Lorde
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Solar Power: Lorde Resumes Her Rule

What can Lorde’s new single tell us about her upcoming album? 

After four years, Lorde, aka Ella O’Connor, is back on the music scene with her summery single ‘Solar Power’, ahead of her upcoming album of the same name. 

The young New Zealander’s latest track is stripped back and fresh, with a carefree and upbeat vibe. Over a cheerful acoustic guitar riff, Lorde’s voice resonates as uniquely as ever: elegant and playful, whilst still retaining its low growl in some places.

Lorde

The melody is carried by guitar and vocals, yet when reaching 2:05 minutes, the song intensifies as more texture is introduced. This includes drums and a saxophone playing a striking harmony, as the track begins to somewhat resemble George Michael’s ‘Freedom’.

For fans of Lorde’s 2017 Album ‘Melodrama’, the change in tone is undeniable. Gone is the pain, raw anger, and pent-up frustration, and into its place glides happiness and liberation.

Melodrama’ was just that: melodramatic, spiriting us into a psychedelic sensation of emotional angst. Similarly, ‘Solar Power’ comes to us through a vision, offering us a dream-like state of idealistic utopia.

The accompanying music video embodies this, as we watch dancers in flowing dresses flutter around a beach surrounded by a bright blue sea: paradise.  

In the chorus we are encouraged to: 

Forget all of the tears that you’ve cried

It’s over

It’s a new state of mind

Are you coming, my baby?”

Her words allude to a shift in her persona, away from feelings of sadness and anger, as she has matured and healed. Perhaps as she advances to her next stage in her life, ‘Solar Power’ will follow-suit as a natural progression from ‘Melodrama’ and her 2013 album ‘Pure Heroine’. 

So, are we to be greeted with a body of work in which all its tracks are happy and upbeat? Lorde says ‘Solar Power’ – set to be released on the 20th of August – is a “celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors.”

Although we remain in the dark about what sort of feelings she is referring to here and which emotions ‘Solar Power’ will convey and evoke, we do know that it will be in tune with nature, and that nature, although beautiful, is not always so serene. 

Only time will tell whether ‘Solar Power’ will enrapture its listeners to the same degree as the Grammy nominated and critically acclaimed ‘Melodrama’, released four years prior.  

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