The first album I'd like to discuss today is Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez. It was released on August 14th and features 16 songs. The title of each song refers to something you definitely know from your childhood, e.g. Sippy Cup or Play Date or Teddy Bear. However, the themes aren't really about childhoods, but rather about problems you face as an adult.
Song number one immediately names the album and talks about the struggle of keeping friends while dealing with inner struggles. Do you know what it feels like to see one person after the other leave you? Maybe you're different than them for whatever reason, they don't understand your mindset, but you tell yourself it's not you it's them. Maybe you cry a lot and they see it as some sort of weakness when it's not, sometimes "your heart's too big for your body, it's where your feelings hide. They're pouring out where everyone can see." None of that matters though because sooner or later you'll find someone who looks at you and will see themselves because no matter how different you think you are, there's always someone who will understand.
This album is fucking real, excuse my language, but it's true. Dollhouse is only the second song, but it talks about the picture perfect family which is a damn mess behind the curtains. All of us know this one family that looks totally perfect on the outside, but none of us know what happens inside their four walls. We don't see the cheating husband or the son who's addicted to drugs. the mother who drinks, we don't see how desperately this family tries to hold everything together for the sake of not showing what's really going on. So next time you want to talk bad about that family, think of that they could possibly have to deal with.
Melanie goes on wrapping real lyrics into a relaxed tune, but don't let yourself just enjoy the sound - pay attention to these lyrics because they're extremely important and will definitely make you think.
Carousel is about love that doesn't work. She clearly says that "it's all fun and games until somebody falls in love" because that's when things become complicated, sometimes they even turn into a freak show. If it's unrequited love you spend way too much time chasing the person and it's like a fairytale because it's not real.
Personally, I find Soap pretty interesting because Melanie uses a bath tub as a metaphor for herself and her actions: never say too much because otherwise the tub overflows (like her emotions?), and again it's about love but this time it kills you because you "threw a toaster in the bathtub."
Training Wheels is for those of us who always want to be safe, the ones who always go the safe way. No risks, no crazy things. If you use your training wheels all your life, you'll never know how much you would have been capable of without them, you see? So take them off, listen to this song and let them go because someone will always be around and carrying band-aids in case you fall and hurt your skin.
Pity Party is one that hit me on a personal level because I'm the kind of person who tries not to drown in self-pity no matter what. In fact, I'm the kind of person who rather bottles my emotions up until I explode. This song is an anthem for people who embrace their sadness and throw a pity party for themselves - when the party is over, they move on.
Tag, You're It deals with the topic of sexual assault, and through this song the atmosphere of the album changes. What used to sound like cotton candy tastes, is now dark and creepy - the experiences shaped the protagonist (let's just call them that) in a form that they do not care about boundaries or pretty much anything anymore, for example Pacify Her is about ruining someone's relationship because "You don’t love her, stop lying with those words."
Mrs. Potato Head covers the issue of unrealistic beauty standards of today's society. I'm sure you're all aware of the mentality that you only live a fulfilling life if you wear a certain size and your face looks a certain way because "no one will love you if you're unattractive"
Remember how the protagonist was chasing their love in Carousel? Well, they gave that up pretty quickly: In Play Date there's a line that goes like this: "I'm tired of always chasing, chasing after you. I don't give a fuck about you anyways, whoever said I gave a shit about you?" You can now see the development I was referring to.
Teddy Bear picks up the subject of domestic violence: in many cases, the relationship is all great and lovely and the partner is like a teddy bear until they change into this aggressive person - "You were comforting and quiet, how did love become so violent?"
Most victims can't do anything about their situation because they're paralyzed and don't know what to do. However, if they find the courage to kick their partner out the way the protagonist of this song does, the violence doesn't stop. It shows up through phone calls and stalking and physological terror.
All in all, Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez is an album everybody should listen to no matter what genre you usually like. This review focused mainly on lyrics, but as you can see the lyrics of this album are extremely important and socially aware which is rather rare these days. Melanie is a damn talented songwriter, singer and her music is absolutely honest. There's no sugarcoating of anything that goes wrong in our society - this woman keeps things real, so I feel like it's my duty to force everyone I know to listen to this album and to give this woman all the support.
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