Lorde (from New Zealand)

this was buried in the Rolling Indie thread, seems to be right up ILM alley:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFasFq4GJYM

Ella Yelich-O'Connor, known by her stage name Lorde, is a 16 year old New Zealand singer-songwriter. She released her first EP, The Love Club, in December 2012 which reached #1 on the NZ charts and #39 on the Australian charts. It's been released as a physical copy on May 17, 2013.

Some of The Love Club is pretty good, and I like this Tennis Courts song alright, but she still seems undercooked. Check back in six months to a year.

She's no Lordi, that's for sure.

The single is precocious.

so this is kind of blowing up here in Los Angeles. KROQ is now playing "Royals" on a normal bases.

Yeah, her profile is kind of ballooning all over the internets.

Tennis Court is an earworm.

like the EPs, very LDR only a bit less DRAMA.

this is the second time someone has mentioned that "Tennis Court" song, going to have to seek it out.

i think my fave might be "swinging party".

a few weeks ago she had four singles in the NZ Top 40 which is pretty crazy

top 20** i should say

this thing is on the radio every time I turn it on. I went from hating it to liking it and back again to hating it in a week.

this single is precocious in a way that i like

seems like it is on its way to being huge all over the world

first woman in seventeen years to hit the #1 spot on the US Alternative chart.

Well that's pitiful.

alt has been a female hostile format for a long while now. not sure why this chick is clicking; I don't find her music interesting at all.

curious also how many stations make up that panel now; I think the format is on the wane

album's out in september by the way, same day as the HAIM one. it's called Pure Heroine

What a clever name, hard to tell she's 17

Meow. It really is an awful title tho, not that awful titles're in any way a hindrance rly

I guess this isn't as bad as the Naked & the Famous escaping NZ? Still p.bleak, and any significant overseas success = we'll hear nothing else for the next few years.

I actually liked TNAF a lot until the album came out, at which point it was revealed they'd already exhausted all of their good ideas. The new single is just more of the same.

This and Tennis Court are two of my favourite singles of the year. Precociousness is fine by me and the class-consciousness is interesting.

katherine st asaph's jukebox review otm:

Katherine St Asaph: The problem with Lorde is she makes sonically compelling music that’s nevertheless gotten the sort of rapid, iffy premature buzz (headline: Lorde: Meet the 16-Year-Old Pop Prodigy Who’s Sick of Rappers…“) that’s probably a bad thing for music, diagnosis Jessie Del J. (OK, that’s problem #1. Problem #2 is she is a child and you feel bad criticizing her.) But Lana Del Rey has a surprising amount of actual, non-astroturfed teenage fans, and from the sound of “Tennis Court” Lorde’s one of them (check the cadences on “thrill of it, killing it” and such, and compare.) The production hangs listless like air off a blacktop, but the lyrics have something to rankle everyone: obvious images (thank Toddlers and Tiaras, I guess, that “beauty queen in tears” lasted unused so long), obvious bait (“don’t you think that it’s boring” in line one, really?), unearned namedrops (“Wicked Game” this is not) or sheer laziness (too many songwriters lean on fake onomatopoeia like “like yeah.”) But again, she’s 16 and promising, and in a healthier music biz she’d be given time to develop that promise instead of a toss into the hype cycle.
[6]

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=7636

Good write-up but people only criticise the hype cycle if they're not convinced by the song. I don't share her issues with the lyrics so I just feel like a good song is getting its due. But the reservations in the first line are OTM.

I feel like there are so many great early singles that you could subject to that fine-tooth comb approach if you felt like it. If "like yeah" is lazy, so is every rock'n'roll song that uses "baby" to fill in a line.

i quite like the lyrics to royals

i dont get why "dont you think that its boring" is "obvious bait" and i dont see why she has to "earn" the right to use "wicked game" as a lyric

anyway i really like royals and bravado; the rest of it i can kind of take or leave

The whole idea of "earning" namedrops is absurd. There go 95% of hip hop namedrops.

Royals is a brilliant lyric imo. The way the first verse locates her in a crappy part of town without much money roots the chorus so it's not just sanctimonious bling-bashing.

i think its sort of ambiguous about the bling bashing. not hard to read it as a defense of fantasy materialism

the way she talks about it in the youtube description makes it sound like she intends it more as a criticism along generational lines rather than along genre lines in any event

(that being said i wouldnt be surprised if a big portion of the hype/popularity of the song is founded on simply reading it as "anti-rap")

I didn't take it as anti-rap specifically because it's common to so much pop now in that big rap/R&B/EDM/whatever middleground. I hear it as more of a personal expression of alienation - and it would be weird if a smart lower-middle-class teenager in smalltown New Zealand didn't feel alienated by VIP-room pop - than "ugh, those crass rappers" finger-wagging. Clearly some listeners are using it as vehicle for that kind of finger-wagging but it's not in the song.

In fact, a lot of the lines - "I'm not proud of my address, "We count our dollars on the train to the party", "We didn't come from money", "We're driving Cadillacs in our dreams - are reminiscent of hip hop origin myths. My favourite celebrations of wealth are songs like Juicy, where it's still a novelty and the present shines brighter because it's contrasted with a hard-knock past.

She's upper-class from the biggest city in the country & had a development deal since she was 12 or so, FWIW; Darcy Clay she ain't.

it's totally about rappers and I have no idea how you can see it any other way. since one jukebox blurb's already been copied/and/pasted: "She’s not dreaming of Windsor Castle in St. John, is she? Things have connotations."

fwiw I criticize hype cycles even for stuff I really like.

oh, i dont know! i like to hear it as a kind of defense/apologia for the materialist fantasy content of "every" song." i mean, you know, "let me live that fantasy"! she and her friends are "driving Cadillacs in our dreams," unless in NZ cadillacs are symbols of poverty or something

"let me live that fantasy" is in response to the lovey-dovey stuff of the chorus. about the bling stuff (and seriously what else would "gold teeth, Grey Goose" code as?) her response is "that kind of lux is not for us, we crave a different type of buzz."

and again I don't really blame Lorde so much because she's 16, but the people who speed-launched what's in part a songwriting career at this age, and the grown-ass adults who are buying into it?

right, the fantasy stuff about "ruling," being "queen bee," etc. i dont personally see much of a distinction between those fantasies and fantasies of blood stains, ball gowns, etc. well never *actually* be royals! that kind of lux is not *really* for us! but we will still live that fantasy b/c every song is about jet planes, islands, etc.

the fact that it's commonly being interpreted as anti-rap kind of surprises me but maybe i am just rly obtuse

This profile and interview sheds some light on Royals:

http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/music/lorde-moves-in-mysterious-ways/

She certainly is well read for her age.

i dont think she's anti-rap

so "Royals" is like number seven in the US pop charts this week. wow, didn't think this song would blow up to be this big.

it struck me as a potential "somebody that i used to know"... it has been selling a lot compared to its airplay since early summer.

zzzzzzzz

maura otm

In rare and intense disagreement with maura in this case.

I'm just surprised this thing hasn't been a hit in the UK. Isn't this the type of music that people over there go crazy for?

Earlier this month, Lorde told Rookie's Tavi Gevinson that The Virgin Suicides "really resonated with me as a teenager. I mean, I am still a teenager."

probably means "the virgin suicides really resonated w/ me when i saw it last week but i still wanna pretend i grew up on it or w/e"

I think there's some tense confusion there. She's saying "As a teenager, The Virgin Suicides really resonates with me."

Very tense confusion.

New Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1S9HUNoI4k

I like it. She makes the melodrama work.

"Yellow Flicker Beat" has grown on me big time. i like that there is more music going on then on her debut.

more 'late-'90s delerium beat' than 'yellow flicker beat' but I'm into it

I haven't heard this but "late 90s delirium beat" makes me think it sounds like "Frozen". Does it sound like "Frozen"?

no

then it's worthless

Reportedly in her latest newsletter:

"I don’t know how much you’ve been following the live music industry conversation, but lemme hit you with a five minute explainer, cause I think it’s interesting, and good to know about if you’re going to concerts at the moment.

Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It’s a storm of factors. Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks. On the logistical side there’s things like immense crew shortages (here’s an article from last week about this in New Zealand), extremely overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, inflated flight and accommodation costs, ongoing general COVID costs, and truly. mindboggling. freight costs. To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three times the pre-pandemic price right now. I don’t know shit about money, but I know enough to understand that no industry has a profit margin that high. Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more fucking money. Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations and postponements and promises and letdowns, and audiences have shown such understanding and such faith, that between that and the post-COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain’t an option. All we want to do is play for you.

Profits being down across the board is fine for an artist like me. I’m lucky. But for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt. For some, touring is completely out of the question, even if they were to sell the whole thing out! The math doesn’t make sense. Understandably, all of this takes a toll — on crews, on promoters, and on artists. You’ll notice a ton of artists cancelling shows citing mental health concerns in the past year, and I really think the stress of this stuff is a factor — we’re a collection of the world’s most sensitive flowers who also spent the last two years inside, and maybe the task of creating a space where people’s pain and grief and jubilation can be held night after night with a razor thin profit margin and dozens of people to pay is feeling like a teeny bit much.

Me personally? I’m doing pretty good. You guys have come to the shows in such mammoth numbers (we sold almost 20,000 tickets in London, like what the hell) and not having crippling stage fright hanging over me for the first time is such a fucking blessing that you could tell me I had to cycle from city to city and I’d still be loving it. But I’m not immune to the stress — just a month ago I was looking at a show that was pretty undersold and panicking, only for it to sell the remaining 2000 tickets in ten days. Wild stuff.

I wanted to put all of this in your minds to illustrate that nothing’s simple when it comes to touring at the moment, and if your faves are confusing you with their erratic moves, some of this could be playing a part."

That's a good take. Thanks for sharing.

i’m sorry she is the worst writer on earth

acknowledging that touring is particularly hard now

Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more fucking money

having an are you fucking serious reaction to this bit in particular

sorry y’all i talked about this with my friends and my hatred of lorde is like “a bit much” and “very personal, bordering on some unexamined self-hatred” so i’ll stop

nah your hatred is valid and justified

But I’m not immune to the stress — just a month ago I was looking at a show that was pretty undersold and panicking, only for it to sell the remaining 2000 tickets in ten days. Wild stuff.

this is the worst bit imo

The quoted bits made me cringe too, along with the one about spending two years indoors. You released an album about the beach one year ago, you're such a damn liar.

I love Melodrama as much as the next ilmer but would never have signed up for her newsletter. Carry on.

new single in a few hours

this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UpoZpMBM9Y

Pretty good, I guess she is living in NYC these days.

Nostalgia pop

She's still only 28! Crazy how young she started

the production on this new track reminds me of Jai Paul

co-produced by Jim-E Stack and Dan Nigro

NYC cancelled her plans for a full concert in Washington Square Park because she didn't have permits and such, but she showed up at one point anyway and danced and stuff as seen in the video above. Here's a gift version of the NY Times article about this

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/nyregion/lorde-washington-square-surprise-show.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CE8.Y8_r.r7NBKGivXDt6&smid=url-share

xp Funny, it has a very "Swift / Antonoff" feel to me. It de-emphasizes "melody" in a way that's kind of interesting, I think it's an appealing track.

first reaction is hm i've heard this robyn song before?

i've posted a lot here about not really liking lorde but i would love to be wrong/surprised one day

surprised that this was dan nigro, he is usually very hook-forward

I'm not normally much of a fan but I've listened to this like 8 times so far, so I guess she got me with this one...!

The Guardian has a "twenty best songs" article today about Lorde, although curiously they published it in a kind of dead timeslot, so it only attracted a few comments:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/apr/24/girl-so-inspiring-lordes-20-best-songs-ranked

Which is a shame because it's nice to read what retired people who live in France but don't interact with the locals or have a social life have to say about pop culture breathe in.

Daringly the writer puts "Royals" at number 13. The headline image is presumably Lorde but looks nothing like her. I remember a thread on RateYourMusic about albums that were intended to be huge but came and went, and Solar Power was pretty high on that list. I'm surprised to find out from Discogs.com that it was never released on compact disc. I know compact disc isn't what it was, but I didn't realise it was that dead. I learn that "Charli xcx recently announced the coming of a 'Lorde summer'".

Feels very Charli. She should do a video where she's played by Gaby Hoffman.

xp Looks like Royals is actually at #15... absolute troll move.

Melodrama is better than everything on Pure Heroine, including "Royals".

A truly cool list would have included “The Love Club"

On Bluesky music critic, Ann Powers compares Lorde's new single to:

"I’m hearing Kate Bush’s “Top of the City” in this"

Kate Bush - Top of the City - Unofficial music video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C27omnj0m9k

New album will be called Virgin out June 27, 2025 via Republic.

Next she should release an album called Republic on Virgin!

this is a really bad album cover

she told her art director to pull from this article: https://defector.com/what-did-we-get-stuck-in-our-rectums-last-year-5

In a release, Lorde further teased the direction of the record. “THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR,” she wrote in an all-caps statement. “LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL. THE SOUNDS ARE THE SAME WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.”

“I’M PROUD AND SCARED OF THIS ALBUM,” she added. “THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE. I BELIEVE THAT PUTTING THE DEEPEST PARTS OF OURSELVES TO MUSIC IS WHAT SETS US FREE.”

Oh, I see. It's a belt buckle, a zip, and some buttons. She was wearing jeans when she had the X-ray taken. I thought it was a backstage pass on a string that had been shoved up the subject's... front bottom.

Not many artists can say that they've irradiated their front bottom.

how I know ILM is just a bunch of dudes: no one has mentioned the IUD yet, which was the thing that jumped out at me immediately and is incredibly potent imagery for an album called Virgin

great album cover imo

as a woman i hate all of this but whatever

i’m not a ”normal” woman though. i could never have an iud. make me transparent and im probably not feminine to most ppl. anyway. i will never listen to or pay attention to lorde again after this post!

sorry ivy, I didn’t mean to exclude non cis women with my post but I can see how it can come across that way. Not even a lorde fan, I just think it’s a great, stark image for a pop album

yeah i guess!

the sticky fingers zipper is clever

regardless i think i should stay out of this thread from now on lol

<3