Lorde wants you to wear a flower crown and trade in your stress for some self-realization.
Lorde blissfully trades in her teenage moodiness for a more cheerful state of mind. Solar Power takes you on a whimsical road trip down the West Coast in the 60s, and you are in for a ride.
- The path
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Lorde introduces Solar Power with this haunting yet heartfelt track where she leads her fans down the path she has been on for the last four years. She gives a sly nod to her debut album, Pure Heroine, with the first line mentioning the addictive opioid OxyContin. Genius declares this nod as “a play on words to describe a female hero, using a word that sounds like an addictive drug.” Lorde references the scene of a memorable 2016 Met Gala (yes, she did steal a fork!). She repeats the chorus of “now if you’re looking for a savior, well, that’s not me,” hinting that she does not want to be seen as a role model or an actual lord (see what I did there!). Seen as the ones who always have the answers, there’s a lot of idolizing in celebrities nowadays. Lorde clarifies they are as clueless as everyone else. What is her solution for all of this? To turn to the sun and nature.
- Solar power
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A sun-soaked title track that set off the world and indicated Lorde’s resurgence. When listening to this song, sunshine, clear blue skies, and daisy flowers in your hair come to mind, and you immediately want to do the Hula dance. She makes her debut after four years with a song about nature, specifically utilizing the outdoors as a way to destress yourself and find peace. In the music video, people are dancing all around, and some are doing what looks like yoga. It feels like something straight out of a Free People advertisement. Peace and love are the recurrent themes of the track (Lorde even hits a fennel bong in the video to represent relaxation). Lorde wants her fans to turn to nature when things get tough. Fun fact: During the solar eclipse, Lorde released Solar Power!
- California
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Imagine. California brought Lorde fame and adoration as well as the burden of fame at a very young age. Lorde speaks about when she was presented with two Grammys for “Best Pop Solo Performance” and “Song Of The Year” and knew that everything had changed. Many people have perceived a negative connotation to this song despite the dreamy rhythm. Insider pointed out the line, “don’t want that California love,” is essentially Lorde complaining about her fame. They go on to say, “…all songs in which a famous person complains about being famous. These types of songs don’t have a universal appeal and only add to the fame the artist is complaining about!” In true Lorde fashion, she channels her personal growth to her music, making her ready to return to New Zealand roots.
- stoned at the nail salon
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A song described as the “prismatic folk song” in an interview with The Guardian. Lorde tells her feelings towards the track to The Guardian as, “…being unsure that I had chosen the right path and feeling lonely, I don’t see those as permanent or even bad emotions. It’s all part of the thing [life] to feel that trepidation. Maybe it is sad, but I’m very comfortable in the periods of limbo or times where I feel afraid or vulnerable.” The Internet pointed out the line of “Cause all the music you loved at sixteen you’ll grow out of,” is a coming age moment for Gen Z and millennials who grew up listening and relating to Lorde. Seeing her transition to another part of her life has been the root cause of this. Lorde substantially recommends her listeners “spend all the evenings you can with the people who raised you” to ease feeling without a purpose.
- fallen fruit
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This tune is not your expected tropical-sounding song but more of a psychedelic melody where Lorde comes to the striking realization that the world is soon coming to an end. This song protests the current global climate crises and comments on how past generations left it for the newer generations to handle. She describes this track as a “flower child’s lament,” according to Insider. A heavy nod to the 60s and 70s, this song takes inspiration from The Mamas & The Papas and more. Insider summarizes this track through Lorde saying, “Have an anxiety attack about climate change, but make it pretty.” At the very end of the track, Lorde keeps repeating the same words hinting that she is at a loss for words, and that’s where one of the only bridges in the entire album lies.
- secrets from a girl (who’s seen it all)
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The song that will make you want to take a road trip with your besties right away! Here, Lorde is serving big Taylor Swift and Natasha Bedingfield energy. Lorde describes this track as a heartfelt love letter to her younger self. A familiar take on everything she has learned throughout the years. This song touched my heart and will touch yours too. It reminds us of the faraway realities and carefree times we encountered when we were young, but now we have learned and seen it all (literally). You might be thinking of the song “Ribs” right now, and Lorde had the same thing in mind. She tells Spotify Storylines, “I was listening to ‘Ribs’ and just thinking about who I was at that time of life. I was so apprehensive about what was to come. I took two of the chords from that song and reversed them. Lorde explains that she is communicating with her past self, reassuring her that “It’s going to be okay.” At the end of the track, you can hear the one and only Swedish pop star, Robyn, acting out as an air stewardess who recites a very tranquil departure to reality.
- The man with the axe
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This poetic love number from Lorde nearly did not make it into the album due to its vulnerability. Lorde tells Spotify Storylines her motives behind the song, “I wrote this in New Zealand, the day after a party. I wanted it to sound tender-headed, softly sparkly, like Cocteau Twins with the color bleached out.” It certainly holds a dreamy sequence playing through my mind throughout the song, especially during the lines of, “But you wish with your doll’s lashes, your infinite T-shirts.” “The Man with the Axe” is the first love song that Lorde has put out, and it’s all about Justin Warren, her longtime boyfriend who is also the promotions director for Universal Music Group in New Zealand.
- dominoes
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A more upbeat and harmonic track in the album. The song starts with a name-drop in the line, “I heard that you were doing yoga with Uma Thurman’s mother just outside of Woodstock.” Mentioning the 60s icon seems fitting in a track about a toxic man attempting to reinvent himself to attract naive women. Lorde adds guitar plucking to create a warm, nostalgic sounding way that sounds like it came out of your parent’s favorite 70s CD. She tells a lucid story about an ex who is constantly knocking down the dominoes in the relationship. Highly recommend listening to this song after “The Man with the Axe!” Fun Fact #2: The reason behind the sirens at the song’s beginning was accidental. Lorde recorded the track in a room at Electric Lady Studios and decided to leave the doors open when the BLM protests were most prominent, hence the sirens.
- big star
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Here is a beautiful ode to her dog, Pearl, who happened to pass away in 2019. Listening to this song wouldn’t make you think twice about her dog and her adoration for him. Lorde says that Pearl left a giant print on her in one of the emails she sent out to fans. She says, “Pearl came into my life in 2018 and almost immediately changed everything for me. As anyone who has had the pleasure of raising a dog can understand, my life grew exponentially. Pearl brought an immeasurable amount of joy and purpose into my world.” For anyone who has lost a pet, sometimes you feel like you lost a part of yourself. However, as time goes on, you start to realize how you gave them so much love, and they will always love you for that.
- leader of a new regime
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A futuristic interlude that reminds you always to wear your SPF! Lorde tells Spotify Storylines that she wants to set the atmosphere as being one that is quite distant and dismantled. Earth is not far from that reality. Per her last tracks in the album, she reminds listeners that she is not their savior during the lines of, “Won’t somebody, anybody, be the leader of a new regime?”
- moon ring
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What’s your constant mood ring color? Mine was always blue for calmness and peacefulness—a ballad to our toxic society of wellness culture. From the first ten seconds of the track, you immediately hear crystal quartz-sounding music that people could use to meditate. Society has become obsessed with reinventing itself with faux-spirituality products and rituals. Insider describes this familiar atmosphere as “a kind of utopia that looks inviting but often lacks real substance.” In a livestream, Lorde describes this track as, “a song about trying to feel spiritually connected in our modern world and all of the little tools and systems that we all use to try and feel that.” This track can be seen as contradictory since her message of peace and love transcends throughout Solar Power. Fun Fact #3: You can also check out the cute mood chart uploaded here straight from Lorde herself!
- oceanic feeling
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The last stop of our sunny road trip is a six-minute and thirty-four-second melody filled with self-reflection and touches on home life. Lorde leaves listeners with a heavy play on words that speak about the aftermath of post-pop star stardom. She tells the audience her disappointments of what she thought she wanted long ago and her current state of mind. Another reference to the Pure Heroine era is presented in the line, “Now the cherry-black lipstick’s gathering dust in a drawer.” I don’t need her anymore ’cause I got this power,” Lorde is known for her black lipstick during the 2014/2015 era. Insider points out a familiar play on words between the lines of, “It’s a blue day. We could jump Bulli,” which is in a similar context to “Rib’s” line, “The drink you spilled all over me. Lover’s Spit’ left on repeat.” Lorde concludes the album with this grown-up version of a similar lyric that finds use in a different stage of her life.
You have reached an ultimate pit stop in our sun-filled and self-assuring 60s-filled road trip. Lorde’s Solar Power is a heavenly must-need listen when life gets sour. Once midterms roll around (which are sooner than you think!), we will all be reciting the viral line, “Can you reach me? No, you can’t.”