Lorde's Third Album

August 23, 2021 8:08 PM

First came the single Solar Power. Next came Stoned At The Nail Salon. Then the full album, Solar Power [43m, track time jumps in the description]. This NYT profile Lorde’s Work Here Is Done. Now, She Vibes. [Archive link] was pretty interesting. NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour discussion Lorde's 'Solar Power' Is A Whole Mood [23m listen, transcript plus audio link] was insightful about the album.
posted by hippybear (28 comments total)

A lot of what Lorde has to say feels like it relates to the content in this post, too. It's an interesting echo of similar things from people of similar ages.
posted by hippybear at 8:10 PM on August 23, 2021 [3 favorites]

“Why Lorde’s Solar Power Is a Pop Oddity,” Andrew R. Chow, Time, 23 August 2021

As a pop star, Lorde stands out for many reasons: her reclusiveness on social media, her emotional acuity, her idiosyncratic dancing. But one of the key elements that makes her so distinctive from her peers is more theoretical: her use of the mixolydian mode.

posted by ob1quixote at 8:55 PM on August 23, 2021 [5 favorites]

“The Path” or “Solar Power” should be on the Songs of the Summer chart. It's weird to me that this album is charting well in the U.K. but isn't on the Hot 100 or Billboard 200 at all.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:08 PM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Path / Solar Power feels to me sort of like Queen's We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions.. they should be played together, always.
posted by hippybear at 9:41 PM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

We live in a time when Time Magazine writes extensively about the "double plagal cadence." Wild.
posted by chavenet at 12:42 AM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

I really enjoyed Melodrama, and was a bit disappointed and confused when I didn’t enjoy Solar Power as much. These links and the Time article give a lot to dig into - the discussion around the mixolydian scale, for example. But what I haven’t seen is anybody saying “it was written during a pandemic, which messed with everybody’s head”.
posted by The River Ivel at 1:08 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

What was the whole "Hot Takes" thing? Specifically - I get that it's publicity and eating really spicy food is a ...thing... for a lot of people but in the clip I saw she didn't even flinch which was funny and a nice way of turning the whole thing on its head - but I feel like there's a culture gap I can't get over. Or... did I? I came away from it (and watching her "Day drinking with Seth Myers" bit) thinking I hope my own kids are that centered at 20-whatever or even ever-ever.

Her media "persona" is a good and interesting one - mostly in the ways it does not pander to the usual expectations.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:02 AM on August 24, 2021

Her appearance on "Hot Ones" was notable because she was so unaffected by the hot sauces, even Da Bomb. There's almost (or more than) 200 episodes of that show in which people are reduced to blubbering, flop-sweating, cursing, and all manner of histrionics by the last three sauces and she was absolutely fine.
posted by wabbittwax at 5:59 AM on August 24, 2021 [11 favorites]

I love Lorde; thanks for this.
posted by kfholy at 6:08 AM on August 24, 2021

Lorde's appearance on Hot Ones made me a fan of not just her music but of *her*.
posted by djeo at 6:52 AM on August 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

Here's the Hot Ones thing.

"In the popstar life you're not really smashing wings all that often."
posted by chavenet at 7:15 AM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I guess that mixolydian analysis is somewhat convincing, but it exaggerates the extent to which the flat-seven chord is the relic of some bygone, blues-based era. In indie rock those kinds of moves were still pretty common throughout the 90s and 00s.

(Just dialing up the first thing I can think of, the Breeders "Cannonball" goes mixo on the chorus - I to IV to bVII back to I.)

Maybe the charting hits around 2010 were all using leading tones, I don't know, but it seems more accurate to say that Lorde's pop music has an "indie" feeling to it, in both the chords and the somewhat detached tone.
posted by anhedonic at 7:59 AM on August 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

Regarding Hot Ones, for comparison Terry Crews seemed to have a disassociative episode in response to the wings.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:01 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lorde's appearance on Hot Ones made me a fan of not just her music but of *her*.

I've watched a lot of these and she is the first person who ever seemed to be completely cool through the whole thing. I think she wiped her nose once.
posted by srboisvert at 8:22 AM on August 24, 2021 [4 favorites]

That is a very brave outfit to be eating wings in. Spotless from start to finish.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:23 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Once I started hearing the chorus to George Michael’s “Freedom” in my head during Solar Power, I couldn’t stop.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:24 AM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I gave the album a listen on Friday and nothing really stood out yet, on Melodrama there were a couple of tracks which I liked immediately, but maybe a few songs will stick after some more listens. I do wish the album had different cover art though - I don't really need to see her butt on my phone.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:39 AM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I put it on the day it dropped, and I liked it. But it didn’t grab me as thoroughly as Melodrama did. But I’m sure I’ll let it wear grooves in my mind as the night lengthens into autumn.
posted by Kattullus at 12:23 PM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

TIL that celebrities eat hot spicy things on video, and the result is highly popular.
posted by storybored at 12:44 PM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

I don't watch Hot Ones regularly. But it's a fascinating concept. The intensely hot food often breaks the guard that many famous people put up during interviews, sort of like alcohol except without the stupid-type effects booze can have. Makes for some more candid conversation—at least sometimes.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:20 PM on August 24, 2021

Ali Hassan interviews Lorde on the CBC radio program, "q".
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:25 PM on August 24, 2021

Once I started hearing the chorus to George Michael’s “Freedom” in my head during Solar Power, I couldn’t stop.

That's Freedom '90.

Freedom is also by George Michael.
posted by hippybear at 8:28 PM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

But what I haven’t seen is anybody saying “it was written during a pandemic, which messed with everybody’s head”.

I'm sure we're in for decades of that particular asterisk.
posted by fairmettle at 9:59 PM on August 24, 2021

But what I haven’t seen is anybody saying “it was written during a pandemic, which messed with everybody’s head”.

I'm living in America, but my understanding is things played out quite differently in New Zealand during the period in which this album was recorded vs. a lot of the rest of the world.
posted by hippybear at 10:08 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Solar Power" reminds me a lot of Jill Sobule's awful cover of "Stoned Soul Picnic."
posted by wreckingball at 5:53 AM on August 25, 2021

Our family summer mini mix playlist on repeat was Solar Power >> Loaded (Primal Scream) >> Freedom '90 (GM). You can auto crossfade them by 5-10 seconds and it's even better. If possible also play loudly in a car with lots of people going to the beach.
posted by erebora at 7:02 PM on August 25, 2021

Well, I got my Solar Power Music Box today. It's a nice cardboard package about the size of a CD with some lovely cards in it with photos on one side and Lorde-doodles on the other, a download code for CD .wav files and HQ .wav files too, a really thick and beautiful booklet of lyrics (more doodles) and a foldout poster with doodles and photos on one side and a big photo on the others. It's lovely.

Going to the download page and entering the code not only gets you downloads (and promises of more material to be added later -- remixes and demos and stuff), but also tells of her working to carbon-offset the production of this Music Box (complete with links to show the calculations and offsetting methods).

I'm glad I got it. I ordered a shirt, too. I'm unlikely to see Lorde in concert anytime soon, and I'm kind of treating her like I would an independent artist I support (of which there are many) with pledging to their campaigns and buying their merch.

Really liking this album, still. Lots of really great new music happening right now.
posted by hippybear at 8:12 PM on September 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Lorde Dropped A Surprise Mini-Album Of 'Solar Power' Tracks In The Māori Language [NPR]
posted by hippybear at 6:15 PM on September 10, 2021 [1 favorite]