Lorde
Green Light
Republic Records
The first taste of Melodrama, Lorde’s second album and first in four years, comes care of Green Light. It signals an electro-dance direction for the singer-songwriter, though it’s a direction we’ve heard a thousand times before.
It seems Lorde is going down a mass consumption, big-money making pop music road but she still wants to keep her authentic, edgy, indie roots. And the song, as well as the video, seems like a mixture of both of these things, and as such, comes off a little confused and lack lustre.
Her voice has that same nonchalant breathy style we have come to know and love, and her ability to tell a story and evoke recognition is still strong, though perhaps not what it used to be, but lines such as “I whisper things and the city sings them back to you,” keep you hopeful.
One thing that has progressed is the musical direction, with the song taking a sharp turn towards the aforementioned electro-dance and pop spheres. It starts with hitting on the off-beat at the start of the third bar, which distorts the time and makes it feel more complex in rhythm than it is. The clever intro then goes into cheese-laden territory with straight beats and synth lines we have heard in every other dance-pop song. These layers of sounds do tend to take away from her unique voice and lyricism, which have always been the focal point in the past, though this way it is more likely to get stuck in people’s heads and played non-stop.
You get what she is trying to do, and no doubt the song stays safe enough to be commercially popular and is challenging enough to please the more critical listener. But it just lacks the magic, uniqueness and soul of Pure Heroine, which is weird because she seems to be trying so damn hard to reassure us that she hasn’t lost just that. This little fact won’t bother Lorde or her millions of fans though, and it doesn’t make it a bad song – in fact it is a good pop song, and it still leaves you excited for things to come and the Melodrama, which currently does not have a release date.
LARA FOX
