Lorde is not the same girl who sang, “she thinks you love the beach, you’re such a damn liar” on “Green Light” a few years ago.
“Solar Power”, the first offering off Lorde’s forthcoming record and seems to have predicted the sort of cult-like optimism we’re bringing into summer 2021. Having taken some time between records, it’s clear from the get-go that ‘Solar Power’ Lorde is vastly different from ‘Melodrama’ Lorde. Cheekily embracing her influence over the masses as a “prettier Jesus”, she frolics along the beach to the super soft, “Aquarius”-esque, pop track. Swathed in yellow and smiling, she’s instantly sunnier than we’re used to seeing her.
It is a very much “I am the messiah come to the beach with me” style track and video. There is synchronized dancing and Lorde is carried on throne chair by her followers fellow beach goers. It’s very sparse musically, particularly in the beginning. She straight up could be singing this at a youth mass. She also has a moment in the video when she appears to be the brunette incarnation of Alexis Rose.
While we’ve anticipated new music from Lorde for years, I don’t think any of us could have expected this change in direction. Staying with Jack Antonoff as a producer, some have speculated that a similar tonal shift as Taylor Swift made from ‘Reputation’ to ‘Lover’ could be in sight. What is exciting is that we don’t know this new Lorde. We get to figure out on a full length record exactly who she is after these years spent away from the studio. Lorde has done specifically what the Spotify algorithm doesn’t want you to do and has in turn had the opportunity to reinvent and redefine who she is as an artist and it will be genuinely thrilling to see what she decides to do next.