Lorde Has Dished The Dirt On Her New Album ‘Solar Power’
By the sounds of it, it's going to be quite different to 'Melodrama'.
In the early hours of the morning, Lorde fans were blessed with the first new music from the singer in four years.
The lead single from her new album, Solar Power, was initially meant to drop in a matter of days, but after a series of leaks, the release date was pulled forward. Not that you’d be able to tell that the thing was in any way rushed — the single emanates such a radiant level of cool that it seems to have carved out its own entire universe.
Better yet, it’s but a taste of new music to come. In an interview with triple j, Lorde dropped the goss on the new record, and what fans might be able to expect. Here are the main takeaways.
The New Music Has Been Germinating for Some Time
Lorde likes to take her time with music, going into near “hibernation” when she’s writing. As a result, ‘Solar Power’ has been in the works for a while — the singer estimates that she first began working on it a number of summers ago. “It’s been years of working on this music,” the New Zealand wunderkind explained in the interview.
She once again teamed up with super-producer Jack Anontoff — he took the reins on Melodrama, St. Vincent’s Masseduction, and has credits on Taylor Swift’s 1989, reputation, folklore/evermore, and even Olivia Rodrigo’s recent one SOUR.
Expect More Music Videos…
The video for ‘Solar Power’ is as inventive and infectious as anything that the singer has released, full of light and love. But it’s not the only video that the singer will be dropping soon — in the interview, she explained that she and her collaborators developed a miniature universe worth of visual content. “We made a whole bunch of videos for this album,” the singer explained.
Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that the video for ‘Solar Power’ resembles the work of Ari Aster, particularly his film Midsommar — there’s the same vaguely cult-y vibes, and the same static long shots. Lorde didn’t mention the Aster connection directly, but she did explain that she wanted to appear like a “kooky tour guide” in the clip, introducing listeners to the world of the album. Sounds a lot like the introduction to the accursed village in Midsommar to me…
…And A Continuation Of That Sunny Vibe
Given that the name of the record is Solar Power, it’s no surprise that each song on the forthcoming project is designed to feel like the sun. ‘Solar Power’ isn’t the aberration then; it’s the tone-setter. “It sounds like the beach, the waves, the girls lying on the beach,” Lorde explained. “I really wanted it to have that vibe. The guitars, the drums – everything’s so sunny.”
Of course, as the memes have already pointed out, there’s a nice irony in releasing a summer record in the midst of the southern hemisphere’s winter. But hey, a record this effervescent can create the sunshine no matter when it is released, weird Australian winters aside.
Lorde Has Seen Your Butt Memes, And She Likes Them
When the single for ‘Solar Power’ leaked early, the biggest takeaway for many was the album art, depicting Lorde striding over the camera like a goddess, prompting a wave of memes. And although Lorde admits that she is “not across meme culture,” some of her friends sent her some of the internet’s funniest contributions, and she enjoyed them. “They were very funny, I liked them,” the singer revealed.
so we're all going to be looking up at lorde's butt for a while
— bis (@itsokaybis) June 8, 2021
You know what that means? A lot more memes should be forthcoming. It is Lorde season, after all.