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Don’t be a Crybaby!

Themes within popular music very rarely venture outside of the ‘soppy love song’ and the generic ‘lets party’, However floating somewhere in-between are bands and artists trying to break out of musical stereotypes and amongst the few is none other than twenty-one year old ‘The Voice’ contestant, Melanie Martinez and her debut album ‘Cry Baby’. Martinez is a unique artist whose concept at first glance appears innocent, however, Rolling Stone Magazine described her album as, ‘Twisted lullabies about love, danger and madness.’ The themes of the album when put under a microscope, are that of adolescence laced with the poison of serious adult issues. Upon the release of this album, Martinez produced a ‘picture storybook’ to be sold alongside the physical copy that relates and explains the songs from a childish ‘Dr. Suess’ point of view, complete with annoyingly patronising cliche rhymes which, in my opinion was a completely unnecessary selling point.

The order of the songs within the album are that of a very specific nature, the album and storybook begins with the first song titled Crybaby. Like the majority of her songs, Crybaby is brimming with the sound of toxic ‘toy’ instruments topped with a heavy beat helping to push her raspy youthful voice to the forefront, whilst singing lyrics that are based around twisted teenage naïveté which  pushes me to draw nostalgia from my own childhood, which is a pleasant aspect of her music. Melanie Martinez’s approach to her music is very much reflecting within her videos, the videos play the role of the storybook in a further visual sense, almost like a film. In the beginning of the Crybaby video, it shows the birth of the character (quite literally) which symbolises in a way, the birth of the entire album. Her videos and metaphors are very melodramatic which seems unnecessarily exaggerated and excessive as if she is trying to prove her dedication to this concept to her fans. As I described the videos before, they play out and come together like a film that describes the life of Crybaby, with Melanie Martinez pushing to be as edgy and ‘original’ as possible with her selling points, of course she had to release videos that stood out or were a little different. When a ‘Soap/Training Wheels Double Feature’ appeared on YouTube, I was shocked to see how far this artist was willing to go to push a concept, however I may diminish her efforts, her dedication and faith that lies with this alter ego is to be applauded. In my opinion Billboard Magazine couldn’t have described this dedication in a better way; ‘Cry Baby shows that Martinez is ­admirably ambitious, but her insistence on sticking to the album's central idea leaves her contorting into uncomfortable positions.’ Her persistence and dedication to this character, sends her on a spiral staircase through twisted, sinister themes perhaps approached the wrong way.

The next chapter of the story, paints the image of a family who appear to be picture perfect, however, behind closed doors all is not as it seems. The desperation for ‘Crybabies’ voice to be heard about her alcoholic mother, her cheating father and drug addicted brother is very real, real to the point, that me as a listener can feel empathy and you can’t help but relate to. Everybody has heard of or experienced issues that relate to alcoholism, unfaithfulness or drug abuse. As I described before, Martinez’s lyrics are a giant risk and the themes she grasps hold of are dangerous. I can’t help but think that as a debut album for this artist or any artist for that matter, lyrics that surround such dark themes shouldn’t have been touched. When an artist is breaking into the world, should they really strive for such a corrupted image, especially since Martinez approaches them with such fierce teenage angst, stop trying so hard to be a rebel and act your age. The song Sippy Cup is the first song on the album that insinuates anything sexual (apart from the fact she uses the word ‘sex’ multiple times) and with the concept of this album it sounds like these words shouldn’t be used at all, almost as if you heard a toddler on the street swearing, It doesn’t sound appropriate, with this being said, it distracts slightly from the true meaning of the song.

The first time I heard a song by this artist was when FX released the fourth season of the TV show ‘American Horror Story’ which season was about a ‘freak show’, the song released alongside this season was Melanie’s song ‘Carousel’. Carousel is a love song that tells the story of Crybaby falling in love but going ‘round and round’ in continuous circles. With references to the series with name dropping the actual show name ‘freak show’ and the famous magician ‘Houdini’, it is almost as if this song was never meant for this album. To me personally it feels like it doesn’t fit, put it this way, the song was written for the TV Show, then when not enough material had been written for the Crybaby album, the label in a way ‘thrown’ this song on as a last resort.

If there’s one thing Melanie Martinez isn’t short on, it’s ideas, however, this artist strives so much for originality yet, within the song ‘Pity Party’, Martinez has sampled music from Lesley Gore’s ‘It’s My Party’. She is an artist who has tried literally everything in her power to sell as much merchandise as possible by trying to be original, from the storybook and necklaces to the vinyl records and cassette tapes… Yes, you heard me right people, this album is available on cassette tape. With all these ‘extravagant’ selling points, she still felt the need to essential copy.. oops, sorry.. sample somebody else’s music. Apart from the sampling of this song, it’s a catchy single, and probably one of my favourite songs on the album as it isn’t about sex, adult issues or love, just a kids birthday party with nobody attending, which I’m pretty sure everybody has experienced before.

Alphabet Boy is one of the tracks on the album I can honestly say I enjoyed and everybody can enjoy. It begins with a rhythmic baby style babbling, however, this is very cleverly done as it also represents the phonetic alphabet. This song centers around Crybaby being interested in a boy who thinks he’s too clever to be with her as she is essentially just a ‘baby’, so she graciously tells him to ‘fuck off’. However, as clever as I think this song is like previously mentioned, when Melanie Martinez swears whilst holding this facade, it sounds inappropriate, if she wants a naive adolescent image, swearing in what is essentially the most innocent song on the album doesn't really make sense.

And then just when I thought the exaggerated selling points had been exhausted, along came another double feature film like music video. This one was titled ‘Tag, You’re It/Milk & Cookies Double Feature’, which following on from the other song titles, refer to something much more innocent but when truly focused on the lyrics they reveal something far more sinister which make me question well and truly if this was a smart move for Martinez. As spin.com says, ‘the double feature transforms them [the two songs] into a two-part story about Martinez’s devious, doll-like character and a big bad wolf in an ice-cream truck.I well and truly understand why these two songs have been connected in this film like way, they tell a story in two parts. The first ‘chapter’ of the story (Tag You’re It) sounds like the harmless nostalgic game we’re all familiar with, however, with lyrics like ‘Rolling down your tinted window, driving next to me real slow.’ it reveals a far more twisted meaning. The topic of child abduction and sexual assault is a giant risk and should be approached very warily, the way the lyrics and the meaning intertwine it’s almost mocking the seriousness of these issues. I fully understand the approach and by now we all fully understand that you’re dedicated to keeping up with this alter-ego, the lyrics are from the ‘big bad wolfs’ perspective and how abducting this little girl is nothing but a game, but tackling this issue in such a juvenile way and comparing something of such seriousness with a game of ‘tag’ wasn’t a smart move. I’m all for raising awareness of serious issues and congratulations to let people know you support the victims, but don’t mock them just to sell a couple of albums. In the first half of the double feature, we’re introduced the character of the Big Bad Wolf who later on abducts Crybaby just like a wolf on the prowl. As if, the sadistic nature of the song wasn’t enough, the video is just the cherry on top of the cake, with scenes of the wolf sleazily waving at a school bus full of children and Crybaby being picked up, taken and placed in the back of the wolfs van, how refreshing. The second ‘chapter’ entitled Milk & Cookies continues the story of the abduction and how Crybaby escapes from the wolf by poisoning him with her ‘Milk & Cookies’, well, however, the themes may be toxic, this song cleverly counts from one to twelve as it progresses, almost as if she’s attempting to play a game of ‘What Time Is It Mister Wolf’ and leaving us in anticipation, waiting for the big ‘dinner time’ moment, which doesn’t seem to arrive (Such a missed opportunity). It is said that these two songs are what affect Crybaby substantially, they make her truly realise how insane she is and teaches her how to embrace it…Finally, a metaphor that I agree with and can get on board with. When an event that impacts you greatly, it can change you as a person and that is exactly what is being exhibited here. Crybaby gets abducted and sexually assaulted and when she escapes from the big bad wolf, she’s a changed person, almost as if she developed psychosis.

Once Crybaby goes through her ‘character development’ then comes along the song ‘Pacify Her’, which is the first song that takes place after her incident, She explores the territory of mind games within relationships and decides she’ll go for a person who is already taken. I’ve got to hand to Martinez, all the songs in this album are very well linked and make sense as a collective but also alone, the story that plays out during ‘Pacify Her’ takes on a ‘father-like-daughter’ mentality, flashback to ‘Dollhouse’ and ‘Mom, please wake up, Dad’s with a slut’ where her father was caught cheating on his wife, and now Crybaby herself is theoretically ‘the other woman’. This is perhaps the one thing that makes me believe she slipped up on keeping up with her alter-ego, a child of the age she’s trying to play would never be in this situation and singing about it in this way doesn’t really make sense.

As i mentioned before the ‘Tag You’re It/Milk & Cookies Double feature’ is the trigger for Crybaby to realise how crazy she is and finally accepting it, the song ‘Mad Hatter’ is truly the song that reflects and prove my suspicions on Crybaby’s psychosis. This song lies in the world of Alice and Wonderland and the weird and wonderful happenings that happen. My favourite lyric of the entire album rests in the midst of this song, ‘Getting drunk with the blue caterpillar’, not for the metaphor, not for the relation to the alter-ego but purely because of the quirkiness. This song makes you ‘curiouser’ as to what goes on inside this characters head, truthfully, which I like. This song is very much the most innocently un-innocent, Its adolescent nature towards Alice in Wonderland is twisted, which I enjoy very much. Well played Martinez, turning something so naive into a twisted fairytale.

Finally, here comes my favourite song from Crybaby, and that is ‘Mrs. Potato Head’. I genuinely think naming a song about plastic surgery, ‘Mrs. Potato Head’ is very clever. Plastic surgery is one of the themes that’s expressed within this album that doesn’t make you take a step back and question the artists motives. I believe the link between real life and this alternate reality is very intelligent. It says, if you fall in love with somebody and they want you to change, will they love you even if you change, or are you essentially changing for nothing? It also raises awareness to the young adult audience, that plastic surgery is not something that should be messed with and is risky. The build up to the chorus has the words ‘Baby soft skin turns into leather’, which I always admire, it’s addressing a younger audience and how growing up is a real and natural thing and it happens to everybody. The terminology used within this song is also very clever with words like ‘cut and paste’ is easily relatable to the younger audience making me wonder if the message has well and truly gotten through to people.

Overall, as much as it seems that I have hated on Martinez’s work, I admire her. I admire her courage and bravery to approach such tender topics in such a heinous way. Her adolescence and naivety is what makes this album what it is. I may have defeated her efforts as an artist, but I do enjoy her album, but in my personal opinion, I believe that this album is a good album, however I disagree with this being an artist’s debut album, this shouldn’t be the image and themes that an upcoming artist should introduce to the world. With all due respect Miss. Martinez, you did good, very good, but perhaps not good enough.

Blogs Mentioned: http://www.spin.com/2016/08/melanie-martinez-tag-youre-it-milk-and-cookies-video/ http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6671140/melanie-martinez-cry-baby-album-review http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-september-2015-20150925/melanie-martinez-20150925