To enhance your cocktail experience, add flavors like spices, herbs, fruits and even vegetables to the water. Simply boil a cup of water and sugar separately, then pour into a clean bottle or jar and refrigerate until needed. Instead, bartenders use a liquid sweetener called simple syrup. The sweetener of choice is not sugar, because even the best sugar dissolves slowly in a cocktail shaker. Jams, jellies and preserves bring sweetness, flavor and color to cocktail creations. While sheвЂ™ll have to work even harder to find an angle for record number two her debut delivers everything you could have hoped for from a pop star in 2013.Balanced cocktails have enough sweetness to balance the sour and astringent ingredients, and that sweetness doesn't have to come from juice or simple syrups. OвЂ™ConnorвЂ™s coup dвЂ™Г©tat on Pure Heroine is ultimately the subversion of sentiment and expectations she achieves as Lorde: an often incongruous mix of the small-town study-hard goth-geek and a vampishm, leftfield pop star in the making. ItвЂ™s a universality that feels more profound with every listen. The line neatly underlines an overarching point too: the transition from a one space to another is arduous, terrifying and life changing.

When she sings вЂќIt drives you crazy getting oldвЂќ on вЂњRibsвЂќ, the smiling, wry wink is noticeable. ThereвЂ™s a subtle nuance to the 16-year oldвЂ™s vocal delivery that underpins every track. вЂњMaybe the internet raised us or maybe people are jerksвЂќ she offers up on closing track вЂњA World AloneвЂќ. SheвЂ™s angry about is the way the world tries to capture her peer group with neat generalisations. Pure Heroine paints its central character as considered participant who can let loose when she wants to but isnвЂ™t necessarily damaged enough by the failing world around her to lose all hope. Her stories are set in the вЂњcities youвЂ™ll never see on screenвЂќ where developing minds struggle with the glamour and narrative of celebrity вЂ“ but she isnвЂ™t the archetypal outsider. ItвЂ™s an age old story but OвЂ™ConnorвЂ™s delivery is shot through with recognisable experience. Pseudo-ballad вЂњ400 LuxвЂќ plays out escapist frissons of a grounded love-match on the canvas of suburban repetition. Frustration as much as impulsive petulance dominates lines like вЂњIвЂ™m kinda over being told to throw my hands up in the air / So thereвЂќ (вЂњTeamвЂќ) and вЂњAll work and no play / Never made me lose itвЂќ (вЂњStill SaneвЂќ) but the songs they belong to are part of a more considered whole. Those who found the amped-up conceits of Richard KellyвЂ™s Donnie Darko unpalatable may come away with the same disregard for OвЂ™ConnorвЂ™s hyper-aware capture of the angst, anger and generational loathing that scatters the tender years between childhood and adulthood. Pure Heroine is also a record that lives or dies by more subjectivity than most. The record is a triumph of Trojan horse ideology nods to three decades of school disco staples are enough of a trust anchor to mask a powerful two inch lyrical punch.

Instead it seeks to redefine coming-of-age themes against a backdrop of juddery dystopian baroque pop that translates musical and lyrical influences into something way beyond a juvenile rant. Pure Heroine could have coasted on the high definition rush of вЂњRoyalsвЂќ and given us a litter of serviceable facsimiles. A handful of incredible early tracks and blog-feed-to-broadsheet acclaim came after a sizeable gestation period for the young singer and songwriter.ДЄway from Western ears and eyes, LordeвЂ™s formidability metabolised into something of substance and feeds the core manifesto of her debut album. Yet OвЂ™ConnorвЂ™s capacity to fill a chapter in the ongoing evolution of pop music, rather than just free-fall into the footnotes, is due to more than a serendipity of marketing and climate.

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