Lorde's third studio album, Solar Power, is a captivating collection of songs that explore the singer-songwriter's innermost thoughts and feelings. Written and produced with American musician Jack Antonoff, the album is characterized by its capricious, superficial, and unreliable nature. Lorde has revealed that she originally wrote the centerline of the song “I don't know, maybe I'm just high in the nail salon” as a joke, before realizing it was beautiful. The album contains a variety of songs that explore different themes.
One of the most notable is “The Man with the Axe”, a slightly sleepy but seductive ode to her lover. The lyrics hint at Lorde's climatic anxiety and become an existential and weary search of the world for some kind of sanctuary. The Scottish rock band Primal Scream is cited as the spiritual ancestors of this song, with their 1990 song “Loaded” serving as the original model. The song “Oceanic Feeling” is one that Lorde is still trying to figure out, while “Fallen Fruit” is one that really caught her eye when she understood it.
The only distinguishable romantic song on the album, “The Man with the Axe” is a slightly sleepy but seductive ode to her lover, with lines like “your office work, and your silver hair implying that the song is her boyfriend Justin Warren, a Universal Music executive. Lorde manages to make “Solar Power” feel incredibly private and personal to its wide audience. She is honest about her life in her lyrics, so a lot of “Solar Power” discusses the problems she encounters with fame. The metaphor could be inspired by Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game (We are captive in the carousel of time), whom Lorde has cited as one of the main sources of inspiration for the composition.
Vincent's latest album, Daddy's Home, an album also produced by Jack Antonoff (“Solar Power credits Antonoff, the rest of the album's production credits have not been announced). It will take several listens before you can come to a conclusion about what it is really about, but there is something about this song that makes you feel embraced and understood before you even understand it, an ambiguous quality that has always been present in Lorde's best songs. I watched Genius's interview about Mood Ring, it made me understand the song better and now it's one of my favorite songs. Lorde has created an album that speaks to her fans on a personal level. With its capricious sound and honest lyrics, Solar Power serves as a fun and nourishing look at Lorde's emotional highlights.
It is an album that will make you feel embraced and understood before you even understand it.
