Image by Prudence Upton LORDE Sydney Opera House Forecourt, November 21 The way these things go is reasonably standard and easily recognised. Young artist takes tentative steps in delivery and showmanship; returns with more confidence and higher production values. Said artist arrives with a youthful tone that gradually thickens/darkens with “adult reality”. Shows begin somewhere like Goodgod Small Club, at some point step up big time to the Hordern and then, at peak position,

LORDE Melodrama (Universal) When it was revealed a few months ago, Melodrama looked a neat, self-mocking title. What better for the second album from an artist whose debut featured emotions ranging from high to intense to whoa, easy there; whose presentation was in kohl and minimalism; and whose lighthearted – a relative term - moments were in liberation rather than humour. As patronising writers and observers were quick to note, Lorde, aka Ella Yelich-O’Connor, had recorded

LORDE Green Light (Universal) Lorde’s back and she’s not the same girl. Heartbreak and dancebeats, release and pop define the first single from New Zealand’s biggest musical export whose debut album, made when she was 16, reached number one around the world and scooped up a bunch of Grammys. As she says in Green Light, “brand new sounds in my mind” and the now-20-year-old Ella Yelich-O’Connor is not joking. Instead of the more clipped and spare sounds of her early hits, such