The Lorde has risen.
A lot can change in four years. New presidents, climate catastrophes, global pandemics, moody teenagers graduating from house parties of violet and purple to the sunshine and beaches of yellows and golds. A lot has changed.
Lorde, real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor, is the twenty-four-year-old pop star that you’ve probably seen a bit of lately. And after four years between albums, her last one being the 2017 post-breakup house party anthem Melodrama, she’s back, and this time with tunes to dance in the sunshine and listen to the waves to. Solar Power, her third studio album, was released August 20, following three singles from the record, being the titular track Solar Power, Jack Antonoff-styled ballad Stoned at the Nail Salon and crowd favourite Mood Ring. Boasting 12 tracks, Solar Power isn’t the album many expected from the former angsty teenager of Royals fame, but it’s the one we got. So here are all twelve tracks, ranked from least best (there’s no horrid ones) to the very best.
12. The Man with the Axe
I hate to say it, but The Man with the Axe is just kind of boring. There’s not much else to say about it, other than it’s been a bit of a skip so far.
11. Big Star
The more toward the end of the album Lorde starts to bring out a couple of short ballads and brief songs that feel more like spoken poetry than pop songs. For an album about soaking up the UV rays and dancing in the sun, Big Star is another slightly boring and, dare I say, unnecessary addition.
10. California
The most Lana Del Rey-sounding song of the album, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I found this somewhere between Born To Die and Norman Fucking Rockwell. It’s fine, just lacking the *umph* Lorde seems to bring to other parts of the album.
9. Secrets of a Girl (Who’s Seen it All)
Secrets of a Girl (Who’s Seen it All) feels like a natural extension of Melodrama, Lorde’s second studio album, recounting parties of crying in the corner and growing up too fast. The only let down for me, though, is the weird Sadness Airlines announcement toward the end, an unusual inclusion that adds little to an already fine pop song.
8. Dominoes
A cute lil’ folky song, Dominoes is a bit of fun. It’s not life changing, nor does it have to be, and it’s a great easy listen, but at the same time it also just feels a little unfinished.
7. Leader of a New Regime
Toward the end of the album is Leader of a New Regime. Landing at just over a minute and a half, this brief declaration for a new leader is simple yet completely effective. It’s brevity perhaps works in its favour, but that also begs the question of if the album is anything more with such a short song tucked in at the end.
6. Stoned at the Nail Salon
The second single to be released from the album, Stoned at the Nail Salon, is not bad nor anywhere near it. It’s a ballad I thoroughly enjoy, but I think a big reason for that is because it sounds so much like all the Jack Antonoff ballads we’ve heard before. Antonoff, who also produces the music of the likes of pop stars such as Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift, seems to be thoroughly visible in this song. A little more of Lorde who’ve gone a long way.
5. Fallen Fruit
A dystopian-esque anthem for the kids left dancing on the fallen fruit. This song feels a little riskier than the rest, maybe without sounding like the Lorde we’ve been familiar with, but definitely with the courage of trying some different that has been apparent in her discography.
4. The Path
Lorde begins the album with this intro song, exclaiming that she hopes the sun will show us the path. The theme of sunshine and warmth is one she runs throughout the album, most apparent in this first track, provoking the feeling of something coming, and that perhaps that something is the sun.
3. Solar Power
The first single to be released, Solar Power the song paved the way for what we could all expect from the album baring the same name. Satirical images of throwing cellular devices into the water and a cult-like persona that declares let the bliss begin as Lorde dances on a platform floating in the shallow of a beach, this song sets up the warmth we can expect of an album about sunshine and waves.
2. Oceanic Feeling
The perfect ending to an airy album, Oceanic Feeling fades Solar Power out with the soothing vocals of Lorde and friend and fellow kiwi, Marlon Williams. Acknowledging that now the cherry black lipstick’s gathering dust in a drawer, I don’t need her anymore, ‘cause I got this power, Lorde considers her old self, the one that many listeners and critics will consider worlds away now from the Lorde presented in Solar Power, and that that’s ok.
1. Mood Ring
Paired with a dreamy music video of a bleached-blonde Lorde and her friends decked out in the most beautiful mint green, Mood Ring is a song of both criticism and empathy for the white women who turn to wellness culture to help them stop feeling so dam bad. Lorde admits that it’s her voice, Ella, that comes in at the end and whispers Watch the sun set, look back on my life, I just wanna know, will it be alright, and it’s this little nod to the reality of worry that wellness tries its best to dissipate that really heralds this song for me as the best of the album. Amongst her characters and games and all the genres she’s trying on, Lorde’s voice can always be heard.
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