Lorde

[13beachess 7,614]

well Mood Ring is a bop 

[Churchome Rep 3,381]

Solar Power sounds like an opting out from wider pop culture altogether. It’s a musical resignation letter, advising her fans to look elsewhere for a saviour in the first song.

 

from the Evening Standard review 

 

tbh I kinda saw the lyricism backlash happening. I think people in general are easily impressed with “teens wise beyond their years” because youth, beauty, the more uniform experience of teenagers whereas if you’re in your mid-20’s, sounding wise beyond your years makes you sound old and “outdated” if that makes any sense. 

[deepseafishing 2,115]

shaking at my unpopular taste......big star literally top 2 and secrets from a girl is NOT good!

[Furor Poeticus 16,351]

The history repeats itself yet again. She's serving her Marina "Lackluster+Filler" moment with a 4 year long hiatus followed by a meh album.  See ya in 2023 with a better record.

 

(I'll still wait for my first listen, though the reviews and your comments don't make me optimistic)

[MezcalPapi 300]

The Man with the Axe is seriously gorgeous. It might be my mood ring rn.

[Party Favor 10,308]

I’m waiting for it to drop tonight before listening to it but the amount of melodrama slander in this thread…did not know so many of you were tasteless 

 

anyways, can’t say the criticism of the album is surprising. Rich people singing about their healing journeys and how they’re so lackadaisical cuz life is so ~let’s smoke weed and do nothing~ can only go so far before it reeks of try hard. 
 

nevertheless, I’m still excited to listen. I’m hoping I connect to the other songs bc the singles haven’t done that for me and if I don’t connect immediately to a song, my desire to finish it dwindles. 
 

what are the best songs so far in y’all’s opinion? Also, the fact she went from a critic’s fav to this is 

[Furor Poeticus 16,351]

Does someone have that 4/10 review from The Independent in full?

[CinnamonGay 10,527]

@Party Favor def The Path and FF are the best. They're so good.

 

Worst lorde song ever : leader of a new regime

[deepseafishing 2,115]

2 minutes ago, CinnamonGay said:

@Party Favor def The Path and FF

 

Worst lorde song ever : leader of a new regime

the writing in leader of the new regime is actually the worst shes ever done and in such a short song to top it off 

[LifeOnMars 7,911]

11 minutes ago, PeroxidePrincess said:

Does someone have that 4/10 review from The Independent in full?

 

Spoiler

“Come on and let the bliss begin,” chants Lorde on the title track of her third album. “Blink three times when you feel it kicking in.” Alas, I’ve had this collection of heat haze hippy noodlings on repeat for a couple of days now, and I’m still waiting for the promised sonic high. In fact, I’m still waiting for more than a couple of discernible songs.

 

The disappointment of Solar Power feels intense, because Lorde, real name Ella Yelich O’Connor, had set the bar so high that David Bowie thought she was “the future of music”. The New Zealander was just 16 when she sparked and buzzed onto the pop scene in 2013, like a fluorescent light. Her debut album, Pure Heroine was the work of an artist with no interest in flattering the emotions. Instead Lorde used her unique and thrilling manipulation of synths and vocal harmonies to shine hard beams on messy truths. This was a mission she continued with the raw exploration of “the terror and the horror when we wonder why we bother” on her second album Melodrama (2017).

 

But Solar Power finds Lorde swapping her trademark directness for tuneless detachment. Instead of finding fresh new sounds, producer Jack Antonoff has helped her filter trippy 1960s beach vibes through her love of early noughties hits by S Club 7 and Robbie Williams. There’s a nod to George Michael’s “Faith” (1987) in the stubble-strum and booty-shaker beat of the title track, and a sleepy wink at Katy Perry’s “California Gurls“ (2010) on “California”, with its farewell to “all the bottles, all the models” and slightly Tori Amos-ish falsetto leap in the chorus. There’s a little breeze of Natalie Imbruglia in the drive time bop of “Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All)”. The palm slap of bongos patter through “Oceanic Feeling”, stirring mild memories of All Saints’ “Pure Shores” (2000) but lacking the old tune’s tidal momentum.

 

Interviewed by The New York Times, Lorde says she has spent years honing the ambience of a psychedelic summer to make ”a great weed album“. She’s clearly had fun sampling waves and cicadas on her phone and recruiting Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo to add floaty layers of sweet harmony. There are groovy flutes and a rattled tambourine. Despite her long-standing hatred of guitars, she was dealt an ace when fellow New Zealander Neil Finn left his “Lake Placid Blue” 1965 Fender Jaguar in his studio for her. Producer Jack Antonoff makes the vintage guitar sound deliciously cool and fluid: like a Hockney pool. But he lets it burble throughout without really delivering any memorable hooks – until you tune it out like a hotel lobby water feature. It trickles out aimless arpeggios on “Stoned at the Nail Salon” as Lorde sighs over growing out of the songs she loved at 16 and sounds like she’s already bored by the one she’s singing. It’s one of many songs that feel sun-bleached of melody.

 

Throughout the record, Lorde says she’s delivering “extreme satire” of modern wellness cults of the sort she and her friends find appealing. In the video for “Mood Ring” she dresses up in a blonde wig – a la Gwyneth Paltrow – and takes part in a variety of Goopy pastimes like pretty pebble patterns dressed in designer silk. In breathy tones, she sings of how burning sage and cleansing crystals “can’t seem to fix my mood/ Today it’s as dark as my roots”. But the vocal lacks the bite of satirical conviction or the weight of real sorrow.

 

Lorde has often spoken of wanting to make music like Joni Mitchell. Solar Power feels like her 21st-century take on The Hissing of Summer Lawns: the 1975 classic on which Mitchell explored the dark underbelly of privileged suburban Californian lives. But where Mitchell spoke deep desperation into her tales of wealthy women hiding spiritual “darkness with a joyful mask”, Lorde just wafts over her pretty, pastichey soundscape without really connecting. More miss than bliss.

 

[Furor Poeticus 16,351]

Just now, Rainbows said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

“Come on and let the bliss begin,” chants Lorde on the title track of her third album. “Blink three times when you feel it kicking in.” Alas, I’ve had this collection of heat haze hippy noodlings on repeat for a couple of days now, and I’m still waiting for the promised sonic high. In fact, I’m still waiting for more than a couple of discernible songs.

 

The disappointment of Solar Power feels intense, because Lorde, real name Ella Yelich O’Connor, had set the bar so high that David Bowie thought she was “the future of music”. The New Zealander was just 16 when she sparked and buzzed onto the pop scene in 2013, like a fluorescent light. Her debut album, Pure Heroine was the work of an artist with no interest in flattering the emotions. Instead Lorde used her unique and thrilling manipulation of synths and vocal harmonies to shine hard beams on messy truths. This was a mission she continued with the raw exploration of “the terror and the horror when we wonder why we bother” on her second album Melodrama (2017).

 

But Solar Power finds Lorde swapping her trademark directness for tuneless detachment. Instead of finding fresh new sounds, producer Jack Antonoff has helped her filter trippy 1960s beach vibes through her love of early noughties hits by S Club 7 and Robbie Williams. There’s a nod to George Michael’s “Faith” (1987) in the stubble-strum and booty-shaker beat of the title track, and a sleepy wink at Katy Perry’s “California Gurls“ (2010) on “California”, with its farewell to “all the bottles, all the models” and slightly Tori Amos-ish falsetto leap in the chorus. There’s a little breeze of Natalie Imbruglia in the drive time bop of “Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All)”. The palm slap of bongos patter through “Oceanic Feeling”, stirring mild memories of All Saints’ “Pure Shores” (2000) but lacking the old tune’s tidal momentum.

 

Interviewed by The New York Times, Lorde says she has spent years honing the ambience of a psychedelic summer to make ”a great weed album“. She’s clearly had fun sampling waves and cicadas on her phone and recruiting Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo to add floaty layers of sweet harmony. There are groovy flutes and a rattled tambourine. Despite her long-standing hatred of guitars, she was dealt an ace when fellow New Zealander Neil Finn left his “Lake Placid Blue” 1965 Fender Jaguar in his studio for her. Producer Jack Antonoff makes the vintage guitar sound deliciously cool and fluid: like a Hockney pool. But he lets it burble throughout without really delivering any memorable hooks – until you tune it out like a hotel lobby water feature. It trickles out aimless arpeggios on “Stoned at the Nail Salon” as Lorde sighs over growing out of the songs she loved at 16 and sounds like she’s already bored by the one she’s singing. It’s one of many songs that feel sun-bleached of melody.

 

Throughout the record, Lorde says she’s delivering “extreme satire” of modern wellness cults of the sort she and her friends find appealing. In the video for “Mood Ring” she dresses up in a blonde wig – a la Gwyneth Paltrow – and takes part in a variety of Goopy pastimes like pretty pebble patterns dressed in designer silk. In breathy tones, she sings of how burning sage and cleansing crystals “can’t seem to fix my mood/ Today it’s as dark as my roots”. But the vocal lacks the bite of satirical conviction or the weight of real sorrow.

 

Lorde has often spoken of wanting to make music like Joni Mitchell. Solar Power feels like her 21st-century take on The Hissing of Summer Lawns: the 1975 classic on which Mitchell explored the dark underbelly of privileged suburban Californian lives. But where Mitchell spoke deep desperation into her tales of wealthy women hiding spiritual “darkness with a joyful mask”, Lorde just wafts over her pretty, pastichey soundscape without really connecting. More miss than bliss.

 

Thank you bestie

Damn they really trashed her

 

[deepseafishing 2,115]

this getting panned is really not what i expected even though i didnt care for the singles.........

[Amadeus 11,334]

i love the good sis but the lashings from the critics are giving me all the kiis i needed after realising i overspend on solar power by preordering three different vinyl variants    

[Cherry Blossom 21,530]

i have no words. would never have imagined the amount of panning this received for a lorde project

[Furor Poeticus 16,351]

I feel bad for her because she definitely didn't want to make a bad album in order to spite us. In the emails I could feel her passion for the project

[yourolllikethunder 4,886]

After these reviews I am nervous but still excited and I keep refreshing the tracking for my music box and blue swirl vinyl ? 

[GeminiLanaFan 49,030]

51 minutes ago, NewportBitch said:

Solar Power sounds like an opting out from wider pop culture altogether. It’s a musical resignation letter, advising her fans to look elsewhere for a saviour in the first song.

 

from the Evening Standard review 

 

tbh I kinda saw the lyricism backlash happening. I think people in general are easily impressed with “teens wise beyond their years” because youth, beauty, the more uniform experience of teenagers whereas if you’re in your mid-20’s, sounding wise beyond your years makes you sound old and “outdated” if that makes any sense. 

Interesting ? and true also. I was in awe of her writing on PH, but MD didn’t have the genius touch the other album had. At least, calling the album Melodrama kinda made up for it (as in « maybe I should take this second degree »). Maybe her writing hasnt « grown » really since she first broke out… I guess it’s always the « curse  of genius teenager writer » : Will they keep on growing and be relevant and impressive? 

[13beachess 7,614]

7 hours ago, BluebirdXO said:

 

Hard Feelings/Loveless is my favorite Lorde track. Judge me

 

 

certified taste 

[lizyyygrant 516]

1 hour ago, Charlottexseax said:

 

this is kind of /off topic/ but you should listen to fiona apple if you're interested in top notch female lyricism

i can’t get into Fiona sadly. I like her lyricism and her music isn’t bad but...I just can’t 

[Charlottexseax 7,943]

2 minutes ago, lizyyygrant said:

i can’t get into Fiona sadly. I like her lyricism and her music isn’t bad but...I just can’t 

yeah I totally get it, it was hard for me to get into too but when it clicks it’s so so worth it