Ariel

It was really interesting to hear what inspired this song
Even tho I feel like the concepts behind this song could have made way better lyrics had she made it more sarcastic, since that song literally sounds like a Live, Laugh, Love anthem 

The album is such a grower. I mean I've liked it from the start but now that I've had more time with it I'm completely obsessed. It's easy to write it off as superficial and fluffy but in fact a lot of these songs are very tongue in cheek if you read between the lines (especially paired with the cultish visuals she's been serving).
 
PS: Whoever said she forgot how to write good melodies needs to get their ears checked because this record contains some of her strongest yet. Just my two cents.

When is it going to click that she release a box with no CD *because* she doesn't gaf about sales? Her main focus w this album seems to be creating an experience of an album for her listeners, which I think she's done, I'm loving every second of it. She explicitly said there are no hits on the album; she is already big enough and has made passion rather than chart success her main focus with her music. Why is it so hard to grasp that charts don't define an album's success, and its meaning to the artist?

Oceanic Feeling gets better each listen  I might be becoming slightly obsessed with that track

been listening to the album on repeat for the past few days and i gotta say- i really like it
on my first listen i really wasn’t that impressed and i think think the reasoning for this might be the order of the tracklist. it goes up and down all the time. i feel like she should’ve put all the “upbeat” songs together in the beginning and then let it simmer down towards the end. i really don’t know if there is a reasoning behind the tracklisting, there’s got to be- i mean it’s lorde we’re talking here!
the path and oceanic feeling are both such great openers/endings though. there are so many exciting parts but there really isn’t a big build up to be found anywhere (once again, not a bad thing!) the rest is just a bit messy. that little speech in secrets, i think it’s by robyn, is so so so sweet. man with the axe’s production in the end is so melancholic. that dark turn in fallen fruit is SO lorde. love the message of leader of a new regime.
 
it’s a very mellow album and i don’t think it’s a bad thing. i’ve been falling asleep to this record a lot- so peaceful, definitely recommend!
 
overall, i think this album is very much lorde- just a side we haven’t seen before. a very peaceful and toned down album but overall i really love it. cannot wait to see what coming experiences this album will be the soundtrack to.

I don't care what anyone says, critics can fuck off, I LOVE this album I swear it took me by surprise  
I love it so much, Fallen Fruit is giving Bury the Hatchett's The Cranberries and The Man with the Axe is giving early Sia and I'm living for it  Hold No Grudge and Mood Ring are incredible, top tier in the album for me. I even enjoy the title track now
I would only add a little more production to Stoned, Helen of Troy (I needed that to build up and explode in an amazing outro), Dominoes and Big Star, removed the outro from Secrets and there you have, AOTY. 
It's making it onto my top 10 albums of the year anyways

current favs from solar power:
oceanic feeling (literally everything ive ever wanted from her ever since i heard this was going to be a stoner album), secrets, solar power, mood ring and stoned.
my current least favs are the path and fallen fruit. the way she sings on these songs just doesn’t sound nice to me. others seem to have these songs as their favs tho, so maybe i’ll completely do a 180 on them once i get more used to their sound. on the title track she sings quite similar to the path, and that song is one of my favs so who knows, maybe i'll learn to love it.
overall: this album is great. i get why ppl (especially melodrama fanatics) wouldn’t like it. but this album feels like it was made for me at this specific time in my life. i never had a breakup, so melodrama never really clicked for me. solar power feels so much more relatable as 24 year old stoner (hate that word, feels pretentious, but then again, who cares). right now in my life i’m trying to take it a little more slow. i just graduated from my master’s, which left me a little burned out. spending the days this summer smoking weed and soaking in the sun was the perfect preparation for this album i feel.
Also, how in the hell were y'all writing whole essay-type of reviews hours after this came out (or leaked). i feel like i need at least 2 days with any album to even begin to try to put my feelings to words. no album ever clicks for me on first listen and my opinion on first listen literally always changes with more listens

Just listened to Big Star "for real" and I cried. Thinking about my beloved dog that passed last year ?
Such a simple, but yet so emotional track.

but what if no 5 would be Fallen Fruit/Leader of a New Regime(reworked to fit a little bit better sonically to FF) in the same way as Hard Feelings/Loveless is? 

Solar Power is one of the most amazing bodies of work of this year. She came, she served, and she did an amazing job in keeping everything so cohesive. 
The production has what Chemtrails lacked of:  ambience, atmosphere.
It’s obviously not a dance to album, but it has one of the most amazing lyrical compositions that Lorde has ever done.
I’m so amazed by how she made an album with a sunny, beachy fairy vibe, sonically speaking, with a cloudy, dark but conformed energy, lyrically speaking.
She’s a genius.
And I get that most of her fans don’t appreciate it as much as they appreciate Melodrama or Pure Heroine. This album it’s pretty different.
But, it’s AOTY material. In my opinion, of course.
With that being said, my favs so far are The Path, Mood Ring and Oceanic Feeling. 
The perfect Summer Album 

i was tears at the spotify canvas of her dog  big star will become one of my favourites i think, very relatable 

Okay i went from thinking the album is kinda boring to really digging some songs. "The Man With the Axe" has been on repeat since last night. I also really like "Big Star" now. Don't like "Dominoes" that much. Very curious to see what the next music videos are going to be. 

upon first listen my faves have to been mood ring (of course), fallen fruit, the path, oceanic feeling, and the deluxe tracks! it's VERY cohesive which kinda becomes a little tiring, but it's not an awful album like everyone's saying. i definitely need a second play through before i decided how i feel. it'll be good for my hour-long drive home today. 
 
that being said, i think the extreme hate on here is truly unwarranted. of course, everyone's allowed to have their own opinions. and i agree it's definitely not her strongest album. but there's no reason to consistently bash lorde. construction criticism/opinions vs. extremely hateful comments are two different things. she's just a human being. 

from the nissan to the phantom to the plane 

Wow finding out that big star is about her dog that passed really makes it so much sadder :;(

back to say that "born in the year of oxycontin" is an amazing opening line tho

Okay, so my first little listening party with myself is done, here are my thoughts!
 
The Path is a solid opener! Btw the intro with the guitar makes me think of When The World Was At War. Love that flute! 
- Solar Power is still kinda meh to me. Not that it's a non-danceable song. I could def dance along to it even though it's not really my piece of... jam.
-  A handful of people called California "horrible" etc, it's not that bad. But the lyrics chorus could have been a lot better than that same line over and over  Boring. Other than that; I like it. I think.
- "Secrets" sounds like a song that would play in the beginingng of a 00's childrens/tween movie. Kinda Disney-ish.
- The Man With The Axe.... Not sure what to say or to think. Other than imo it's a A VERY COCC-esque track soundwise.
. Umm... not really feeling Dominoes with the first & second listen. (Had to replay it, bcs I zoned out and forgot to pay attention to it the first time listening lmao.)
- Mood Ring - the album highlight (so far) for me. Along with Fallen Fruit, which I instantly liked. 
- Big Star will be a grower... I can feel it.
- Leader Of A New Regime doesnt't really deserve all the hate. Not the worst song ever.
- Sort of wierd but despite me liking "Stoned" before, it feels like I no longer care for it, now when the album's out? Lol
- Not sure of what to think of "Ocean Feeling" yet. Except; the drums makes me think of the song Umbrella and atleast the outro's interesting.
 
 
The fact that the bonus tracks will not be available on streaming devices (right?) is such a bummer, ugh.
+ I wish the album had been released sooner. It's obvioulsy such a a summer album, and where I live it's bascially autumn now ?
I'll probably be back revisiting Melodrama instead of SP for the rest of the year, I fear.
 
so, I think SP is a okay album. Not bad, but not great either. Yet. It'll probably(/hopefully) grow on me.
My current top 3 are The Path, Fallen Fruit and Mood Ring, it seems.

i was shitting on it before but i'm listening to this record on repeat since release and it's growing A LOT, it sets a certain mood and it really has some very magical moments like the intro of The Path or the deluxe tracks
i can't say yet if i like the whole record but i'm definitely past the hate phase
my favs: Hold No Grudge, Dominoes, Big Star, but i'm able to find something to enjoy in every song,
except the title track  this one is just dull and so uniteresting, i don't know what it's supposed to do but it's not doing it for me

I just finished the album, and I gotta say I enjoyed it more than I was expecting! I won't put all my notes here, just my personal rating for each song, my faves and the ones I didn't vibe much lol.
Overall - 8/10.
The Path - 9
Solar Power - 7
California - 8
Stoned at the Nail Salon - 8
Fallen Fruit - 10
Secrets from a Girl (Who's Seen It All) - 6
The Man with the Axe - 10
Dominoes - 6
Big Star - 9
Leader of a New Regime - 7
Mood Ring - 10
Oceanic Feeling - 7
Helen of Troy - 8
Hold No Grudge - 10
Favourites: Hold No Grudge, Fallen Fruit, Mood Ring, The Man with the Axe
Least favourites: Secrets from a Girl (Who's Seen It All), Dominoes, Oceanic Feeling
It's okay if people don't like it - but it's in no way a bad record. Whoever wants a more electropop, radio friendly, intense sounding material from Lorde, can revisit her previous catalog  

So if this record is about realizing that the California dream wasn’t what it was made up to be, she’s now accepting this quiet life with her friends and dog in New Zealand, where she can truly be her authentic self which isn’t a pop star, just a regular girl making the music she loves 
 
I looooovvvvveeeeeee this record, yes it does blend in but it’s so light and breezy compared to melodrama which gives me post club 3am walking home under moon light vibes
 
this album’a title is perfect! Love love love

Don't know if this has been asked before, but do we know the songwriters for Helen of Troy and Hold No Grudge?

but it's very nearly summer for us in Australia and NZ  

The outro of Oceanic Feeling is like the epilogue to the whole album, not just the song. People are asking if the album is cringe or satire, but for me it's a bit of both, deliberately so. She's exploring these kind of cheesy wellness tropes that she's partially satirizing but also admiring them because it's hard to fault anyone who's able to find enlightenment in this dark world, even when the methods seem silly to the rest of us. The outro of the song is kind of like her revealing her cards, showing us that she's not quite the character she's inhabited throughout the album but she is genuinely on the path to finding her own version of peace and calm.

I'm so surprised by the extreme hate, people are so melodramatic. It's one thing to say the music's not for you, but some of the things people are saying...
 
I went for a nice long walk last night and listened three times and it's so lovely! Very late 90s/early 2000s pop, mixed with Chemtrails energy, with subtle touches of 60s/70s. Not a big acid album like she originally set out to make, but the leftovers of that idea are sprinkled throughout, stoner vibes for sure. This polarizing reaction upon release will only ensure it's cult status in the future.
 
I imagine the whole album will be a grower that gets better with each listen, but it's already great.
 

You summed it up. I’d keep Stoned for the acoustic side, but the rest could have been on a different album. 
If she had released just and EP after her 4-year break, we would be all over it. But the middle part of the album seems unfinished sadly.