Like Haim, Lorde has taken a long break between albums. Her third effort, Solar Power, came out in 2021.
That folk pop record was a departure from her usual sound, and it was met with a lukewarm response both critically and commercially. I was one of the detractors, finding it a rather dull follow-up to 2017’s excellent Melodrama.
Now she’s back, having nursed the wounds of Solar Power‘s reception, with Virgin, an album that finds her back in the synth-pop groove of her early work.
The four-year wait for Lorde’s followup to the excellent 2017 album Melodrama is nearly done, with Solar Power due out on August 20.
I found the album’s first single, and title song, a bit underwhelming after such a long wait. But I enjoyed its breeziness, and I think it’s just fine if she doesn’t try to redefine the sound of modern pop music every time she drops a record.
The four-year wait for new music from Lorde is finally over with the release of a new single, the title song from upcoming album Solar Power.
Lorde’s sophomore effort, 2017’s Melodrama, was an art-pop masterpiece, angsty and dramatic in all the best ways.
That album paved the way for Billie Eilish, whose extraordinary success has sucked up a lot of the musical air previously breathed by Lorde. You also hear echoes of it in some of Olivia Rodrigo’s songs. The emergence of those two stars since Lorde last recorded means she is now the third most popular Gen Z pop star.
Both of Lorde’s albums came out this decade, with 2013’s Pure Heroine introducing the startling young talent to the world and 2017’s Melodrama proving that she was far from a one-album fluke.
I’m a big fan of both albums, but for my money Melodrama is definitely the stronger effort. It takes more risks both musically and lyrically, all of which pay off.
While we wait for the result of our final matchup, I’ll offer up another Montauk Madness regret. This is an artist who hadn’t even released her sophomore record when the contest started, and therefore wasn’t eligible according to my two-album rule.
But if I could tweak the space-time continuum a bit and put Lorde’s Melodrama in my earbuds prior to April, she would have awkwardly danced her way into the lineup.
Meet Me In Montauk 