Melanie Martinez’s new album ‘HADES’ is raw, real, and haunting. All 18 tracks are bangers that beg to be played on repeat.
Multi-platinum, multi-hyphenate artist Melanie Martinez returns with her fourth studio album, HADES — an 18-track descent into the psyche of our times.
Melanie Martinez does not sugarcoat anything in this album. She lays it all out there for everyone to see, which is what her fans love the most about her. This album is filled with incredible tracks, but they are also haunting, raw, and real. It is nearly impossible to pick a favorite, as each one is worth listening to over and over. That said, I highly recommend listening straight through, from track one to track eighteen, as each song is placed perfectly.
Is dystopia just a YA fantasy book or is it already upon us? Melanie recently joined Ross Golan on And the Writer Is… for a deep dive into the making of the album and the themes behind it. Listen HERE.
Melanie also spoke in depth with her longtime collaborator, songwriter and producer CJ Baran, on Justin Tranter’s Unfamous podcast, where the two dive into their creative partnership and process. Listen HERE.
On April 8, she will celebrate HADES with an exclusive evening at the GRAMMY Museum’s Clive Davis Theater in Los Angeles. The intimate 200-seat venue sets the stage for an in-depth conversation about her creative process, followed by a mini-live performance staged exclusively for this event. Tickets and more information are available HERE.
The album’s lead single, “POSSESSION” (her first release in three years) made an immediate impact, debuting with 2.7 million Spotify streams in its first 24 hours. The track has since surpassed 33 million global streams, including 12.5 million in the U.S. The follow-up single “DISNEY PRINCESS” continues to build momentum, amassing 11.1 million global streams to date, including 4.1 million in the U.S. Melanie recently broke down this track’s sardonic edge in an interview with Genius “Verified” — watch HERE.
HADES Track List
1. GARBAGE
2. IS THIS A CULT?
3. POSSESSION
4. WHITE BOY WITH A GUN
5. DISNEY PRINCESS
6. GRUDGES
7. MONOPOLY MAN
8. AVOIDANT
9. MONOLITH
10. WEIGHT WATCHERS
11. THE PLAGUE
12. BATSHIT INTELLIGENCE
13. GUTTER
14. UNCANNY VALLEY
15. THE VATICAN
16. HELLS FRONT PORCH
17. CHATROOM
18. THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON EARTH
LISTEN to HADES HERE
LISTEN to “UNCANNY VALLEY” HERE
On the release, Melanie shares: “‘UNCANNY VALLEY’ was the last song I wrote for HADES. The song is about how social media and AI have warped our relationship to beauty, constantly comparing ourselves to edited faces, reshaping how we look just to feel desirable, needing a filter to feel normal.
I started this album thinking I was writing a futuristic dystopia, but I realized I was just documenting the world we’re already living in. HADES is a cracked mirror. Beneath the rage, it’s a refusal to go numb – a call to feel, to see clearly, and to ask if we can still create something beautiful from the chaos we’ve been given.”
MORE ON MELANIE MARTINEZ
With 30 billion+ global streams, 5.54 billion official YouTube views and 62.2 million+ followers across platforms, Melanie Martinez has stretched, shaped, and molded alternative pop into an immersive, innovative, and inimitable world of her own design. Since emerging in 2012, the New York-born Latin-American singer, songwriter, director, and visionary has not only blurred the lines between genres, but also between reality and fantasy, beckoning audiences into the warm embrace of her singular artistry.
Martinez broke ground with her iconic 2015 debut LP, CRY BABY. The 2x-Platinum album celebrated its 10th anniversary last year and is mother to the 3x-Platinum “Dollhouse,” 2x-Platinum staples “Pity Party,” “Play Date,” “Pacify Her,” “Carousel,” “Mad Hatter,” and “Soap,” and Platinum favorites “Training Wheels,” “Sippy Cup,” “Alphabet Boy,” and “Tag, You’re It.” After vaulting to #6 on the Billboard 200, this debut has gone on to log 208 non-consecutive weeks on the chart.
In its wake, she notched two consecutive Top 3 debuts on the Billboard 200 with the Platinum-certified K-12 (2019) and PORTALS (2023). All three albums debuted #1 on the Billboard Alternative chart.
Upon the release of K-12, Melanie also made her film debut with an accompanying musical of the same name which upon its release was #6 at the box office worldwide. On her tour for this record, she donated a dollar of every ticket to The Trevor Project. PORTALS debuted on the Billboard 200 at #2 and spawned “VOID” and “DEATH,” her first original songs to debut on the Billboard Hot 100. 2023 also saw Melanie release a perfume line in partnership with Flower Shop Perfumes.
This is after her original perfume, CRY BABY, which was self-released in 2016 and was a sold-out success. The collection has since expanded to include candles, body sprays, and perfume pendants. Her fragrances have quickly emerged as a standout in the category, ranking among the top five best sellers at ScentBar, the nation’s leading indie fragrance retailer.
In 2024, Martinez embarked on her first-ever global arena headline tour, The Trilogy Tour, packing legendary venues on multiple continents, including sold-out successive nights at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. 2024 also saw the artist headline the world-famous Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago and the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City.
