Melanie Martinez – Cry Baby (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Melanie Martinez wants to tell you a story. It’s fictional, but it’s also about her, in a way that’s somewhat exaggerated and darker than reality. The tale traces through Melanie’s debut album Cry Baby, a collection of pop songs that draw inspiration from singer-songwriter folk and hip-hop and follow a character who learns to be more comfortable with who she is. The journey of the character, who Melanie dubbed Cry Baby, mirrors the musician’s own.

Building upon the conceptual ideas of her 2014 EP, Dollhouse, Melanie Martinez’s 2015 full-length debut, Cry Baby, finds her taking the innocent imagery of youth and family (“Carousel,” “Training Wheels,” “Milk and Cookies”) and subverting them into angular R&B and electro-infused anthems of familial strife, abuse, and romance gone wrong. An arty, self-assured singer with a style that falls somewhere between Beyoncé and Björk, Martinez first came to the public’s attention singing Britney Spears’ “Toxic” as a contestant on the third season of NBC’s The Voice. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, her songs also fit nicely next to the work of contemporaries like Lorde and Lana Del Rey. As with Dollhouse, aiding Martinez on Cry Baby are a handful of hip-hop and pop-steeped producers including Kinetics & One Love (B.o.B, Pitbull, Neon Hitch), SmarterChild (Krewella, Usher, Tori Kelly), and Frequency (Eminem, Royce da 5’9″, Slaughterhouse). Featured on Cry Baby are the singles “Sippy Cup,” “Soap,” and “Pity Party”.

Tracklist:
01 – Cry Baby
02 – Dollhouse
03 – Sippy Cup
04 – Carousel
05 – Alphabet Boy
06 – Soap
07 – Training Wheels
08 – Pity Party
09 – Tag, You’re It
10 – Milk And Cookies
11 – Pacify Her
12 – Mrs. Potato Head
13 – Mad Hatter
14 – Play Date
15 – Teddy Bear
16 – Cake