Here’s a riddle: what do The Killers’ “Sam Town”, Mumford & Son’s “Babel” and Of Monsters and Men’s “Beneath the Skin” have in common? The bands hail from different nationalities, different time zones and certainly don’t sound alike.

Each band, however, has followed a similar path of alternative-pop success with mainstream appeal, gaining substantial attention with their debut albums. The similarities don’t end there, though. It seems as though success from a debut album has a tendency to propel these alternative-pop bands towards heady sophomore albums that, while exciting in their ambitious spirit, don’t earn the same level of praise and attention as their predecessor albums.

When Lorde returned to the scene this year with her second album, “Melodrama”, the music community gritted its teeth (musically, of course) and sent up a silent prayer that Lorde wouldn’t follow in the bumbling sophomoric footsteps of the countless alternative-pop groups who came before her.

I don’t mean to suggest that Lorde’s music is at all similar to The Killers, Mumford & Sons, or Of Monsters and Men. Lorde’s electro-indie-pop differs greatly from most alternative bands, and the fact that she doesn’t write the instrumental portions of her musical also prohibits any real comparison. I also won’t say that the sophomore albums from these bands failed by any means. If these bands’ single-minded and fearless determination to depart from their original sound led to any sophomoric shortcomings, then the attempts deserve some admiration.

Instead, I want to draw attention to a very sophomoric tendency of musical groups in a similar position — and Lorde is in a similar position to the aforementioned alternative groups. If anything, the popularity she earned from her debut album “Pure Heroine” adds extra drama to Lorde’s position heading into her sophomore album. No wonder she lingers upon drama with such close attention in “Melodrama”, which she describes as an album that captures the events of a house party over the course of a single night.

Sound ambitious enough? Or maybe just confusing? Well, if Lorde’s known for anything, it’s surprising maturity and insight for her age. After all, she’s only the average of a college sophomore in her native country, New Zealand. One might remember her words from the opening track from Pure Heroine, “pretty soon I’ll be getting on my first plane.” Lorde, or Ella Yelich-O’ Connor, was only sixteen years old when she released her debut album “Pure Heroine”. How could she possibly avoid the pitfalls of the sophomore album at her current age of 20?

The opening track of “Melodrama” is ambitious enough, departing from the catchy indie-pop formula that defined her debut album, “Pure Heroine.” Rather than a throbbing beat that steers her vocals, “Green Light” lacks a beat until Lorde drives the song forward with a rousing chorus. The departure from “Pure Heroine” is jarring; rather than develop the music around a simple formulaic beat and melody, the song shifts irregularly between drawn out piano chords and a bouncy chorus without taking much time to develop either section. While the second track, “Sober,” returns to the “Pure Heroine” formula, the ghost of “Green Light” lingers in the listener’s mind. Lorde has asked us to follow her down unpaved roads with this new release.

If anything grounds Lorde’s music, however, it’s her love of comedy. In fact, “Melodrama” ought to be considered a tragicomedy, as Lorde’s maturity shines most in her ability to provide perspective on the drama unfolding around the listener. Usually, that perspective goes right for the funny bone. Who among us stifled a laugh when Lorde mouths a faux explosion noise during “Homemade Dynamite?” The entire track takes the gravity of the first two tracks and exposes the ludicrous nature of a night wasted on alcohol — which, by the way, Lorde is only recently legally able to imbibe in New Zealand. She doesn’t withhold any laughs either in “Louvre”, suggesting that her and her lover will be hung in the famous art museum, “down the back, but who cares, still the Louvre.”

Lorde’s greatest reach on the album might be “Hard Feelings/Loveless,” which also proves her greatest success on “Melodrama.” No song on “Pure Heroine” exceeds five minutes in length, yet this particular track clocks in at over six minutes. Like Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around…/Comes Around” (also a product of a ambitious albeit successful sophomore album), Lorde’s lengthy track experiences a sea change midway through and seems somewhat asymmetrical. Yet the song excels in its asymmetry, proving that Lorde’s brand of indie-pop is best when incongruous and downright bizarre.

The word “Melodrama” breaks down as melos, the Greek root for music, and drama. Historically, melodramas featured a play with musical songs and instruments played onstage. Fittingly, some of the tracks on Lorde’s sophomore album have the sense of staging alongside the music. It’d be great to see somebody turn “Sober II (Melodrama)” into a show stopper in a Broadway musical. The album really is ambitious, in the best way. Searing piano ballads in “Liability” and “Writer in the Dark” introduce an entirely new ballad-esque element to Lorde’s catalogue. (You can watch me try to cover “Writer in the Dark” above). Meanwhile, “Supercut” and “Perfect Places” utilize the expertise of producer Jack Antonoff of Bleachers and Fun fame to give a facelift to the formulaic structure of Pure Heroine.

With “Melodrama,” Lorde proves that a sophomore album doesn’t have to be tragic. Whatever silent prayer the musical community muttered at the announcement of Melodrama, Lorde heard and answered in her own bizarre, endearing way.