A New Direction For Our Lorde and Saviour
In 2013, my friend and I were absolutely digging this EP called The Love Club from an emerging musician from Auckland. We wanted to catch her live, but unfortunately couldn’t because we were only 16. The funny thing was, so was she…
Lorde has just premiered the debut single off her forthcoming second album Melodrama; and much to our delight, ‘Green Light’ is far more of a shining star than a sophomore slump. As detailed so candidly in the celebrated Facebook status she made on the eve of her twentieth birthday, Lorde is no longer a teenager. And ‘Green Light’ is a supreme testament to this.
A self-prescribed minimalist, Lorde has always held more pride in what she takes away than what she gives. Low drones and paced vocals characterise her first album, and now the beginning of her new song. Seethingly delivered lyrics are harmonised over each other as they fasten in pace. And this is lovely, but it just isn’t all that different or interesting.
It is what happens after this point, however, that so unequivocally reminds us of why David Bowie described Lorde as “the future of music”. Thumping percussion, intensifying piano chords, and two vocal key changes in three lines. The song is erupting into a territory unexplored by the singer until now, there is something so replenishing, so hopeful, in her new sound. If you have ever felt like screaming, dancing and crying all at once, it looks like we have found your soundtrack.
Lorde is often praised and credited for her complex lyricism, but to this conception I must disagree. Wrapping up your words in metaphors does not necessarily make you profound. But this is not a criticism. As a performer she is different, sometimes otherworldly. But as a writer, she stays true to what she knows. In an interview with Rookie in 2014, Lorde cringingly confessed that the lyrics “The notes from my admirers fill my dashboard just the same” from her song ‘White Teeth Teens’ are actually about receiving fan mail on her tumblr... It was the push-pull of her youthful naivety with her angsty scepticism that had her first album, Pure Heroine, strike such a chord.
Now 20 years old and more self-reflective than ever, she wanted nothing more than to express her growth with her new release. “Lyrically, I think these are some of the best lyrics I’ve ever written” said Lorde on her forthcoming album in an interview with Triple J Breakfast. In and amongst ‘Great Whites’ and ‘light up floors’, ‘Green Light’s lyrics are spirited, but not indecipherable. And for this, I am so grateful.
Bombastic is a term I never thought I would employ to describe Lorde’s music, and yet ‘Green Light’ is nothing less than this. While holding true to the quiet intensity notable in her previous works, Lorde has now entered adulthood with honorable growth and an unshakeable sense of newfound self-esteem. Melodrama is set for release within the coming months, and I cannot wait to follow the new direction of our Lorde and savior.