image creds
lorde, the solar power tour poster
writer:
aggy kazlauskas
FOUR YEARS LATER, THE CYCLE BEGINS ANEW
we all know why we’re here. the lord and saviour (peep the pun) of pop music, the i’m-kinda-like-a-prettier-jesus is back. ‘ish.
lorde, a true pioneer of contemporary pop, began teasing her grand return to the scene earlier this week.
and no, i’m not talking about lorde’s secret onion ring instagram account. this is the year of her highly-anticipated fourth studio album – and so, a single announcement was long overdue.
enter ‘what was that’ – a brand-new song promising a brand-new era. but more about that later.
everyone knows that just like the olympics, Lorde only shows up every four years. and if that sounds like a forever-and-a-half, well, stop what you’re doing right this instant; now open a streaming platform of your choice and take the time to listen to Melodrama, a masterpiece of a project that has cemented Lorde as one of the greats.
if you did actually give it a listen, thank you for trusting me enough to do so. it’s a banger of an album, ain’t it? you must now understand why her artistry is worth the wait.
no wonder david bowie called lorde the future of music, and rightfully so – there’s something about lorde’s sound that’s so extremely rare yet so comfortingly familiar, almost like a blissful childhood memory when you need it the most.
actually, it’s not just Melodrama that’s earned the title of being a fan-favourite throughout the years. lorde’s debut album, pure heroine, has long been recognised as an instant classic in its own right.
i mean, how could it not? from ‘royals’ to ‘team’ to ‘buzzcut season’, pure heroine features everything a successful project should: chart-topping hits, lyrical masterpieces, and deep cuts for those who take pride in saying that they’ve been there since day one.
THE (somewhat) UNFORTUNATE FATE OF SOLAR POWER
but once you peel away the critics’ praises and earnest fan admiration, you’ll notice that one album in particular is often forgotten about–– alright, maybe forgotten is a tad bit dramatic, but what better adjective is there to describe the general reception to solar power, both the healing successor to melodrama and the hopeful predecessor to the upcoming album?
is it simply a case of unfortunate timing?
i remember seeing jokes about everyone simply not being ready for a happy album when solar power first came out, and i suppose there’s some truth in that. after all, lorde’s music has long taken inspiration from the growing pains of becoming an adult, a wrecked sense of identity, heartache, and a whole plethora of themes that could be interpreted as melancholy. naturally, people who discovered her art through that distinctive emotion felt most attached to it, too.
although that’s a fair enough reason to not be interested in a sun-kissed project that was described as a “celebration of the natural world” by lorde herself, deeming it boring for its (deliberate) lack of explosive soundscapes and big pop choruses seems… odd? yet so many of us have done it.
is it justified? absolutely not. is it deeply, truly upsetting? certainly.
are artists not allowed to evolve? and is it right to call their journey plain when they simply transcend, or curve, one’s expectations?
don’t get me wrong, you’re allowed to not like an album. art is subjective and, at the end of the day, nobody would ever stop you in your tracks at a lorde concert and ask you to prove how many times you’ve streamed each of her records… even though i’ve seen people suggest such radical ideas on social media. wild times.
back to the original point, it’s evident that solar power is more misunderstood than misplaced. yes, it came after an album that had set the standard extremely high; however, it’s more than capable of holding its own.
lorde's albums exist in their own lanes
the big revelation here is, though, that solar power was never meant to compete with anything, nor anyone – its sole mission is to take the listener to a place they’ve not been to before. and that’s exactly the point that has flown over many people’s heads.
if pure heroine tells stories about learning to cope with sudden fame and entering a transitional period as a disillusioned teen, then melodrama is learning to navigate that world when its flashing lights blind you; and if melodrama is indeed about the twists and turns of life’s most intense moments, through the conceptual framework of a single house party, then solar power is all about the morning after it – and learning to deal with choices you’ve made.
there’s synergy there, it runs deeply throughout lorde’s discography, weaving narratives together until they’re inseparable.
lord knows (no pun intended) what the new zealand star has got in store for all of us with the release of her new single, but that much is clear – to fully immerse yourself in the world that lorde’s been creating for the last four years, it’s fundamental to tip your hat to the domino effect that eventually led to it. and that includes solar power.
to reference Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a work that lorde herself is a fan of, the themes are always the same – a return to innocence; the mysteries of the blood; an itch for the transcendental.
how solar power sets the tone for what's next
solar power is peaceful and happy, but it’s not blindly optimistic. if anything, it’s realistically optimistic – it’s a record that discusses the balance between joy and loss; joy and fear; joy and love, whether it’s love towards ourselves, those we care about the most, or simply the nature around us.
it’s an album rooted in understanding that nothing is ever in our control, and that there’s power in our journey towards accepting that.
most importantly, it’s the perfect chapter to close as ‘what was that’ ushers in a new era. often overlooked, yet indispensable, solar power sets the tone for a brand-new musical odyssey.
every perfect summer’s gotta take its flight, right?
echowave 