It's been weeks that I read everything that all of you said on this topic, and I don't know why I never created an account before BUT, the time has come for me to enter the conversation and to make my first post ! I have so much things to say. I'm so happy first of all to discover a place where there is so much people that are interest by the same things as me.
SO last night I made my own version of Portals :
DEATH (the CJ Baran one, it seems to me that even with the leak she would have chosen this version over a piano ballad for an album opener)
VOID (the leak one, SO MUCH better even if the new one is a grower and is becoming a hit, the previous version is so much more deeper and darker, you all always talk a lot about sirens that didn't made the final cute but i need justice for this version of void, why no one talk about it ?!)
TUNNEL VISION (the new one, not so different tho, love the intro)
FAERIE SOIREE (the new version, it seems like Mel would have chosen this version as she seems to really love the guitar things / the fact that it's a french reference, love it, yes, I'm a frenchie)
LIGHT SHOWER (I understand the hate, but guys it's really a grower, again it seems that Mel love this one so I will not change it in the tracklist)
GARDEN (OF COURSE, like OMFG, HOW CAN SHE CHOOSE TO SCRAP IT? for sure she wanted to include it, it's a nearly finish song.. I don't understand why you guys place it more at the end of the album when you make your own version ?)
SPIDER WEB (again, I understand the hate, but well, I love this kind of songs from her, it reminds me of soap with the beat / it could have been replaced by Dragon's Blood, like I see similarities - you take a beast and make a metaphor with it, but it make more sense as we enter a garden that there is a giant spider and not a dragon).
LEECHES (as you all, i didn't care of it until the released version, beautiful and powerful...)
DRAGON'S BLOOD (why ? because for sure she wanted the make it the final cut, there is 3-4 versions, and all the tease with her merch.. and this place because during her BOTL live there is a dragon in the background, also the outro of leeches makes think of a monster !)
THE CONTORTIONIST (SO GOOD ! for sure she wanted it to be in the album, it fits so well with everything in it, the mv is gonna be amazing, it reminds me of tarot cards and all that stuff, for sure she wanted to make an alusion to that kind of things in it)
MOON CYCLE (understand the hate again, but for sure she wanted to make it the final cut, not a fan but I love her artistic vision with this choice)
NYMPHOLOGY (I agree that for sure this song took the place of sirens, the kind of water sound at the end of moon cycle and the bloody ocean merch.. but I decided to not scrap spider web and nymphology as there are cool songs that I want to listen tho)
SIRENS (again with 4 version it’s sure that she wanted to release it, it fits perfectly at the end of an album, I wanted also Melanie to have her moment with sirens as Halsey as her with The Lighthouse at the same position of her last album, same kind of mood !).
WOMB (I can see why she decided to finish the album with this kind of guitar mood, but I don't know how to explain it.. listening to it makes me feel stressed about what is gonna be about the next album and nostalgic of crybaby trilogy that comes to an end, also my problem with my version of portals is that there is 14 and not 13 as mel make, but, I would say that womb is kind of the Fire Drill of the album ? i don't know, like 13 + 1. also the song after sirens make so much sense with the drowning water sound at the begining).
For the story, I can see somehting like that :
she walks in the portal, dies and go though an another dimension (DEATH)
see nothing but a kind of purgatory / empty room with only void, judge herself hard (lol) (VOID)
at the end of the tunnel of the portal she discovers her new form, which is kind of sexy (TUNNEL VISION)
discover her friends with her, and twerk on fairy beat with them (FAERIE SOIREE)
though the party see her lover (ben?), really really dazzled by light (LIGHT SHOWER)
discover that this new place is not that peaceful, there is a giant dark garden (/end with her boyfriend?), not so cool the afterlife (GARDEN)
in it she is kidnapped by a giant spider (or see people caught in its trap and becoming addict lmfao) (SPIDER WEB)
escape this situation but fall in a pond full of leeches (LEECHES)
rescued in the water by a dragon that took her far away in the mountain (DRAGON'S BLOOD)
enter a party in the mountain (kind of L.A. or hollywood party vibe) but ended up being trap to make the contortionist (/fall in love?) (THE CONTORTIONIST)
had enough hidding herself and being clean, go though the sea near the mountains to talk about her period (/to her new lover) (YUH) (MOON CYCLE)
a lot of nymph ended him as he is boring / evil / bad / mister i know everything / the outro is carnage because they are attacked (i like to think that these screams are sirens screams) (NYMPHOLOGY)
final battle between sirens faeries nymphs and evil guy, she dies in the ocean killing the bad guys (SIRENS)
and rest in peace deep in the sea that become her new mother’s womb where she will reborn... end of the story.
As the majority of you, I'm a bit disappointed by the album. I agree that we can feel though it that there was changes that were made because of the leak. It's great, but it could have been amazing and top cry baby quality. Like someone said before, it seems that she push out of herself every major things that she wanted to do with this new project at Hawaii and that after she just had to find other things but that feels a little bit off the concept. Also I'm really not a big fan of pop-rock Mel, like not at all that’s why I scrap it in my version, there are really not coherent with the soundscape that she designed at Hawaii. I'm happy to see also that at the end, everything that she experiments there can be heard with the final version (except the kind of soft positive songs that are Mother of Pearl, Fingers Crossed and Needle and Thread). I could see an other version of Portals with Spider Web becoming Dragon's Blood, Nymphology becoming Sirens, BOTL becoming Garden and Needle and Thread as the 11th or 12th song.
I know that Mel certainly don’t work like that with replacing songs that leaked but anyway, tell me what you think of my version !
Also, I wanted so bad that the second film that she intended to make for MM4 would be kind of technological futuristic things, hyperpop maybe ? like futurlife as MM3 is more about past life and nature things... but my dreams will never happens saddly.
