Lorde - Solar Power

When the :disco: high has worn off I obviously will reevaluate. But all I want to do now is binge Five Star.
 
Listening to the album it's certainly not BAD, it's objectively quite a well written album...it's just absolutely, totally not what I personally want from Lorde (especially following Melodrama). Fleetwood Mac are the obvious comparison, but clearly more CHRISTINE than Stevie.

It's quite strange that the likes of COLBIE CAILLAT and Jennifer Paige spring into my mind as references when listening to this album :D The noodly acoustic Newport Beach sound is really not a genre I'm especially fond of, and as such I can't imagine this is an album I will be coming back to in great depth.

That said, some of the songs individually will probably shine outside of the context of the album. California for example sounds like it was written entirely for a DRAMATIC HOUSE FIRE in Big Little Lies season 3 or something.
 
See that’s exactly what I was thinking!
  1. You’re not Lana, fuck off.
  2. WE HATED THAT LANA ALBUM
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I’m listening to this and Secrets from a Girl has to be one of the worst things ever. The lyrics are embarrassingly bad.

Fallen Fruit is sublime.
 
I love her but this rings very true. She’s fallen into the trap of being a rich and famous person who only writes about being rich and famous. :(


That tweet seems to be unavailable, but she has said that this record is about her experience the last few years. So I don't think she necessarily thinks it's going to be particularly relatable. I have no problem with her doing that for an album in itself.
 
It's been deleted but the tweet was something like 'The new Lorde album is so obviously by somebody who has never done a day's (non-creative) work in her life'.

Anyway, I thought it had some nice enough moments on first listen, but utterly hit free and definitely something that feels quite tone deaf with the way things have been for most people over the past couple of years. Though perhaps that's not an entirely fair thing to judge her on, she's far from the only celebrity who writes from a position of extreme privilege, I think it's just that she says the quiet part out loud a lot more than, say, Taylor Swift on her recent records.

She really does need to lay off the weed and go and do something useful for a couple of years I feel.
 
I don't think she's actually a huge stoner guys.

one of the worst things about Twitter is everybody's rush to find a "take", but I don't think "Lorde is so privileged now, who can relate to an album this carefree from a rich white lady in these times?" is a particularly interesting or valid one. how is it "tone deaf"? maybe it's just thematically not what you wanted.

there's nothing wrong at all with making an angst-free record about enjoying the sun at the beach. plenty of non-rich people are also out living their best lives at the beach right as we speak. ideally the songs would be more interesting than some of these are, and obviously heartbreak and anxiety has been her forte so these songs feel slight in comparison, but some of these Twitter commentariat need to take a seat and chew on their fucking salad (or smoke a joint and go get a manicure).
 
I think it's more an issue of presentation. She's kind of a victim of her own songwriting style, which is very personal and analytical. I do think she's quite self aware, but on this album it's to her detriment - so much of it just feels like indulgent navel-gazing.

It's not that I think she's become some entitled monster or anything. But most of the 'rich white ladies' RJN cites record fairly broad pop music. Lana del rey has made being a rich white lady kind of her whole BRAND, and it's so enveloped in layers of irony that it's hard to really criticise her for it. Taylor Swift mostly writes from slightly more of a remove.

I do still have faith she can bounce back. She's still young and it's not a dreadful record by any means, just a hard one to like. I don't think she should be shamed for it, but I do think the out of touch critiques have a ring of truth to them. It happens. It'd be amazing if it hadn't, given her life so far.
 
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Is the main criticism the lyrics of the fact that there are no hits? Like the same songs with a beat and no one would be that pressed about them.

It was always going to be difficult to follow Melodrama and she’s still young and has a long career ahead of her. It’s not like this album is the end of her.
 
Nothing really stood out on this my first listen. I’ll persist since I loved Melodrama but what a shame.
 
I don't understand how we got from 'Lorde's new album isn't very good' to the (frankly rather tiresome) 'rich white lady' discussion.

Because her whole album is her musings about being a rich white lady! I don't think it's so ridiculous to have thoughts about that! :D
 
The thing about Melodrama was that everyone (well not everyone but a lot of people) really resonated with the lyrics. If that’s not the case here then she’s lost a lot of her USP
 
The thing about Melodrama was that everyone (well not everyone but a lot of people) really resonated with the lyrics. If that’s not the case here then she’s lost a lot of her USP
She's not that person anymore. Shame on her for growing up and making some money I guess.
 
She was already rich as piss at the time of Melodrama anyway. People are only taking issue with her being rich now because she sounds carefree
 
Are we not allowed to express non-glowing opinions about albums by artists we're interested in anymore then?

I don't think you need to buy into the ridiculous binary that is 95% of Twitter discourse to acknowledge that some of the criticisms she's getting from that area (and from professional critics) may have something of a point.
 
She's not that person anymore. Shame on her for growing up and making some money I guess.
yeah I feel the same.

I personally relate the most to Pure Heroine and feel sad that many of the themes she wrote about on that record have disappeared from her work, but she was 15 then and she's 24 now. people change. and when popstars change but their music tries to cover the same ground it did before, it usually falls flat anyway.

I don't think we have a right to angsty melodrama from her for the rest of time just because she's good at it.
 
She's not that person anymore. Shame on her for growing up and making some money I guess.
Oh come on. I didn't say "shame on her" and I don't want her to not be successful or to regress. I want her to be happy like I want everyone I like to be happy, but when the main draw to her music (for me) was the lyrics, and now I don't find the lyrics as interesting, I can dislike that.
 
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Are we not allowed to express non-glowing opinions about albums by artists we're interested in anymore then?

I don't think you need to buy into the ridiculous binary that is 95% of Twitter discourse to acknowledge that some of the criticisms she's getting from that area (and from professional critics) may have something of a point.
That wasn’t my point at all. I just don’t see why people on social media can’t criticise the music itself rather than attach the frankly ridiculous “rich white lady” tag to it.
 
Well it's hard to divorce the person from the music when the music she writes is (for better or worse) so intensely personal. It'd be ludicrous to pretend everything she writes happens in a vacuum.
 
It is totally fine to be carefree if the music is interesting or good. I like a lot of music that is about nothing more than going to a club or other carefree things. But when she made being melodramatic INTERESTING and being carefree BORING, thats the problem. Twitter is going overboard and having no nuance as usual, but thats the issue for me
 
It is totally fine to be carefree if the music is interesting or good. I like a lot of music that is about nothing more than going to a club or other carefree things. But when she made being melodramatic INTERESTING and being carefree BORING, thats the problem. Twitter is going overboard and having no nuance as usual, but thats the issue for me
You’d think a record about nothing more than going to a club would have have bit more of a TUNE to it… :D
 
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anyway, for all this talk of the music being underwhelming, Mood Ring at least is blooming beautifully and I'm quite addicted.

now all of my oceans have riptides
can't seem to find what's wrong
the whole world is letting me down
don't you think the early 2000s
seem so far away?


yes, Ella. yes, I do.
 
One problem I have with the album is that I know 'Mood Ring' is meant to be satire of wellness culture (because she told us so) but the record's full of syrupy self-help affirmations anyway. Just embrace your GOOPiness Lorde; you don't have to pretend it's ironic. Love and light!
 
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Oh come on. I didn't say "shame on her" and I don't want her to not be successful or to regress. I want her to be happy like I want everyone I like to be happy, but when the main draw to her music (for me) was the lyrics, and now I don't find the lyrics as interesting, I can dislike that.
That wasn’t my point either and it wasn’t directed at you.

My issue is a bit wider about the need for some people on social media to 'drag' (ugh) women for making certain artistic choices. I don't like it if it's Madonna being sexual or whether it's Lorde singing about being carefree. It makes me uncomfortable. And maybe that's my own issue. No disrespect to any of you here.
 
Well it's hard to divorce the person from the music when the music she writes is (for better or worse) so intensely personal. It'd be ludicrous to pretend everything she writes happens in a vacuum.
Again - I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem, however, with labels like 'rich white lady' being added to the critique or the discussion though. They're reductionist, inflammatory and serve no purpose in driving any positive conversation forward.
 
That wasn’t my point either and it wasn’t directed at you.

My issue is a bit wider about the need for some people on social media to 'drag' (ugh) women for making certain artistic choices. I don't like it if it's Madonna being sexual or whether it's Lorde singing about being carefree. It makes me uncomfortable. And maybe that's my own issue. No disrespect to any of you here.
Ok that’s fair. I’m sorry for getting so defensive
 

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