'd sue, Jack pretty much left Lorde out to dry and didn't help her when he's the main cause of the issue.  We'll see if the falling out is true if he's on her album or not.

This sounds quite believable.

 

On 8/21/2023 at 6:17 AM, Kayseri Mantisi said:

Lorde also did a big anniversary Instagram stories for the 6th year of Melodrama revealing many unknown things and she mentioned Jack zero times. 

When I saw the instagram stories with zero mention of Jack, I though it pretty much confirmed a falling out and almost guarantees no Jack on L4. I'm sure Jack would have got a mention if he was going to be on the next album.

 

On 8/21/2023 at 8:08 AM, conquxror said:

You want another example? Solar Power and St. Vincent’s At the Holiday Party. Both have similar melodies. Both written in the same year. Both produced by Jack. I mean, if it happened twice…

Not the only examples of Jack Antonoff song recycling from the 2020/2021 period.

 

Spoiler

 

He didn't even both changing the keys/modes from A Major/A Mixolydian - just stripped out the piano and synth production, made a few minor changes, made the production sound more folk and left it to Taylor to write a new vocal melody over the top. I don't blame Taylor, the production is different and she was trying to finish so many songs in 2020, she probably never had time to wonder if the song sounded familiar.

 

On 8/21/2023 at 8:48 AM, pitysmith said:

Also notice how Annie Clark is producing her own album next. It was a mass exodus. 

I'm pretty sure Annie knows that there was no way that Lorde could have heard her song in May, changed the outro of "Solar Power" and had a finished single out in June and album vinyls out mid August of the same year, especially with all the vinyl pressing delays during the pandemic.

 

20 hours ago, conquxror said:

In fact, it kinda feels like Taylor’s music this past few years has been severely inspired by both of them resulting in a washed out NFR (folklore) and a washed out Melodrama (Midnights). Could be just me tho

Several people mentioned the Melodrama-Midnights similarities, although many songs on Midnights were a bit more minimalist and subdued, so I get why Pitchfork also made the Pure Heroine comparison.

 

Jack put a lot of work into Melodrama when it helped him make his name as a producer, but didn't seem to care much after that.

 

 

He seems to be able to churn out a lot of albums really fast, so I get why he's a good choice for doing all those re-recordings.

He doesn't need to be original on those.

[Kayseri Mantisi]

59 minutes ago, Letemtalk said:

This sounds quite believable.

 

When I saw the instagram stories with zero mention of Jack, I though it pretty much confirmed a falling out and almost guarantees no Jack on L4. I'm sure Jack would have got a mention if he was going to be on the next album.

 

Not the only examples of Jack Antonoff song recycling from the 2020/2021 period.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

He didn't even both changing the key/modes from A Major/A Mixolydian - just stripped out the piano and synth production, made a few minor changes, made the production sound more folk and left it to Taylor to write a new vocal melody over the top. I don't blame Taylor, the production is different and she was trying to finish so many songs in 2020, she probably never had time to wonder if the song sounded familiar.

 

I'm pretty sure Annie knows that there was no way that Lorde could have heard her song in May, changed the outro of "Solar Power" and had a finished single out in June and album vinyls out mid August of the same year, especially with all the vinyl pressing delays during the pandemic.

 

Several people mentioned the Melodrama-Midnights similarities, although many songs on Midnights were a bit more minimalist and subdued, so I get why Pitchfork also made the Pure Heroine comparison.

 

Jack put a lot of work into Melodrama when it helped him make his name as a producer, but didn't seem to care much after that.

 

 

He seems to be able to churn out a lot of albums really fast, so I get why he's a good choice for doing all those re-recordings.

He doesn't need to be original on those.

[Draper.]

On 8/20/2023 at 8:07 PM, Draper. said:

Saw her live yesterday and she played a couple of songs before coming out (just like she played Running Up That Hill during the Melodrama tour). One of them was a Caroline song, can’t remember which. And the other one I knew, but I can’t tell right now either. But those were probably clues about the next album.

 

Here it is. The second song was Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. The Caroline song was Door but she only played the first verse.

[Kayseri Mantisi]

1 minute ago, Draper. said:

 

Here it is. The second song was Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. The Caroline song was Door but she only played the first verse.

Door is produced by Jim-E Stack so she was really teasing maybe omg  Lemme check Smalltown Boy now

[Letemtalk]

3 minutes ago, Draper. said:

Here it is. The second song was Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. The Caroline song was Door but she only played the first verse.

You know she had Caroline Polachek as a guest to perform Green Light at Sziget Festival in Budapest a few days ago right?

 

 

[Draper.]

2 minutes ago, Letemtalk said:

You know she had Caroline Polachek as a guest to perform Green Light at Sziget Festival in Budapest a few days ago right?

 

 

Yes, which doesn't feel casual either. 

[pitysmith]

11 hours ago, Letemtalk said:

This sounds quite believable.

 

When I saw the instagram stories with zero mention of Jack, I though it pretty much confirmed a falling out and almost guarantees no Jack on L4. I'm sure Jack would have got a mention if he was going to be on the next album.

 

Not the only examples of Jack Antonoff song recycling from the 2020/2021 period.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

He didn't even both changing the keys/modes from A Major/A Mixolydian - just stripped out the piano and synth production, made a few minor changes, made the production sound more folk and left it to Taylor to write a new vocal melody over the top. I don't blame Taylor, the production is different and she was trying to finish so many songs in 2020, she probably never had time to wonder if the song sounded familiar.

 

I'm pretty sure Annie knows that there was no way that Lorde could have heard her song in May, changed the outro of "Solar Power" and had a finished single out in June and album vinyls out mid August of the same year, especially with all the vinyl pressing delays during the pandemic.

 

Several people mentioned the Melodrama-Midnights similarities, although many songs on Midnights were a bit more minimalist and subdued, so I get why Pitchfork also made the Pure Heroine comparison.

 

Jack put a lot of work into Melodrama when it helped him make his name as a producer, but didn't seem to care much after that.

 

 

He seems to be able to churn out a lot of albums really fast, so I get why he's a good choice for doing all those re-recordings.

He doesn't need to be original on those.

My comment involving Annie wasn't about plagiarism, but about her not wanting to endure another round of 'discourse' about having Jack involved. Lorde probably had this thought, too. If they all continued working with him again, the comparisons would continue even if the work was completely different.