More about: Lorde

Lorde has spent the past decade becoming increasingly insular. Her debut, Pure Heroine, was dynamic and synth-heavy but, sonically, she started to devolve to a less digital world almost immediately. When Melodrama arrived as her 2017 sophomore effort, to a valid heap of praise, Lorde retreated to Auckland, ditched her infamous onion ring Instagram account, and spent the last four years, it seems, soaking up the sun and smoking weed.

Solar Power shows Lorde issuing her resignation from pop culture. “All the music you loved at 16, you’ll grow out of” runs a line from ‘Stoned At The Nail Salon’—a folksy look into dissociation and obliqueness of maturity—as she lets her anxieties breathe.

Gone are the days of an image of a teen girl with a low, raspy growl in her register and goth-plum coloured lipstick; instead, Solar Power champions an organic ethos, transience, and lots of yellow. 

The social commentary is familiar but compelling as Lorde dreams up a place where epiphany is fuelled by nature. Hazy? Yes. But uncomplex it is not. While ‘Oceanic Feeling’ layers on jangly woodwind instrumentation and home-recorded samples of cicadas, ‘California’ spins Lorde’s Grammy win for standout debut single 'Royals' in 2014 into a chokehold – personifying Los Angeles as having a “cool hand around my neck”.

As a writer and commentator, she’s never been sharper, though Solar Power’s weakness is its sonic uniformity. From start to finish, the record deals in a currency of acoustics and ultimately leaves a gulf for experimentation and a missed opportunity to bolster any real feelings. Climate change (‘Fallen Fruit’), wellness culture (‘Mood Ring’), anti-celebrity (‘The Path’), and the death of her much-loved dog Pearl (‘Big Star’) are all at play here, but her words are wasted without definable hooks.

One in a series of recent pop releases about escaping the pressures of fame, Lorde’s initial impact unquestionably dominated pop music. Yet, in trading the luminosity of Melodrama for something more pastel, Solar Power bows out Lorde as we used to know her.

Solar Power is out now.

More about: Lorde