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It was 10 am when I entered the Zoom meeting room when the press conference began. Lorde — or Ella, as she sometimes prefers to be addressed — was late.
“Please explain that I’ve been here the whole time. I wasn’t late, and it was some typical malfunction,” she frantically explained in her distinct New Zealand accent, when she came in.
Being a two-time Grammy winner and a five-time nominee, I didn’t know what to expect where she’d take the call from, probably from some sort of upscale location, or perhaps in a studio — but she seemingly took it from her laptop, standing comfortably in a dining room somewhere in Los Angeles, wearing a plain white t-shirt, a silver chain necklace, and her signature AirPods Pro.
The fact that she’s in California shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone, since the Auckland native, who now resides in New York City, seems to pop out of nowhere these days.
In April, she was just in New York where she held an impromptu concert at Washington Square Park, where she shot the “What Was That” music video and which police tried to shut down. In late May, she crashed a Lorde-themed night at a club in Sydney, and in early June, she held a surprise listening party at a random London carpark.
It’s been four years since she disappeared into the sun with her third studio album Solar Power, which she described as a “sun worship spectacular” in her website in 2021, eight years since her “no-skips” album Melodrama, and almost 12 years since she broke into the industry at 17, with her alt-pop album Pure Heroine.
‘Different versions of me’
Each album she releases offers a distinct reflection of her life the moment it was incepted. “I feel like when I was a teen, I was brave but shy. I was sort of always hiding and I think across the board in my work it’s been a process of stepping forward,” she said of her catalogue.
Now 28, and coming out with her much anticipated fourth studio album, Virgin — which fans, including myself, lovingly call L4 — Lorde says this era is a “quest” to really believe in herself and “create an environment, to build a house that I could live in for many more years.”
“Virgin is really like an attempt to heal all the hours, from five-year-old me, to teen me who was having her whole life changed and was sort of thrilled and also overwhelmed, to 2023 me struggling with body image and eating issues. Thinking about 2024, 2025 me, who feels a lot of promise and excitement and zest for life, I feel the journey of this album,” she shared retrospectively.
Let’s work it out on the remix
During this introspective period, Lorde took a little sojourn and collaborated with British pop star Charli XCX, an artist she’s often been mistaken for, on the “Girl, so confusing” remix. The collaboration came as a surprise to her fans as she opened up about her body image and eating issues in her verse. Lorde herself was apparently stunned by the development as well.
“I never could have predicted that Charli and I would collaborate in the way that we did in the remix,” she said with genuine bewilderment.
In a separate interview with Jake Shane in the Therapuss podcast, Lorde explained how “cathartic” and “legitimately healing” it was to be confronted and called out for her actions.
“I just have all the respect in the world for [Charli] having that vulnerability and like sending it my way, like because I was the perfect person to receive that, because I was like finally at a place in my life where I could be like, okay like I’ve hurt someone and I need to explain myself and make it right with them,” she shared.
The raw honesty and emotional breakthrough she achieved through the collaboration seems to have enabled her to fully embrace vulnerability again, which she says was really pivotal in creating an album she’s proud of.
“I’ve kind of never been so proud of anything and such personal parts of me have gone into it. I really came into my own power making this album. In the past I have really struggled with that, with feeling powerful, with feeling fully in my body,” she told Rappler.
‘The themes are always the same’
Vulnerability has always been the theme of Lorde’s discography. From highlighting the intense and visceral fear of growing up too fast, and the realization that moments, feelings, and life itself is fickle in “Ribs,” to the quiet acceptance and understanding of who she once was in “Secrets of a Girl (Who’s Seen It All),” she has never shied away from expressing this side of herself. In fact, this makes her all the more relatable to her fans.
This theme continues in Virgin. So far, she has released three singles from it, which seemingly reflect stages of her self-discovery.
“What Was That,” which sonically appears to be the older and more mature sister of her 2017 song “Supercut,” is a song about that nostalgic feeling one has while grieving a broken relationship, while simultaneously trying to figure out a life without that partner.
“Man of the Year” is a poignant song about finally recognizing that you are an entirely new person from whom you once were. Lyrics like “I can’t believe I’ve become someone else, someone more like myself,” illustrate Lorde being shocked out of the belief that her identity has already calcified.
Her latest release, “Hammer,” explicitly talks of her new found openness to rediscover herself in all aspects, even her gender fluidity — “I’m ready to feel like I don’t have the answers / Some days, I’m a woman, some days, I’m a man.”
Lorde describes her catalogue as a visual collection of strong images and memories, which she says is the “hallmark” of her work. Rightly so, as evidenced by the cinematography in her music videos and the production design of her concerts.
Liberation through vulnerability
Along with vulnerability, Lorde also acknowledges her propensity to be mercurial and obsessive when it comes to writing lyrics and how she makes her music.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “I think there’s a way in which I use language that is quite recognizable to me. I’ve always had a really strong kind of rhythmic interest.”
If there’s anything she wants us to take away from the new album, it’s to feel full liberation — especially women.
“I really believe that being free in our bodies in any way that we can is really to all of our advantage. I find it really inspiring to see women really free and confident in who they are,” she told Rappler.
As Lorde continues to come into her own power and tells the story of Ella’s evolution, she wishes her fans — or the “sensitive cuties who worship the sun,” as she once called us — to reframe how they see their own lives as well.
“I want my fans to be inspired to kind of really get in touch with how their life feels, not so much how it looks,” she said. “I want them to be inspired to be fully alive and liberated in their bodies, and focus on how it feels.” – Rappler.com
