'Solar Power' is a summery and psychadelic album, but deflates what makes Lorde so interesting in the first place.
It’s been 4 years now huh?
Back when I was still a teenager, Lorde was pretty fundamental during a vulnerable time in my life and is also fundamental to my appreciation towards different types of music when I was still catering towards video game music. If not for Pure Heroine & Melodrama that showcased a refreshing air and style for certain artists and music to be influenced by and have personally influenced me to tiptoe towards discovering other music and music criticism and did change me as a person, I might not be able to be the music enthusiast I’ll be today. Even if I haven’t regularly listened back to those two albums, I still do love them because of not just Lorde’s sharp writing and vocals, but also the production that goes for minimalism on her debut and pure bombast on her sophomore album, but also the emotional potency that it had for my younger self.
But after waiting for 4 years since Melodrama, there is something that I find a bit skeptical towards the rollout of this album. While 'Solar Power' is pretty good, it wasn’t as colorful as I would’ve liked, and ‘Stoned at the Nail Salon’ was fine enough but didn’t really make me feel more excited for this album. Considering the rather divisive discussion with fans and critics alike, it certainly made me intrigued on reviewing this, so there is that.
So, after going through multiple listens through this album, I would sadly say that I’m very underwhelmed by this album and I do need to explain where this album falls apart. For one, the retro folk psychedelia of the 70s and the folk-pop aesthetics from the early 2000s does show up with the brittle guitars, the shoddy rough mixing from the vocals and instrumentals to procure a sense of hippy psychedelics, and especially the melodies towards some of these songs. But the overall vibe just sounds so tame and languid to fully stick. It’s summer-y for sure, but at least with the songs from those sounds that Lorde and Jack Antonoff were trying they manage to make themselves feel jubilant, use that spare instrumentation to make them playful and bigger. For their take of this sound, it just sounds uncreative, and it doesn’t help that there are certain moments that try to be different but only kills the mood of these songs. The worst offender has to be that low-end transition of ‘Fallen Fruit’ and that corny monologue by Robyn on ‘Secrets of a Girl’.
I think I’ll point out Lorde’s vocals as well. I don’t mind her not bringing that same intensity on her past albums because going for that meditative vibe makes sense, but with the frequent usage of her higher register which I’m not really a fan of, and the harmonies that don't sound pretty good.
And the biggest issue comes from the lyrics. Look, this is Lorde at her most optimistic and introspective, autobiographical at points as she reflects back on her life at different spots, but there is something here that rubs me the wrong way. One part is that the lyrics aren’t sharp or concise, which is pretty odd because Lorde is such a remarkable songwriter in her own right. But I think the posh presentation of her introspection and certain details in the writing just doesn’t sit with me that well. Despite her musings surrounding her experience of fame, her past and certain figures that she cares for comes off as oddly myopic, not as insightful and cutting unlike her observations of fame on Pure Heroine or the house party concept of Melodrama. And despite telling in interviews that there might be something else going on between the lines, I just don’t see it here. It’s more hippy and comfortable sure, but not in a way that provides deeper nuance. And it doesn’t help when she adds these lyrical details that come off as aloof to me, how she’s not your savior because all of us are broken inside on ‘The Path’ and then mentioning how she’s a prettier Jesus on ‘Solar Power’, and the slight political pivot on ‘Leader of a New Regime’ that is more observational than anything, and ‘Mood Ring’ being an outlier out of all these songs thematically, mostly because the satire comes off pretty flat and oddly telling when most of the lyrical nuances of fame in this album isn’t that revealing, more observational and comfortable of where Lorde is right now, the girl who knows all the secrets to fame but is sitting on its throne in a relaxed fashion. Pretty ironic for a song that satires how people spiritually connect to the world in quirky ways, and Lorde unknowingly just puts herself in that satire.
In short, this is comfortably Lorde’s worst record to date. Her most uncreative, stiff, and myopic when it comes to the retro folk-pop production, the compositions, the performances, and especially the lyrics. To quote Lorde herself, “'Cause all the music you loved at sixteen you'll grow out of.” And while I still do hold her past two records to heart, if this is what Lorde’s gonna put out for the next few years, I might as well just move on and I would just go to Billie Eilish for something more captivating and cutting.
Favorite Tracks: Solar Power
Least Favorite Tracks: Fallen Fruit, Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All), Mood Ring