Melanie Martinez was in Season 3 of The Voice on Team Adam. Melanie was eliminated in the Top 6 round of the show in 2013, but went on to release her first album in 2015, Cry Baby. Four years later and Melanie has recently released her second album, K-12. Melanie’s Cry Baby had songs that were interlaced and told a story, so when she announced her newest album all her fans were on the edge of their seats, excited to see the story within K-12.
Before diving into my thoughts on each song, here are the basics of the album. There are 13 songs (incredibly clever with the K-12 title) and for the first few weeks following the release each music video could be viewed for free in a K-12 film on YouTube. Now only the first four songs can be watched and you have to pay for Music Premium on YouTube to watch the K-12 film with the first four songs, scenes between, and for songs 5-13. Melanie spent four years on this and did not disappoint, this is K-12.
1. Wheels on the Bus (Video)
Wheels on the Bus is straight forward, she is singing about a bus ride from a student’s point of view. She talks about the “cool kids” at the back of the bus, the bus driver that does not care about what they’re doing, and how she’s in control at the front of the bus. Watching the music video helps put a clearer image in the listener’s mind for this song and gives you information about the student we are following on this 13-song journey. In the video, Melanie is the role of the student and it is revealed that Melanie’s character has powers. It shows her controlling the driver and making him swerve to knock another student over that’s standing on the bus. This song is the base of the story, introducing characters, their feelings towards each other, and the beginning of a war between two girls for a boy. The song has an upbeat tune and gets listeners excited about what’s to come.
2. Class Fight (Video)
Class Fight is another upbeat tune, continuing the story of K-12. At the end of the music video for Wheels on the Bus, Brandon, the boy Melanie and Kelly are “fighting” for, is introduced. In Class Fight, Melanie goes to her parents pleading for an explanation as to why she is sad and if she should give up on Brandon. Her parents tell her to keep fighting for what she wants, “Daddy chimed in ‘Go for the throat’”, encouraging her to be violent to take what she wants. The song ends with Melanie beating Kelly, but Brandon calls her a “monster”, continuing to build on the drama of the album.
3. The Principal (Video)
The Principal’s first verse ends with the lines, “What if I had told your mother; Her son was a cruel motherf*cker?” and it’s such a phenomenal way to introduce such a vial song. In this song, Melanie discusses the average principal’s mindset, they care about power, money, and making sure they’re seen as the good guy by all adults, but does not care what the students think of them or what they have to say, “I tried to make you listen, but you won’t, it’s your way, right?”. It is the third song on the K-12 album and is also upbeat. The music video is mostly a dance video, but it shows Melanie using her powers to drug the principal’s drink. Her songs can contain touchy subjects for some while also staying on the upbeat side to keep the audience more engaged.
4. Show & Tell (Video)
Show & Tell is the last of the songs with a music video that can be viewed without payment. In the video she is a puppet, being controlled by her teacher and shown to her classmates. In this song, Melanie becomes more personal with her own life while keeping with the theme of the album. Show & Tell is about having all eyes on her (and her character). In her own life she is a famous name and has a massive following, which is great but can also cause problems. Melanie, like all celebrities, must watch her every move because, “I’m on display for all you f*ckers to see”. Within the theme of K-12, it refers to how everyone has to tread lightly around all their peers, otherwise they’ll become a laughing stock within their school. This is one of my favorite songs off this album just on the lyrics alone. They hold such an important message that school systems still manage to ignore and that is that bullying is still an issue and even though all schools “do not allow bullying” they don’t do anything about bullying either. Unless it gets physical, nobody steps in.
5. Nurse’s Office
Nurse’s Office is a song that most of the population can relate to. You’re having an issue with someone in school and you can’t mentally or physically handle being around them. So, what is your solution? You go to the nurse’s office and pretend you’re deathly ill with the hope that they’ll send you home so you can stop wishing that you were ditching. This song adds some comedy to the mix of songs, allowing a break from the slightly more serious topics before it in the album.
6. Drama Club
Drama Club is not quite about an actual drama club, but rather the drama within schools and how people act. “You can keep your mask”, is the best line from this song because it so easily refers to people in general pretending to be someone they are not, constantly wearing a mask. The entire song tears apart the people who are often called two-faced, being nice to someone’s face and then talking about them behind their back. Drama Club so perfectly executes, executing fake people.
7. Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake touches the subject of “boys will be boys” and “men are animals”. It so accurately portrays what young girls think when they first go through puberty which is often immediate resentment towards their over or under developing bodies, what they’re wearing, what they look like, and they’re guilt ridden attitudes about the “distractions” they’re accused of causing. The song continues through this mindset until the final minute where the mood of the song quickly and obviously shifts to, “Instead of making me feel bad for the body I got; Just teach him to keep it in his pants and tell him to stop” and it is beautiful. This sends such a strong message to women of all ages and if I had to pick one song from this album to recommend it would be this one.
8. Lunchbox Friends
Lunchbox Friends gives a message like Drama Club’s, but is more personal to Melanie. “Throw it on TV, people have high expectations of me; Wanna be my best friend, then judge me if I smoke a little weed”. Melanie brings up, again, that because she is a celebrity, she is expected to be perfect and that it’s ridiculous. She wants a real best friend and if someone is going to judge her then she does not want anything to do with them and she wants everyone else to have the same mentality.
9. Orange Juice
Orange Juice is my favorite song on this album because of the message behind it and it is one that is very personal to me. Orange Juice talks about different eating disorders discreetly while also telling the listener that they do not need to put their body through such a horrible thing. This song can relate to everyone that has ever put their bodies through such a thing and are still putting their bodies through an eating disorder. Melanie uses her voice to promote body positivity in Orange Juice.
10. Detention
Detention is, “-did I mention? Pretending everything’s alright is detention; I’ve got detention”. Depression, yet another serious topic that still fits the K-12 theme and few schools talk about with students. Every year students sit through a “drugs are bad presentation”, but how many “signs of mental illness” presentations did you go too? Maybe a few if you were lucky, but most students do not go through that and live with mental illness for years before realizing it. Melanie hits it out of the park with this song, just like all the others.
11. Teacher’s Pet
Teacher’s Pet goes back out of the ordinary problems faced in school and instead is about a male teacher being with his female student. In the song the girl is attacking him with questions the most often asked being, “If I’m so special, why am I secret?” and taking that line out of the context of the song and instead into every day life. I feel that everyone can think of a person currently in their lives or someone that was in their life that made them feel this way. Someone who said they cared about you, but only really cared about you when it was convenient for them. This is another great song and although it talks about another serious topic, it is a topic that does not occur quiet as often as the previous songs discuss.
12. High School Sweethearts
I would say High School Sweethearts is the first and only song that has a slower beat, but it picks up like the other songs. This song is in my top three. Pronouns aren’t used in this song letting everyone in the world relate 100% to the song and allows them to sing it at the top of their lungs. There is an R rated story in the song but would go over the heads of young listeners. It is just another incredible song and if you’re only going to listen to a few of the songs, please listen to this one.
13. Recess
Recess is the final song on the album and wraps up the whole message. Recess gives the simple message of, do not let everyone else have say in your life, do not let everyone else cause you to dislike yourself, do not let everyone else into your life if they do not deserve to be there, do not let everyone else get to you. It’s a perfect ending to the numerous topics covered in this album. Melanie lets her listeners know that the thoughts of everyone else does not matter. You do you and the people who really love you will stick around.
All in all, K-12 is a beautiful story told with both light-hearted and serious topics. Melanie uses her platform to enlighten everyone on the issues going on in the world today because no one else ever does. I love this entire album, but my top three songs are Orange Juice, Strawberry Shortcake, and High School Sweethearts. The execution of this album is perfect and there is a song for everyone on this album.