From bittersweet lyrics to melodies made for summer, why Lorde is an artist that so many can connect to.
Ella, her stage name Lorde, is an artist that many teens and young millennials are familiar with. She grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, and was signed with Universal Music Group at age 12 after a video of her performing was seen by the company. Then, in 2013, Lorde released her hit single, Royals. As many of you are likely aware of this song, it also won Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2014 Grammys. A month after the release of Royals, she released her debut studio album, Pure Heroine.
Credit: Dazed
Although I personally didn't listen to the whole album much when it was released, I remember listening to Royals with my friends a lot. I think that for a lot of people around my age or a few years older, it was a staple song for the time. A few years later, I started to listen to the rest of the Pure Heroine album and fell in love with the complicated lyrics mixed with the easiness of the upbeat tune. Specifically, I spent a lot of time listening to White Teeth Teens, 400 Lux and Tennis Court.
Credit: Spotify
Tennis Court, Track 1
Tennis Court is very interesting from both a lyrical and musical standpoint. From a lyrical view, she sings about how she notices herself changing from who she was in high school due to her new found fame. She also compares how others in the industry don't know her, singing "Getting pumped up from the little bright things I bough, but I know they'll never owe me." From a producing view (I say from my little knowledge, just the fact that I love music), the tone of the song is dominating and dark. I think it's this way to almost symbolize the new change and how daunting it is, which is supported by the dystopian sounding "Yeahs" that are heard behind each few lines.
400 Lux, Track 2
I think the main reason why I like this song is that it's so personal and hypnotizing. From the start, there is this siren-like echo that fades in and out of the song, connecting each section of the song to the next. I think that so many connect to the song because it's simple. "(And I like you) I love these roads where the houses don't change. (And I like you). Where we can talk like there's something to say. (And I like you)...We're never done with killing time, Can I kill it with you?...We come around here all the time, got a lot to not do. Let me kill it with you." The song follows Lorde and another, how she favours every second spent with the other person. For teens especially, this song is about the quiet moments with friends or a partner, where everything feels still and easy.
White Teeth Teens, Track 9
White Teeth Teens follows the 'perfect' group of teens. Throughout the song, it sounds like Lorde is identifying with the group. When singing about the qualities of the group, she uses "we." She also sings about the need for others (or herself) to be accepted by the group, singing "Impress the empress, take your shot now." But, when the bridge comes around, she suddenly admits that she herself is not a white teeth teen. She sings about how she tried to join but never got to. I love this song because it's so light and bright, but the lyrics are almost sad and show the need to be accepted.
Sidenote: On her extended version of Pure Heroine, Lorde released a single called 'No Better.' No Better, which has been on all of my playlists recently, is a song about a loving summer, and then yearning for that love and weather in the winter months. She sings about how "Jamie picks fights but they're weak and short-lived, because no one can be bothered when it's humid like this," and then how "Now the days are getting cooler and the burning of our limbs doesn't happen quite as bad and the burn is just skin-deep, in the fantasies and dreams of the winter, like the movies that we watched to pretend it wasn't winter." No Better is a song for the easiness of teenage summer and the longing for it that happens the rest of the year.
Credit: Spotify
Then, in 2017, Lorde released her second studio album, Melodrama. I think that Melodrama will always have a special place in my endless love for music because I think it truly represents change, especially for young women in their late teens. It's an album of heartbreak, growth and new things. In an NME article, writer Sophie Williams asked other upcoming artists how Melodrama influenced them. I loved Jensen McRae's response as she detailed that "'Melodrama' gave an entire generation of young women permission to feel their vast feelings, and to intellectualise them simultaneously. I think Lorde belongs in the tradition of Fiona Apple in that way, of helping to construct narrative legitimacy for the pain, angst and triumph of young women." Melodrama is an album that you're made to dance to and cry to at the same time. I seriously don't understand how she can write such heartbreaking lyrics that make you want to dance forever to. Below are some of my favourite songs from the album.
Sidenote: I was on a walk the other day and wandered into this record store and I FOUND MELODRAMA and I'm going back to get it in a few days and I don't even know how to contain my excitement!
The Louvre, Track 4
First off, what a masterpiece of a song. The beginning, a simple guitar strum, supports the softness of the lyrics that Lorde sings. "I am your sweetheart psychopathic crush. Drink up your movements, still I can't get enough." She goes on to sing about how it feels to have such strong feelings for another person and how you could dance to her heartbeat. I love this song because the way that she describes the connection she has is in such a teenage way. My favourite lyric happens in the second verse, when she sings "But we're the greatest, they'll hang us in the Louvre. Down the back - but who cares - still the Louvre." To me, I find this lyric symbolizes how great her love for the other person is, while also understanding that it is not all perfect and beautiful.
Hard Feelings/Loveless, Track 6
I feel like I don't even know where to start with this one because there is so much in it to go over. Firstly, this song is sectioned into two parts. The first section, Hard Feelings, follows the story of Lorde and her lover and how it ends. The opening lyric, "Go back and tell it," starts her narration of her love story. The chorus, mystic and tragic, shows how one feels when they go through a heartbreak. She sings "Hard feelings. These are what they call hard feelings of love. When the sweet words and fevers, leave us right here in the cold. Alone with the hard feelings of love. God, I wished I believed ya, when you told me this was my home." I don't think that you could write anything more heartbreaking, ever. Then, as the music fades into the second verse, we being to see her start to recover from her lover. She sings "I care for myself the way I used to care about you." Then, my favourite and most devastating lyric of the song, "When you've outgrown a lover, the whole world knows but you. It's time to let go of this endless summer afternoon." Dead. That lyric kills me. I'm gone and never writing again. We hear the chorus drift through again and the bridge hits and it's this loud and almost erratic mix of sounds, I don't even know what to compare it to. She then sings the last section of Hard Feelings, and it's a true reflection of their relationship.
Credit: Spotify
And though at this point it might feel like the end of a tragic love story, suddenly the second section of the song kicks in. Loveless is a representation of feelings of anger (almost in a childish way) at someone from your past. She sings "Bet you wanna rip my heart out, bet you wanna skip my calls now. Well guess what? I'd like that. Cause I'm gonna mess your life up. Gonna wanna tape my mouth shut." She then goes on to sing about how she identifies with a L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S generation, which I believe symbolizes how one separates themselves from their past love in an effort to move on. At the end of the song, she repeats and fades away by singing "L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S generation," in a way that sounds like she's almost trying to convince herself.
Supercut, Track 9
Supercut is the analysis of the failed relationship and the inner conflict that one can experience in the aftermath. In this song, she looks back at her memories around the relationship and romanticises them. A supercut literally means a collection of all of the good moments. She sings "And in my head, the visions never stop, these ribbons wrap me up. But when I reach for you, there's just a supercut." Here, she understands that when she looks back she paints a pretty picture, but in reality, there were many aspects of the relationship that were less than pretty. As the song progresses, she details how her life continues but she only ever thinks about the past relationship in their own 'supercuts.' One of the main reasons as to why I love this song is because she is acknowledging that she misses him and wants him back, but also I think it's a progression of her slowly understanding that there were parts of the relationship that didn't work and that she only enjoys the small clips of happiness that she plays over and over again.
Credit: Spotify
Lastly, there is her 2021 album, Solar Power. If there is one album that I think truly represents summer though and through, it's without a doubt Solar Power. The whole message that Lorde points out throughout the album is the importance of grounding. This message could not be clearer in the last and 12th track, Oceanic Feeling where she repeats "Just had to breathe (breathe out, breathe out, breathe out, breathe out), and tune in (tune in, tune in, tune in, tune in)." After Lorde toured her previously mentioned 'Melodrama' album, she took a break from social media. This is when she made time to ground herself and connect with nature. She also travelled to Antartica to gain more understanding about global warming. I also think that Solar Power is so different compared to Melodrama because it shows her growing and her healing. It's made for listening on the beach in the summer with only your closest friends. It's about finding yourself and growing into that, not shying away from it. My favourite tracks off of the album are Solar Power, Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All), Mood Ring and Hold No Grudge (Bonus Track).
Solar Power, Track 2
Do you want to be transported into summer? Do you want to feel that warm feeling of the sun on your face during the chilly month of March? Literally just listen to Solar Power and dance in your room. You will be fixed in 3 minutes and 12 seconds. This song is summer personified. She sings about her love for summer over winter ("I hate the winter, can't stand the cold, I tend to cancel all the plans") and the elements that make up summer like overripe peaches, beaches, no shoes and dancing in the sand with friends. My favourite lyric of the song is during the pre chorus, when Lorde sings "Forget all of the tears that you've cried, it's over (over, over, over). It's a new state of mind, are you coming, my baby?"
Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All), Track 6
Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All) is a reflection of girlhood and growing up. In this song, Lorde sings about how she spent her teenage years wanting to grow up ("Couldn't wait to turn 15, then you blink and it's been 10 years. Growing up a little at a time then all at once") and has now gained the knowledge of 'knowing it all.' In the second verse, she sings some advice to her younger self that I think a lot of teenage girls would like their future selves to say to them. In this encouraging few lines, she says "Baby girl, no one's gonna feel the pain for you. You're gonna love again, so just try staying open. And when the time comes, you'll fall. Yeah, when the time comes, you'll fall." The second chorus comes and goes, where she again sings about the secrets from a girl who's seen it all, and then the song fades into this dystopian sounding message where Lorde is telling the listener that they're in a new land of sadness and to make sure not to drop their emotional baggage onto someone they love.
In this video, she literally sings to her past self from each album.
Mood Ring, Track 11
Mood Ring is for sure a more 'political' view of the rise of wellness culture that has been highly apparent online in the last few years. In an article by Nylon, writer Steffanee Wang wrote "In a press release about the song, Lorde explained that 'Mood Ring' is a satirical look at the pseudo-wellness trend and now industry, and that she was inspired to write about this topic after a deep dive into the '60s era Flower CHild culture and the similarities between trends from that time period and now." The song is all about the sudden trends of wellness culture and trying to 'find yourself.' She sings "I can't feel a thing, I keep looking at my mood ring. Tell me how I'm feeling, floating away, floating away. All the sad girls sing, We'll keep dancing till the mood rings. Tell us how we're feeling." I think that these lyrics may sound fun and bright, they're actually very dark and secretive. There's something so depressing about feeling so lost in life that you look towards material things for happiness. In a way, this song connects to both the idea of modern wellness culture and also consumerism. We see the idea of wellness culture when she sings "Let's fly somewhere eastern, they'll have what I need. Ladies, begin your sun salutations. Pluto in Scorpio generation (love and light). You can burn sage and I'll cleanse the crystals. We can get high, but only if the wind blows (just right." But then, even within all of this, is the deeper meaning of consumerism and how people only feel connected and adjusted if they have material things.
Hold No Grudge (Bonus Track), Track 14
Lastly, probably one of my favourite songs from the whole album, Hold No Grudge. For a long period of time last summer, I would always play this if I was driving. The song is light and it feels like a release. It's a song to the person/people that aren't in her life anymore. She told Clash that "HNG is a sort of composite portrait of when relationships turn sour, being trapped in the ice but remembering the warmth." In that way, the song reminds me a bit of Supercut, but it feels like she has matured. This is because she recalls their relationship and acknowledges that her old lover is with a new girl and she tried to reach out to him, but a few lines later sings "No, I don't keep a list, can't hold a grudge. Don't you think that we both might've done some growing up? Well I know that some shit was said and done, but it's such a different world now, I can't hate anyone." And my favourite last few lines of the song, "Acting my age, not my horoscope. Guess that's growing up. Now I'm sending you love, and wishing you well. Wherever you are." I feel like this song wraps up her strong longing that was present in Melodrama by showing that she has valued herself more and can now send love to those in her past.
Credit: Spotify
I think that Lorde is so popular because she has grown and gone through experiences with a generation, and if you didn't grow up at the same time as her, you can still live through her songs years later. Her music is so timeless that anyone can listen to it and likely connect with it on some level. For Pure Heroine, she was going through her life as a young teenage girl and her experience was deeply reflected into her songs. Then, a few years later and many new experiences later, Melodrama was an album for young women who have experienced heartbreak and is a map to guide yourself through it and the aftermath. Lastly, Solar Power is a reflection of growth and peace. I think that young women especially connect with Lorde because she has written about their lives so easily yet deeply. Her music in itself is timeless.
Hearing her live on her Solar Power tour with Madi and Abby was like a whole new level of love and life.
I think even through writing this I have fallen in love with her music again and again.
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