After having unveiled the cover art earlier this week with the somewhat cryptic message “Patience is a virtue,” Lorde has now dropped her new song “Solar Power”, her first single since 2017’s Melodrama. And boy, is it a radical departure from what she had gotten us used to in the past.
It didn’t come without its teeny weeny bit of controversy, though: a false start (or PR manoeuvre? Guess we’ll never know) had the single briefly become available in selected streaming services and locations before being taken down a mere five minutes later. Some may even have wondered if it wasn’t, in fact, a collective hallucination.
Appropriately released on a solar eclipse day, “Solar Power” echoes post-Second Summer Of Love vibes (both me and Annie Zaleski went straight into Primal Scream’s “Loaded” on a first listen) mixed with neo esoterica referents that are visible both in the extremely Midsommar-esque video but also sprinkled (spiked?) throughout the lyrics: “acid green,” “aquamarine,” “no shirt, no shoes,” ” girls dancing in the sand.” Slightly tame at the beginning, the song opens wide as the chorus kicks in at the approximately two minute-mark, the dawn of a brand new day for the “prettier Jesus” that has taught their disciples how to sing a new hymn.
Lorde and the new creatures indeed. Let the sunshine fucking in.
Hopefully there will be news on more from Lorde soon, so make sure to follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
