Lorde's new album Melodrama is receiving rave reviews

It's only been out for a matter of hours, but the reviews are already flooding in. And they're good. Very good.

Melodrama, the second album from the Kiwi pop sensation, hit streaming services this morning after reportedly leaked online late yesterday.

But it hasn't affected the reviews, with several publications quickly posting rave assessments of the 20-year-old's follow-up to Pure Heroine.

Here are some of the first official reviews to hit the web:

"The story and lyricism is really the heart of Melodrama. If you've ever gone through a heartbreak and dealt with it in ways you probably shouldn't, this album will strike every chord that makes you feel it again." (5/5)

-nzherald.co.nz

"If it were a pool party, the deep end would be almost bottomless, but there'd be inflatable toys and cocktails at the other." (4.5/5)

-West Australian

"Whether it's a party record disguised as a breakup album or a breakup album disguised as a party record, it's cathartic, dramatic, and everything else you could want an album titled Melodrama to be." (4.5/5)

-Slant

"Melodrama ably demonstrates the Lorde "sound" wasn't reliant on the same team from Pure Heroine backing it up again. Rather she's kept what made her connect (that voice, those stories, that vocabulary) and created another delightfully strange pop album. She fashioned square-peg songs into pop hits first time around and lightning should strike twice. It sounds like nothing else in the charts right now and is going to mean everything to millions." (4/5)

-news.com.au

"Lorde's Melodrama is fantastically intimate, a production tour de force." (4/5)

-Rolling Stone

Fans also posted their thoughts on Twitter:

It caps off a great week for Lorde, who debuted the album at listening sessions to fans in New York and Auckland.

She's also added a second show in Christchurch to her November tour plans, which now includes seven shows.

She'll play Dunedin's Town Hall on November 7, Christchurch's Isaac Theatre Royal on November 8 and 9, Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre on November 11, and Auckland's Powerstation on November 12, 14 and 15.

This article was first published on NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.