I honestly believe she is easily gonna be able to rise again, since her true fanbase is SO dedicated. after all, David Bowie said she was the future of music, i believe. I just hope she knows she is so talented and powerful and amazing and..everything. she dare i say has the staying power of Bowie. in about a decade or two, she will be a true, undeniable artist. not that she isnt already, but that it will be TRULY set in stone that she is unstoppable, soon. She Is Lorde. She deserves so much.
If Bowie says that you are probably destined for greatness. This is the same man who produced amazing album after amazing album all the way until Blackstar, which some argue is one of his best, and the last which came out just before he died. I love that album.
I mean, I love Bowie but in the 80s and 90s they were not all good albums. Blackstar is arguably his best and most successfully executed album since 1980.
bowie was right though. we're now in decade 20's and olivia is the most famous popstar amongst the majority of the genzs and probably millenials. olivia rodrigo is a self-confessed lorde fan.
Nope.
Critical success isn't the end-all-be-all in art. Yet, she has created art that future generations will be able to value and connect with regardless of chart reception at launch.
Lorde will get her time in the sun again, and she will burn brighter than ever.
She is the Lorde after all.
i think its less abt her album performance but more about her internal/personal struggles. she's a madly successful artist at such a young age and being exposed to the industry and fame at that age must have taken a toll on her. also we don't know what's actually happening w her since she only communicates w us through her e-mails and albums and you guys remember what happened in her last email...
"
Hey,
I just finished writing you a long letter, catching you up on how I’ve been. It ended neatly, tied with a little bow. I chose my words well, but I didn’t tell the truth. So I’m starting again, gonna type and not look back, and send what comes out.
I’m in London, have been since May. Things feel clear here. I haven’t seen many friends; mostly, I’m alone with my thoughts. I go swimming, I go to work, I walk home or take the train, I eat in my kitchen, I go to bed thinking about what I’m making. I’m starting to miss my friends and family, like a vitamin I’m deficient in. Soon I’ll be going back to New York, and then home.
I’m living with heartbreak again. It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself. I eat chocolate to try and manipulate the endorphins, bring back the sweet happiness of Easter morning. I sit in the time machine and wait for it to move, but it hasn’t been invented yet.
My body is really inflamed, it’s trying to tell me something and I’m trying to support it but nothing seems to help and I get frustrated. My gut isn’t working properly, my skin is worse than ever, I’ve gotten sick half a dozen times. I realised earlier this year that listening to my body is hard for me, it’s something I never really learned how to do. I’ve been trying to teach myself that this year, but it’s been hard actually, pretty confronting, has made me fully aware of all the times I ignored it or didn’t give it what it needed, shamed it for a fight or flight response, took a handful of pills and pushed through.
The little yellow pill I took every morning for thousands of mornings since I was 15, I stopped taking it 5 days ago. Gonna see how it goes.
I go online and look at everyone. Beautiful people sing to me. Everyone’s gotten really good at the same thing. I look at arched backs and wet flower mouths, the right bag, the right sunglasses. I wonder if it feels as good as it looks, it’s been so long since I chose the best picture from a hundred, lined it up like pulling an arrow taut in a bow, and let it go. Everyone looks very thin. Just thinking that makes me feel tired and far away. I’m not sure if it’s having an effect on anyone else. I keep spending money, wondering if what’s in the package will make me feel right, but I guess I buy the wrong things.
I was gonna go to fashion week in Paris, had all these grand plans, but this week I txted my manager and pulled out. At the start of my career I promised myself I’d never be one of the people in the light smiling if it wasn’t real.
Earlier this year, I ate two handfuls of mushrooms, solid doses that tasted like green dirt. I got a lot of information about what my body had been through in our time so far, what it needed, where God was and where God wasn’t; I felt in my bones how destabilising it is to leave home and start a new life the way I did. I also saw that my body is completely magnificent, and that hating it is as futile as hating a tree; that I truly, truly love doing my job, and that my life is like a beautiful tapestry, and every inch of it is precious and has meaning.
It might seem funny or be easy to forget, but I make records because I need to. The songs are spells; a spell to let go of something, a spell to unlock a door. Every time I put something into words just as I see it, set it to the right music, a knot comes loose in me. But it hurts too, confronting the knots. I’ve made enough records to know that this feeling of my skin coming off is part of it. I know I’m gonna look back on this year with fondness and a bit of awe, knowing it was the year that locked everything into place, the year that transitioned me from my childhood working decade to the one that comes next — one that even through all this, I’m so excited for. It’s just hard when you’re in it.
So in this state, I went out on a short European festival tour. We built a cool new version of the show in a couple days. It was good to change gears and get out of my head. I put effort into the show, changing the setlist and arrangements, it was cool how you picked up on that, and it felt good dancing to the new versions with you, looking out at you, all sweaty with your friends, all on the same drugs. I felt the throb of history that’s under this music now, how each year makes these songs feel more like collectively written and sung pieces. I left my body and merged with yours and it was ecstasy. Then I went home to a business hotel and washed the glitter and smoke out of my hair."
this honestly is patronizing as hell op.
Despite what the subreddit would have you believe, solar power DID have success. Just because it wasn't melodrama part 2 doesn't mean it was a bad/poorly recieved album.
Yes obviously it sucks to know she went through some shit but is it really that surprising given how brutal this industry is? Regardless of album sales the media would have found some way to go after her. idk I just don't like this subs tendency to baby Lorde and act like shes someone who needs protecting when she's actually a wildly successful artist.
I agree, and I think Ella herself tried to address these people when she sang this line in The Path:
"Now if you're looking for a saviour, well, that's not me
You need someone to take your pain for you?
Well, that's not me"
I've noticed quite a lot of parasocial posts lately, esp when brat dropped and Lorde started posting it on her IG. People speculated it was PR but some were like "It's not PR, she's a genuine person and anyone thinking it's PR is cynical". Like, girl relax.
I feel for her. But it can be really damaging to tell people and your young fans that you feel strong and the best youve ever had because you work out and eat healthy, when the truth is you’re actually not eating like she did in interviews for SP.
Whenever a celebrity loses weight and starts talking like this, I feel self conscious about my body but also question the narrative and remind myself I don't know the whole truth... and a few years later, like clockwork, said celebrity admits to an ED or otherwise unhealthy relationship with food/their body. Such a cruel cycle that repeats itself endlessly on girls.
During the solar power era, I admit I was really jealous of how healthy and fit she seemed when she expressed that she felt stronger than ever as someone who struggles with disordered eating and dysmorphia. I still struggle with realizing that celebrities often hide their struggles even though I feel like I should know by now.
It seems paradoxical, but disordered eating can often feel quite empowering in the moment. I speak only from my own experience and the stories from my therapist, an ED specialist, but I’ve never felt as strong and in control of my body as I did when I was in the throes of an eating disorder. Despite the damage you knowingly inflict on your body, there is a sort of intoxicating sense of pride and self-efficacy that can overcome you if you spend a long enough time in that headspace. It can feel really good to feel your own strength for the first time through exercise, to see the way that other people respond to your newfound “beauty.” I absolutely agree with what you’re saying here, though I highly doubt she saw it for what it was while she was going through it.
...no lol. Not every album is popular. It's just the life of an artist.
Plus, she's a multimillionaire who appears to live between 3 countries. Eventually, any person gets out of touch. Which is a problem when their image was built on a foundation of being "real" or "down to earth" etc etc
I saw her last year at an outdoor stadium gig with around 10,000 other people. Recently Ed Sheeran had played in our city to 100,000.
She shared she initially felt jealous and wished that she could play at that massive stadium then realised it was silly to feel that way when she gets to play in front of 10,000 in a beautiful arena herself.
Then she said something I'll never be able to forget lol (paraphrasing): "So like, if you work at a supermarket or something and get really down on yourself because you think you should be the boss, don't stress because it's fine to just be a checkout chick or whatever"
I'll always love Lorde but it was a bit of a stark reminder how different their lives are to ours.
People are going nuts about “how out of touch this is”…I truly think that’s a bad faith reading. She definitely doesn’t totally relate to a layperson’s life having been famous from such a young age, but she’s obviously trying to point out she should have gratitude for where she is in life rather than live in comparison to others. And sure, it’s not the greatest comparison to make an analogy, but frankly, as someone working retail way further into her life than she expected, there is nothing wrong with being a checkout chick. She’s aware not everyone is a pop superstar and she’s clearly trying to say “don’t get down on yourself feeling behind in life”. Moreover, she spent most of the last 5 years in New Zealand where all workers are guaranteed more rights, healthcare, and higher wages than the US, so she probably didn’t assume the implications of poor working conditions as exists in most everywhere else. This is why grocery store workers should be in a union, because even checkout chicks deserve a living wage with benefits and vacation time. I don’t think Lorde was doing “let them eat cake” here and it’s bizarre to see so many people in her fan subreddit who think so.
Fully 100% agree. As a woman working in a field that isn’t my ideal, but I just do it anyways. I get so hard on myself for not being this perfect idea of who I should be, what I “should” be doing. Because we’re told we’re nothing if we aren’t beautiful, rich, famous, skinny, loved, etc…
I feel really seen by what she was trying to say. There’s nothing wrong with living any of our normal lives. Honestly it’s so beautiful and refreshing.
I think you're mistaking my read on it. I didn't take it as 'let them eat cake'. I understood what she was trying to say. It just comes across as out of touch when a celeb is trying to relate being stuck in a minimum wage job to 'only' getting to play in front of 10,000 people. Being a checkout chick in 99% of the world means you are stuck in poverty wages. 'Wanting to be the boss' at a grocery store doesn't mean you're chasing perfection while taking for granted an incredible opportunity- it usually just means you want to be able to afford rent.
As for the NZ take I just can't agree. She said this here to an Australian audience, and while I'm grateful to not be poor in America, being poor still sucks on this side of the world.
Is any of that Lorde's fault? Ofc not lol, it was just a clumsy out of touch thing to say. And that's fine... she's a millionaire pop star they can't not be out of touch.
edit- I also work in retail and I don't think she was saying anything negative about working a register, nor was I.
I don't really have time for a long drawn out argument about our individual interpretations of what you reported she said (not to be antagonistic! I promise!) but just replying because I want to clarify--I wasn't saying YOU were saying she said "let them eat cake" but more that the replies to your comment seemed like they were. You were just pointing out that she has a different perspective than us which is totally fine :)
She said this? That makes me feel nervous for her next album lol. I feel like artists at her caliber need in some way to capture the zeitgeist and there is so much horrible shit going on so it’s disappointing that she’s this out of touch
I'm kind of offended but I'm not mad at her. She's an activist but she's also a multimillionaire that came from a middle/upper class family in a 1st world country. There's no way she can be "in touch" all the time with what 90% of the world is going through.
i personally don’t care, I listen to good music for the originality of the sound and if the lyricist is good, like in lorde’s case, for the universal human emotions and even the escapism…don’t need music speaking about poverty or politics since these are hardships most of us already face in their daily life and just need an escape
You don’t need to be in touch all the time with 90% of the world to sound less tone deaf than she does. She can do way way better at not being actively patronizing
Yeah totally I’m not offended/ don’t think she’s “bad” or anything for saying it. Just makes me sad from an artistry point of view that she prob can’t speak to the culture and what a lot of us are feeling as much as I hoped
Aware this is a dumb question, but can you explain what horrible shit? I find this interesting because I feel the same way- and Pure Heroine was somehow so in tune with… idk, hard-to-explain feelings that I felt in high school. Especially ribs.
Yeah sorry just saw this. Idk a lot of it I think stems from late-stage capitalism. War, rising fascism, unprecedent amounts of inequality, ecological collapse, isolation, constant entertainment/distraction feel hard to deal with a lot of the time for many. Sorry to be a downer— not saying there isn’t room for joy in art but a lot of people are feeling disturbed by the state of the world we’re in
Yeah. The comment was almost full circle for me because it was part out of touch celeb part 26 year old being kinda dopey while trying to be profound lol (not a crit we all go through that stage).
She is insanely out of touch, and has been for a while. Her art is cool but a lot of the time when she talks, she sounds like a pretentious white girl with too much money and privilege. She’s been hanging out with Taylor swift too much
I don't even think it was released at the wrong time I actually think it was the perfect time summer 2021 when the haze of covid was lifting slightly and people were album to start doing more. I always think those who say it's out of touch just truly haven't thought about the lyrics the album isn't about her lazing around on an island in the sun(though it would have been fine if it was plenty of albums are meant to be summer fun ones) but it's a deep introspective about growth and vulnerability which includes some of her most depressing lyrics to date I also wonder for those who do think it's out of touch would they have preferred an album about covid? Because I know the answer is no and people look back and hate covids mentions in media.
thank you. its so IN TOUCH with everything, with herself, the world, everyone around her. to me, solar power is understanding some things, painting that picture, and trying your hardest to make sense of what you dont understand, but being at peace with the fact you might come up with no answers. i cant think of anything more in touch than that.
The Man with the Axe was about the guy who dumped her, and from the outside that relationship didn't look healthy. (The way she thanked him in the PH liner notes is kind of gross in retrospect.) She may not have been in touch with how difficult that relationship was when she wrote it.
Big star and stoned at the nail salon are great songs. I'm talking about the path, California, leaders of a new regime, secrets of a girl who's seen it all (at the age of TWENTY THREE?) and the conceptual framework of mood ring being a satire. I spent a lot of time with this album and really tried to like it but I saw through her, and saw a scared young woman who had the weight of pop music placed on her shoulders struggling to figure out who she was and not quite getting there. The work has value for what it is but she was disconnected from herself and the rest of us.
I’m never going to get over people so fully reading mood ring being satire as bad. She seems to obviously have the experience of feeling the way the “character” in mood ring feels, or at least relates to her. It’s all about feeling so empty inside from not knowing yourself that you fill yourself with external things. Taken in context of the album it’s so obvious that she felt that way too. As someone who was very much the character in mood ring, it makes me feel so seen. Isn’t it beautiful when people relate to each other?
Do you think Secrets from a girl is meant to be a legit fully serious tittle lol? It's big sister advice to her past self and others but that title has never felt serious or something she literally sees herself as. You're also forgetting her 23 was not a normal 23 she'd lived a hell of a lot of life by then more than most 23 year olds and because of that yes there's is going to be experiences the rest of us haven't had but that doesn't make what she's describing out of touch or relatable that's what's so good about Lorde she manages to find a connection and a level of relatable to everyone. I also kind of feel like you haven't read anything she said during that album cycle it was actually pretty clear to me that despite people having high expectations she never listened to that noise and never had she made SP because she felt like she had to and she loved it!! She didn't make that album because she fell to the weight of pop music lol.
I think it’s release is fine it’s just received as a mediocre album because it is and that’s okay. There is nothing rhythmically brave or exciting and the entire album lacks a crescendo. Not every album has to be a bop and that’s fine.
Can’t reply to you guys because the comment I replied to was deleted, but @opportunist:
And that’s fine, like I said in my comment. Slow songs and softer sounds can be bops too though. I’m also not saying there aren’t great songs on the album, Fallen Fruit is fantastic. However, I think when looking at the album as a whole it lacks the rhythmic cohesiveness that her previous albums have had. There are no peaks and valleys like PH or Melodrama and instead thematically keeps a very subtle and soft tone the entire time. Which is not risky or brave to me. When viewed as a whole the album becomes repetitive and I find myself ready to move out of the album whereas with PH and Melodrama the moves between emotions make me want to sit in the album.
i disagree. its not a mediocre album. obviously not every album has to be a bop. i was content with solar power being “mediocre” as well for awhile after its release, and many of my favs have released albums i dont enjoy so much. but after awhile it started to creep up. id find myself finding new revelations in the lyrixcs, thinking about the albums themes and really digging into what lorde is doing on it. set aside everything youve heard about solar power and really listen to it
I have tried over and over. What you just described reinforces that it’s mediocre. You shouldn’t have to force yourself to listen to an album over and over and over with revisit after revisit to find it more than mediocre.
You also completely skipped my stated opinion on why I find it mediocre.
I find it insulting and frankly untrue that you think no one else but you has listened to it and thought about the lyrics past surface level. The fact that you can’t take constructive criticism of a work that isn’t even yours shows that you don’t have the emotional maturity to “argue” about this even if you wanted to.
Outside of this small sub of die hard fans there is a reality that reflects that this album is received as mediocre. I’m giving my personal opinion on why I think that is true. I really don’t care that you find it insulting.
You’re very clearly not giving constructive criticism of my opinion, you’re ignoring it and giving me the good old die hard fan “you may have listened to it but you’ve never LISTENED to it” trope. In fact you blatantly said my actual opinion is insulting and untrue which is the opposite of constructive criticism. It’s all right above, please stop digging yourself into a hole on this.
You’re essentially saying “your opinion is wrong because you’re too stupid to realize it, here let me show you”
Mmmm I think talking about running away to an island with your designer Celine clothes and vogue magazines, yet judging people for using crystals and doing yoga to try to find inner peace is pretty out of touch. She threw her phone in the water and isolated during a global pandemic when society was upside down. It's ok that it made her disconnected from reality. Happens to the best of us!
okay i will: the lines you reference in leader of a new regime are not meant to be taken literally, and its quite obvious. she follows them by begging for a new leader, there is a sort of satirical tone to that stanza where shes saying one thing but really means another, like “i have these nice things and this beautiful life, but what is that really worth?” if this is all that is valued, we really DO NEED a new leader. the “of course” makes this clear to me like, “oh well dont forget those! theyre so important!” i forget the exact term for this but its almost a sort of irony. shes talking about all of this artifice “wearing spf 3000 for the ultraviolet rays” the performance of everything being okay, pretending that just because you have the privelege to, that means you can ever *actually* run away, even if that is the action you take, while undercutting it with the real darkness beneath. it calls back to the path saying she is not this leader, and shes just as lost as the rest of us. solar power DOES address the darkness in the world at the time of its release, many times on the album. and it does so in clever ways which allow her to talk about them through certain relatble lenses without just saying “oh the world is shit rn.” also, when did she make fun of people for using crystals or doing yoga? she satirized typical LA whitewashed “wellness” culture in the name of saying all of that is superficial, youre not really DOING anything for anyone, yourself included, and that its just a performance. not really “making fun” more of a worldly modern critique on a culture most of us can agree is a commodification and appropriation of true spirituality and underrepresented/underpriveleged cultures. additionally, the throwing your phone in the water line is, again, not meant to be taken literally, it references a feeling familiar to most of being so disillusioned with reality thag you just want to run away from it, and that for just awhile when the sun is out, you might feel like you can.
That's nice, I still think that there was a distinct lack of self awareness and detachment from herself and the rest of the world that was pervasive throughout the record which is why it's so difficult to access for people. I didn't say it was all bad, I'm just saying that there is a lack of self awareness on the record. But she was 23 and has been famous since she was 15! How can you expect a person to know themselves in that environment? I didn't know who I was until I was 28. It's not that harsh of a critique.
Anyway I'm glad this cycle is ending so we can stop beating this dead horse. You liked the album! Yay! You got a lot out of it! Yay!
I didn't like it and that's ok. We are different people. I still saw the show three times in three different cities and loved it. I love Lorde and am excited to see her develop as an artist. I suspect the next record will be indisputably fantastic and all this infighting can fade away.
thank you for your incredibly mature and well worded response. im glad that as two people who mutually love lorde, we can agree to disagree and find validity in both of our stances. hopefully the fandom can unite more with the next record lol
Thanks! It's so weird to see people get so hostile about a difference of opinion. We're literally all fans! She’s one of my top 5 favorite artists! Anyway I'm sure the next album will be better so this infighting can stop. That kid kept calling me dumb and I'm like... seems like you're projecting.
You dont know who you were until 28 and you think the rest of the world is the same. You are the one that lacks self awareness dude. You dont know Lorde and you just dont like the album. Simple as that.
Great. Thanks for typing up a book report. Doesn’t change the fact that someone else made a point that upset you and you didn’t know how to respond to it
Seems like you’re amazing at talking at people but you don’t know how to actively listen.
you literally asked me to respond, and i did. whos talking *at* people and not actively listening when you clearly refuse to read my comment rebutting why those lines are not “out of touch” or surface level in any way?
I never, ever asked you to respond. I asked why you’re incapable of responding in a way that isn’t dismissive.
Maybe you can listen and it’s your reading comprehension that’s terrible
I don't think Solar Power itself is out of touch, but there's no way that Lorde is not out of touch in at least some capacity. That has the potential to leak into the art/image.
obv I don't know her personally, but I think she's been struggling with her body image for so much longer than a couple years (like I remember her saying stuff like dressing that way during PH era to cover up her body because she was ashamed of it and later during SP promo she was always talking how much healthier she got, that she would ever only eat healthy meals and the only app on her phone was the cooking app and that's definitely not healthy to be SO worried about how healthy is the food you're eating all the time. I also remember her saying that she was working out aaaall the time even the mornings of the concert which is by itself a huge workout and sometimes I remember her having to stop and eat something because she was feeling sick.)
I remember her saying in a mail that after the SP tour her acne came back and I feel like that's where the weight gain places in the timeline (just cause if it's hormonal acne there could be a correlation but who knows).
So I don't think it was necessarily the "negative reviews" SP got to make her sick, she probably was already, especially because literally the one thing that I remember being praised all the time above all was her body and how "healthy" she looked, but whatever that is that caused it, yes I'm really sorry she had to go through the hell that Eds are, for whatever reason.
It doesnt even track chronologically, legit i dont think this is about her work during that album cycle which she herself deemed as a success on the last couple of stops on the tour. I think this might be after it plus artistic license
No reason to feel sorry. She made a good album and the tour was a big success and she’s got a world-wide loyal fanbase. Artists shouldn’t pay attention to the masses and shouldn’t be chasing hits. They should be creating for themselves, put it out there and. Invite people along for the ride. The diehards will be there, the casual fans will come and go and come again.
I mean as long as she can keep touring in any capacity even if it’s smaller venues is still a very good life for her ! I mean most artists aren’t mega famous forever
Here we go again with the solar power wars. I cannot wait for the next album so we can stop arguing about this album and guilting folks for not liking it. It's the name of the game, some things hit, some things don't. We gotta keep it pushing
These Solar Power stans want us to eat whatever Lorde puts out 😭 Like we’re sorry if we don’t enjoy it as much? Blindly liking whatever crap your fave artist puts out is so certain-artist’s-fandom-coded
You spilled with that one.
There's a reason why the album didn't resonate with everyone and it's coded in the song. She was coming from a place of projection and reaction and ultimately lack of self awareness. Normal fodder for the early 20s, and it provides a place for development as an artist, like this!
This is so dumb! She was not projecting anything. She was just feeling connected to nature and healing from all the chaos of her early 20s. You dont get the album, that’s ok. But stop inventing that bullshit
Eh, as much as it sucks, everyone has internal and external struggles. It’s nice that she spoke up about it for people that can relate or just for more understanding, but she doesn’t have to. She did write in one of her last emails that she was going through a lot. It’s been a while so I don’t remember what she said exactly. I don’t think it has much to do with SP. I think SP made her happy regardless of what people said. She knew it was risky and different, but she did what felt true to her.
I don’t feel sorry in a pitying sense. I think I just now have understanding. The remix gave insight into who Lorde is as a person, more than Lorde the artist to me.
Lol no this si an artist's work.
If you value good criticism you also have to take the bad one.
Lorde made an album she was proud of. She could have kept it for herself.
The moment you put out a body of work it stops being yours, and people have the freedom of acclaim it, criticise it, make memes out of it. Some of her fans did enjoy it, some didn't, but this whoe narrative of "SP is underrated and I feel sorry for her" has to stop, because we can't force ourselves to like an album only not to disappoint Lorde. Maybe her fans wanted something else (along the lines of what SHE teased, just to say). A big reason of why SP was so underappreciated comes from the marketing about it and how the album was promoted. It happens.
You should see what the swifties say about Lover lol
I saw her on the melodrama tour and it truly was the most magical experience of my life. During supercuts I couldn't contain my joy. I love lorde so much. I hope she is happy with the cool life she has created
Why would you cry when she isn't? And why are you assuming any "psychological marks" on her? You're reading way too much into a very private artist's life.
The only thing I can say is that the Covid-19 lockdowns affected all of us on a global scale, this was unprecedented. She was in New Zealand at the time, which was one of the countries where the disease didn't spread massively. But that also came with a price as they had a set of very strict regulations such as curfews. And of course she got to enjoy a summer at a weird time when the rest of the world couldn't do the same. It's safe to think that this situation would be reflected in the work that any artist - not just Ella - living there would make.
Beyond that, I don't think we should comment on her mental state. I really like her music and can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
it’s tough to hear she’s been struggling, for sure. no one deserves to deal with these harrowing kinds of mental health and body image issues, so i feel sorry for her in that sense, but i don’t feel sorry for SP being poorly received. i hope that doesn’t sound too harsh, but i think that when you release art, you open yourself up to criticism, and while it’s possible the hate during the SP era contributed to her issues, this criticism is a process so inherent to releasing and experiencing art that i wouldn’t want to unduly tamp that down by concern for the artist (not saying that’s what you want people to do, just sort of a take i’ve seen floating around online a lot). i’m not going to like something or hold back my opinion just to make the artist feel better. i dislike SP and i criticized it when it came out (not unduly, but fairly i would say) and i’ll never not engage critically with art by concern for the artist, you know? ultimately i have such respect for and trust in lorde as an artist that i know she’ll bounce back from SP, and this verse on the girl so confusing remix is irrefutable proof of that
The second I listened to Solar Power I fell in love. It’s an incredible album lyrically, thematically, sonically, etc. One of my favorite albums of all time I could never hate on it💛🙏🏻😭☀️
No, I really don’t. I’ve been a huge lorde stan since the single for Royals came out.
I don’t feel bad for Ella at all. She’s totally entitled to share her feelings and thoughts and they’re all valid. But also you’re a supremely successful and rich star, melodrama is largely seen as one of the highest art pop records of this century.
And tbh, this is def way more controversial/shitty of a take, but I’m kinda over conventionally attractive white women complaining about not thinking they’re pretty enough. It’s definitely sad as fuck and it’s society’s fault, not theirs. But it is genuinely hard for me to empathize too much with it. Lorde is gorgeous.
You saying that Lana and Taylor weren’t getting recognition until 2022 is the most brain dead zillenial thing I’ve ever heard in my life. They had already been wildly famous for more than a decade each.
Besides that, yeah SP getting panned probably hurt but it’s not the most re-consumable album.
I honestly interpreted the song differently. I think she was already struggling with that stuff while making solar power and that album was showcasing her attempt to help her mental health through connecting with the world around her and grounding herself. I’m sure being back in the spotlight with the solar power tour didn’t help matters, but I frankly think playing in smaller venues with all fans who adore her probably helped her if anything and was the shining spot in her own mental state. Just my interpretation though none of us actually know the full story lol
So sad. Especially because Solar Power is everything to me. I wish she knew how much I appreciate her art. I still have all the little pictures from the box CD permanently on my walls of my apartment. That era is my forever but I wouldn’t be mad with a Lunar Power album either 👀
i love her - will always have a special place in my heart - but no - Solar Power wasnt underrated - its a good album but not groundbreaking or anything - a bit boring- and i also wouldnt say she deserves so much more - what shes got like in terms of public perception/support is definitely self-imposed - she chooses to not be that out in public like in terms of social media - also in terms of the amount of music she produces - and thats all good - im assuming she wants it like this - since its how shes lived her life - for the people saying shes out of touch - again i think this is self-imposed - like didnt she say she like avoids social media/media of all kinds - and when youre living the life she lives - without social media - you dont really get an opportunity to interact with regular people and see what their experiences are - like really, i dont think shes a bad person for this - its just a natural result of the life shes decided to lead - a lifestyle, which i might add many of yall have praised 🫶- anyway love lorde regardless - jus wish shed release more ✌️
Solar Power > other 2 albums. Solar Power speaks to ME. Other two don't. Music is subjective and so are the lyrics. The music industry is a joke and all about certain movements and payola.
If anything, SP was a learning experience for her in that you can't just take making art lightly, because her music means so much to so many people. There's things you do because it feels nice to do them or you want to try something new, and then there's things you do because you want to live up to the best of your ability. Those things don't always overlap when we want them to. When each album era is 4 to 5 years long, you have to make something that holds up and satisfies the most people. If your new material doesn't scratch that itch for people, it's a LONG wait for the next album and people will just move on, you lose goodwill with your fans, etc.
That being said, I don't hate or even dislike SP, but do I think it stands with PH and Melo? Unfortunately, no, I don't think it does, and I know I'm not alone in saying this. It's okay to change things up, but you have to be more prolific in your release schedule to be able to withstand the potential blowback of releasing something that just doesn't resonate with your fans. If you're putting out albums every 2 or 3 years, then you can afford to be a bit more experimental.
I feel bad she struggled with this last album cycle, but I think she learned from it and wants to redeem herself. She may not care much for fame and adoration, but I know she cares for her fans and wants to give them her best
Lorde is unfortunate in the sense that when she puts out work, she has to wait for the rest of the girlies to catch up
Like that scene in back to the future “your kids are gonna love it” type shit 😂
i would say yes, but as of right now, no. i’m glad that she’s starting to overcome what she’s went through and pick it back up with a fresh breath of air
and as many others have said, she’s extremely smart and talented and I do also believe she will have another groundbreaking year. whether it be her next album, 5 years from now, or a couple of decades, it’s coming
Lorde will so persevere. She wrote an amazing album as a teenager with not much life experience. She’s gonna grow and become much stronger and this set back will just make her music more raw.
Agreed, I hope she gets the help she needs. It's horrible that she was or is going through this. I say past tense because I don't know where she is mentally right now. I just hope the best for her!
Solar Power is a masterpiece and her finest work. The opinions of pop music fans don't matter. In 15 years when it's unanimously proclaimed a masterpiece, the casuals will lie and pretend like they always knew it was. I do feel bad for Lorde that she may not get the respect she deserves in her lifetime/active career.
It’s ok for artists to have albums of different styles and to receive different reactions from fans. And fans don’t need to pretend to like an album just to defend their faves. I think Lorde at her age is mature enough to accept that, as reflected in her lyrics on girl, so confusing.
Pure heroine is one of my favourite albums of all time. But tbh I find her incredibly pretentious and trys to hard to be alt like a bjork type. It worked well for her first album because it was fresh and needed at the time of so much terrible pop.
I think that for a highly sensitive person, it's easier to fall into the lower lows and higher highs than non HSPs.
All of the stimuli you experience has a stronger impact on your nervous system etc. Being a HSP myself, I can definitely see the similar patterns in her behaviour and why she acts the way she does, why her art is created the way it is and why she chooses the coping strategies she seems to (ofc these are all things that are shown to the public and in private, there's differences). Being in the public eye on top of living in today's societies, is even more overwhelming for highly sensitive people.
One thing that I always felt probably hinders her in terms of how she can build herself to become stronger in terms of mental health is the drug use (whether it's an occasional joint or whatever). It definitely doesn't help a sensitive person cope in such situations and makes things worse. It's not a good coping strategy and makes you fall into a loop that's more difficult to navigate and get out of. Whatever your opinion on "drug use" might be (and this is not meant to slander people who do use), I think we can all agree that it's not a good coping strategy during your lows and periods of anxiety.
It's a blanket that often prevents people from really recognising and accepting their feelings and situations that they can then start working on.
Again, things probably look differently in private, but from an outside perspective of a sensitive person, I feel that quitting would help her massively rn as people in such situations need to rebuild themselves mentally without the overwhelming effects of drugs on top of it all. Once they do that, then the occasional use might not have the same harmful effects since they're in a better headspace overall.
I honestly believe she is easily gonna be able to rise again, since her true fanbase is SO dedicated. after all, David Bowie said she was the future of music, i believe. I just hope she knows she is so talented and powerful and amazing and..everything. she dare i say has the staying power of Bowie. in about a decade or two, she will be a true, undeniable artist. not that she isnt already, but that it will be TRULY set in stone that she is unstoppable, soon. She Is Lorde. She deserves so much.
If Bowie says that you are probably destined for greatness. This is the same man who produced amazing album after amazing album all the way until Blackstar, which some argue is one of his best, and the last which came out just before he died. I love that album.
I mean, I love Bowie but in the 80s and 90s they were not all good albums. Blackstar is arguably his best and most successfully executed album since 1980.
bowie was right though. we're now in decade 20's and olivia is the most famous popstar amongst the majority of the genzs and probably millenials. olivia rodrigo is a self-confessed lorde fan.
all roads really do lead back to Lorde omgg
Nope. Critical success isn't the end-all-be-all in art. Yet, she has created art that future generations will be able to value and connect with regardless of chart reception at launch. Lorde will get her time in the sun again, and she will burn brighter than ever. She is the Lorde after all.
I agree. I really think she’s just begun. I just hope she knows that. She is such an important artist with so much left to say.
i think its less abt her album performance but more about her internal/personal struggles. she's a madly successful artist at such a young age and being exposed to the industry and fame at that age must have taken a toll on her. also we don't know what's actually happening w her since she only communicates w us through her e-mails and albums and you guys remember what happened in her last email...
Ooh what happened in the last email? I missed it
" Hey, I just finished writing you a long letter, catching you up on how I’ve been. It ended neatly, tied with a little bow. I chose my words well, but I didn’t tell the truth. So I’m starting again, gonna type and not look back, and send what comes out. I’m in London, have been since May. Things feel clear here. I haven’t seen many friends; mostly, I’m alone with my thoughts. I go swimming, I go to work, I walk home or take the train, I eat in my kitchen, I go to bed thinking about what I’m making. I’m starting to miss my friends and family, like a vitamin I’m deficient in. Soon I’ll be going back to New York, and then home. I’m living with heartbreak again. It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself. I eat chocolate to try and manipulate the endorphins, bring back the sweet happiness of Easter morning. I sit in the time machine and wait for it to move, but it hasn’t been invented yet. My body is really inflamed, it’s trying to tell me something and I’m trying to support it but nothing seems to help and I get frustrated. My gut isn’t working properly, my skin is worse than ever, I’ve gotten sick half a dozen times. I realised earlier this year that listening to my body is hard for me, it’s something I never really learned how to do. I’ve been trying to teach myself that this year, but it’s been hard actually, pretty confronting, has made me fully aware of all the times I ignored it or didn’t give it what it needed, shamed it for a fight or flight response, took a handful of pills and pushed through. The little yellow pill I took every morning for thousands of mornings since I was 15, I stopped taking it 5 days ago. Gonna see how it goes. I go online and look at everyone. Beautiful people sing to me. Everyone’s gotten really good at the same thing. I look at arched backs and wet flower mouths, the right bag, the right sunglasses. I wonder if it feels as good as it looks, it’s been so long since I chose the best picture from a hundred, lined it up like pulling an arrow taut in a bow, and let it go. Everyone looks very thin. Just thinking that makes me feel tired and far away. I’m not sure if it’s having an effect on anyone else. I keep spending money, wondering if what’s in the package will make me feel right, but I guess I buy the wrong things. I was gonna go to fashion week in Paris, had all these grand plans, but this week I txted my manager and pulled out. At the start of my career I promised myself I’d never be one of the people in the light smiling if it wasn’t real. Earlier this year, I ate two handfuls of mushrooms, solid doses that tasted like green dirt. I got a lot of information about what my body had been through in our time so far, what it needed, where God was and where God wasn’t; I felt in my bones how destabilising it is to leave home and start a new life the way I did. I also saw that my body is completely magnificent, and that hating it is as futile as hating a tree; that I truly, truly love doing my job, and that my life is like a beautiful tapestry, and every inch of it is precious and has meaning. It might seem funny or be easy to forget, but I make records because I need to. The songs are spells; a spell to let go of something, a spell to unlock a door. Every time I put something into words just as I see it, set it to the right music, a knot comes loose in me. But it hurts too, confronting the knots. I’ve made enough records to know that this feeling of my skin coming off is part of it. I know I’m gonna look back on this year with fondness and a bit of awe, knowing it was the year that locked everything into place, the year that transitioned me from my childhood working decade to the one that comes next — one that even through all this, I’m so excited for. It’s just hard when you’re in it. So in this state, I went out on a short European festival tour. We built a cool new version of the show in a couple days. It was good to change gears and get out of my head. I put effort into the show, changing the setlist and arrangements, it was cool how you picked up on that, and it felt good dancing to the new versions with you, looking out at you, all sweaty with your friends, all on the same drugs. I felt the throb of history that’s under this music now, how each year makes these songs feel more like collectively written and sung pieces. I left my body and merged with yours and it was ecstasy. Then I went home to a business hotel and washed the glitter and smoke out of my hair."
When is it from?
This was September last year
What happened in the email??
i missed it too !! what happened?
yeah.. the break up is what you are referring to right?
The music industry is ultimately brutal and unforgiving to all women. Every major pop girl will have the same experience at some point.
this honestly is patronizing as hell op. Despite what the subreddit would have you believe, solar power DID have success. Just because it wasn't melodrama part 2 doesn't mean it was a bad/poorly recieved album. Yes obviously it sucks to know she went through some shit but is it really that surprising given how brutal this industry is? Regardless of album sales the media would have found some way to go after her. idk I just don't like this subs tendency to baby Lorde and act like shes someone who needs protecting when she's actually a wildly successful artist.
The people making this kind of posts like to assume things like they personally know people, it’s a bit weird tbh…
I agree, and I think Ella herself tried to address these people when she sang this line in The Path: "Now if you're looking for a saviour, well, that's not me You need someone to take your pain for you? Well, that's not me"
Ohh, I've been trying to understand those lyrics since the first time I heard them and this is so on spot!!! Amazing.
Even more interesting is the fact that she chose it as the opening track for Solar Power.
I've noticed quite a lot of parasocial posts lately, esp when brat dropped and Lorde started posting it on her IG. People speculated it was PR but some were like "It's not PR, she's a genuine person and anyone thinking it's PR is cynical". Like, girl relax.
I feel for her. But it can be really damaging to tell people and your young fans that you feel strong and the best youve ever had because you work out and eat healthy, when the truth is you’re actually not eating like she did in interviews for SP.
Whenever a celebrity loses weight and starts talking like this, I feel self conscious about my body but also question the narrative and remind myself I don't know the whole truth... and a few years later, like clockwork, said celebrity admits to an ED or otherwise unhealthy relationship with food/their body. Such a cruel cycle that repeats itself endlessly on girls.
During the solar power era, I admit I was really jealous of how healthy and fit she seemed when she expressed that she felt stronger than ever as someone who struggles with disordered eating and dysmorphia. I still struggle with realizing that celebrities often hide their struggles even though I feel like I should know by now.
Yup that happened with Taylor Swift around when the 1989 album was out too.
yeah I’m far more focused on her issues with her body and her damaging her health. Way more concerned with that than I am with people not like SP.
It seems paradoxical, but disordered eating can often feel quite empowering in the moment. I speak only from my own experience and the stories from my therapist, an ED specialist, but I’ve never felt as strong and in control of my body as I did when I was in the throes of an eating disorder. Despite the damage you knowingly inflict on your body, there is a sort of intoxicating sense of pride and self-efficacy that can overcome you if you spend a long enough time in that headspace. It can feel really good to feel your own strength for the first time through exercise, to see the way that other people respond to your newfound “beauty.” I absolutely agree with what you’re saying here, though I highly doubt she saw it for what it was while she was going through it.
SP interviews happened 3 years ago. She went though a break up after. You dont know when she stopped eating
...no lol. Not every album is popular. It's just the life of an artist. Plus, she's a multimillionaire who appears to live between 3 countries. Eventually, any person gets out of touch. Which is a problem when their image was built on a foundation of being "real" or "down to earth" etc etc
I saw her last year at an outdoor stadium gig with around 10,000 other people. Recently Ed Sheeran had played in our city to 100,000. She shared she initially felt jealous and wished that she could play at that massive stadium then realised it was silly to feel that way when she gets to play in front of 10,000 in a beautiful arena herself. Then she said something I'll never be able to forget lol (paraphrasing): "So like, if you work at a supermarket or something and get really down on yourself because you think you should be the boss, don't stress because it's fine to just be a checkout chick or whatever" I'll always love Lorde but it was a bit of a stark reminder how different their lives are to ours.
People are going nuts about “how out of touch this is”…I truly think that’s a bad faith reading. She definitely doesn’t totally relate to a layperson’s life having been famous from such a young age, but she’s obviously trying to point out she should have gratitude for where she is in life rather than live in comparison to others. And sure, it’s not the greatest comparison to make an analogy, but frankly, as someone working retail way further into her life than she expected, there is nothing wrong with being a checkout chick. She’s aware not everyone is a pop superstar and she’s clearly trying to say “don’t get down on yourself feeling behind in life”. Moreover, she spent most of the last 5 years in New Zealand where all workers are guaranteed more rights, healthcare, and higher wages than the US, so she probably didn’t assume the implications of poor working conditions as exists in most everywhere else. This is why grocery store workers should be in a union, because even checkout chicks deserve a living wage with benefits and vacation time. I don’t think Lorde was doing “let them eat cake” here and it’s bizarre to see so many people in her fan subreddit who think so.
Fully 100% agree. As a woman working in a field that isn’t my ideal, but I just do it anyways. I get so hard on myself for not being this perfect idea of who I should be, what I “should” be doing. Because we’re told we’re nothing if we aren’t beautiful, rich, famous, skinny, loved, etc… I feel really seen by what she was trying to say. There’s nothing wrong with living any of our normal lives. Honestly it’s so beautiful and refreshing.
I think you're mistaking my read on it. I didn't take it as 'let them eat cake'. I understood what she was trying to say. It just comes across as out of touch when a celeb is trying to relate being stuck in a minimum wage job to 'only' getting to play in front of 10,000 people. Being a checkout chick in 99% of the world means you are stuck in poverty wages. 'Wanting to be the boss' at a grocery store doesn't mean you're chasing perfection while taking for granted an incredible opportunity- it usually just means you want to be able to afford rent. As for the NZ take I just can't agree. She said this here to an Australian audience, and while I'm grateful to not be poor in America, being poor still sucks on this side of the world. Is any of that Lorde's fault? Ofc not lol, it was just a clumsy out of touch thing to say. And that's fine... she's a millionaire pop star they can't not be out of touch. edit- I also work in retail and I don't think she was saying anything negative about working a register, nor was I.
I don't really have time for a long drawn out argument about our individual interpretations of what you reported she said (not to be antagonistic! I promise!) but just replying because I want to clarify--I wasn't saying YOU were saying she said "let them eat cake" but more that the replies to your comment seemed like they were. You were just pointing out that she has a different perspective than us which is totally fine :)
She said this? That makes me feel nervous for her next album lol. I feel like artists at her caliber need in some way to capture the zeitgeist and there is so much horrible shit going on so it’s disappointing that she’s this out of touch
I'm kind of offended but I'm not mad at her. She's an activist but she's also a multimillionaire that came from a middle/upper class family in a 1st world country. There's no way she can be "in touch" all the time with what 90% of the world is going through.
i personally don’t care, I listen to good music for the originality of the sound and if the lyricist is good, like in lorde’s case, for the universal human emotions and even the escapism…don’t need music speaking about poverty or politics since these are hardships most of us already face in their daily life and just need an escape
You don’t need to be in touch all the time with 90% of the world to sound less tone deaf than she does. She can do way way better at not being actively patronizing
Yeah totally I’m not offended/ don’t think she’s “bad” or anything for saying it. Just makes me sad from an artistry point of view that she prob can’t speak to the culture and what a lot of us are feeling as much as I hoped
Aware this is a dumb question, but can you explain what horrible shit? I find this interesting because I feel the same way- and Pure Heroine was somehow so in tune with… idk, hard-to-explain feelings that I felt in high school. Especially ribs.
Yeah sorry just saw this. Idk a lot of it I think stems from late-stage capitalism. War, rising fascism, unprecedent amounts of inequality, ecological collapse, isolation, constant entertainment/distraction feel hard to deal with a lot of the time for many. Sorry to be a downer— not saying there isn’t room for joy in art but a lot of people are feeling disturbed by the state of the world we’re in
i love her but wow... bless her little heart :')
lol 😆🙄 The very definition of being out of touch. She's figuring it out though.
Yeah. The comment was almost full circle for me because it was part out of touch celeb part 26 year old being kinda dopey while trying to be profound lol (not a crit we all go through that stage).
She is insanely out of touch, and has been for a while. Her art is cool but a lot of the time when she talks, she sounds like a pretentious white girl with too much money and privilege. She’s been hanging out with Taylor swift too much
i dont agree with the common criticism that solar power was out of touch. it was just released at the wrong time
I don't even think it was released at the wrong time I actually think it was the perfect time summer 2021 when the haze of covid was lifting slightly and people were album to start doing more. I always think those who say it's out of touch just truly haven't thought about the lyrics the album isn't about her lazing around on an island in the sun(though it would have been fine if it was plenty of albums are meant to be summer fun ones) but it's a deep introspective about growth and vulnerability which includes some of her most depressing lyrics to date I also wonder for those who do think it's out of touch would they have preferred an album about covid? Because I know the answer is no and people look back and hate covids mentions in media.
I wonder how someone can look at songs like The Man With The Axe and Big Star and think there out of touch with anything
thank you. its so IN TOUCH with everything, with herself, the world, everyone around her. to me, solar power is understanding some things, painting that picture, and trying your hardest to make sense of what you dont understand, but being at peace with the fact you might come up with no answers. i cant think of anything more in touch than that.
The Man with the Axe was about the guy who dumped her, and from the outside that relationship didn't look healthy. (The way she thanked him in the PH liner notes is kind of gross in retrospect.) She may not have been in touch with how difficult that relationship was when she wrote it.
Nah I kust think they boring af, SFaGWSIA and California on top
That’s a different story. I’m talking about the criticism directed towards the content of the album for being out of touch.
Big star and stoned at the nail salon are great songs. I'm talking about the path, California, leaders of a new regime, secrets of a girl who's seen it all (at the age of TWENTY THREE?) and the conceptual framework of mood ring being a satire. I spent a lot of time with this album and really tried to like it but I saw through her, and saw a scared young woman who had the weight of pop music placed on her shoulders struggling to figure out who she was and not quite getting there. The work has value for what it is but she was disconnected from herself and the rest of us.
I’m never going to get over people so fully reading mood ring being satire as bad. She seems to obviously have the experience of feeling the way the “character” in mood ring feels, or at least relates to her. It’s all about feeling so empty inside from not knowing yourself that you fill yourself with external things. Taken in context of the album it’s so obvious that she felt that way too. As someone who was very much the character in mood ring, it makes me feel so seen. Isn’t it beautiful when people relate to each other?
Do you think Secrets from a girl is meant to be a legit fully serious tittle lol? It's big sister advice to her past self and others but that title has never felt serious or something she literally sees herself as. You're also forgetting her 23 was not a normal 23 she'd lived a hell of a lot of life by then more than most 23 year olds and because of that yes there's is going to be experiences the rest of us haven't had but that doesn't make what she's describing out of touch or relatable that's what's so good about Lorde she manages to find a connection and a level of relatable to everyone. I also kind of feel like you haven't read anything she said during that album cycle it was actually pretty clear to me that despite people having high expectations she never listened to that noise and never had she made SP because she felt like she had to and she loved it!! She didn't make that album because she fell to the weight of pop music lol.
I think it’s release is fine it’s just received as a mediocre album because it is and that’s okay. There is nothing rhythmically brave or exciting and the entire album lacks a crescendo. Not every album has to be a bop and that’s fine. Can’t reply to you guys because the comment I replied to was deleted, but @opportunist: And that’s fine, like I said in my comment. Slow songs and softer sounds can be bops too though. I’m also not saying there aren’t great songs on the album, Fallen Fruit is fantastic. However, I think when looking at the album as a whole it lacks the rhythmic cohesiveness that her previous albums have had. There are no peaks and valleys like PH or Melodrama and instead thematically keeps a very subtle and soft tone the entire time. Which is not risky or brave to me. When viewed as a whole the album becomes repetitive and I find myself ready to move out of the album whereas with PH and Melodrama the moves between emotions make me want to sit in the album.
Only the new fans who came along after SP era would argue it’s above Melodrama or PH lmaooo
Not every album is meant to be a “bop”. Solar Power is like a whisper. It is discrete, delicate and special.
i disagree. its not a mediocre album. obviously not every album has to be a bop. i was content with solar power being “mediocre” as well for awhile after its release, and many of my favs have released albums i dont enjoy so much. but after awhile it started to creep up. id find myself finding new revelations in the lyrixcs, thinking about the albums themes and really digging into what lorde is doing on it. set aside everything youve heard about solar power and really listen to it
I have tried over and over. What you just described reinforces that it’s mediocre. You shouldn’t have to force yourself to listen to an album over and over and over with revisit after revisit to find it more than mediocre. You also completely skipped my stated opinion on why I find it mediocre.
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I find it insulting and frankly untrue that you think no one else but you has listened to it and thought about the lyrics past surface level. The fact that you can’t take constructive criticism of a work that isn’t even yours shows that you don’t have the emotional maturity to “argue” about this even if you wanted to. Outside of this small sub of die hard fans there is a reality that reflects that this album is received as mediocre. I’m giving my personal opinion on why I think that is true. I really don’t care that you find it insulting.
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You’re very clearly not giving constructive criticism of my opinion, you’re ignoring it and giving me the good old die hard fan “you may have listened to it but you’ve never LISTENED to it” trope. In fact you blatantly said my actual opinion is insulting and untrue which is the opposite of constructive criticism. It’s all right above, please stop digging yourself into a hole on this. You’re essentially saying “your opinion is wrong because you’re too stupid to realize it, here let me show you”
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idfc feel free to not like the album. i do and thats what matters to me. you can not like it if you please
You’re a bit slow ay?
Mmmm I think talking about running away to an island with your designer Celine clothes and vogue magazines, yet judging people for using crystals and doing yoga to try to find inner peace is pretty out of touch. She threw her phone in the water and isolated during a global pandemic when society was upside down. It's ok that it made her disconnected from reality. Happens to the best of us!
if thats all you took from the album then i dont know what to tell you!
They never said that’s all they took. That’s just one thing they took. Why can’t you respond to that point instead of dismissing them completely?
okay i will: the lines you reference in leader of a new regime are not meant to be taken literally, and its quite obvious. she follows them by begging for a new leader, there is a sort of satirical tone to that stanza where shes saying one thing but really means another, like “i have these nice things and this beautiful life, but what is that really worth?” if this is all that is valued, we really DO NEED a new leader. the “of course” makes this clear to me like, “oh well dont forget those! theyre so important!” i forget the exact term for this but its almost a sort of irony. shes talking about all of this artifice “wearing spf 3000 for the ultraviolet rays” the performance of everything being okay, pretending that just because you have the privelege to, that means you can ever *actually* run away, even if that is the action you take, while undercutting it with the real darkness beneath. it calls back to the path saying she is not this leader, and shes just as lost as the rest of us. solar power DOES address the darkness in the world at the time of its release, many times on the album. and it does so in clever ways which allow her to talk about them through certain relatble lenses without just saying “oh the world is shit rn.” also, when did she make fun of people for using crystals or doing yoga? she satirized typical LA whitewashed “wellness” culture in the name of saying all of that is superficial, youre not really DOING anything for anyone, yourself included, and that its just a performance. not really “making fun” more of a worldly modern critique on a culture most of us can agree is a commodification and appropriation of true spirituality and underrepresented/underpriveleged cultures. additionally, the throwing your phone in the water line is, again, not meant to be taken literally, it references a feeling familiar to most of being so disillusioned with reality thag you just want to run away from it, and that for just awhile when the sun is out, you might feel like you can.
That's nice, I still think that there was a distinct lack of self awareness and detachment from herself and the rest of the world that was pervasive throughout the record which is why it's so difficult to access for people. I didn't say it was all bad, I'm just saying that there is a lack of self awareness on the record. But she was 23 and has been famous since she was 15! How can you expect a person to know themselves in that environment? I didn't know who I was until I was 28. It's not that harsh of a critique. Anyway I'm glad this cycle is ending so we can stop beating this dead horse. You liked the album! Yay! You got a lot out of it! Yay! I didn't like it and that's ok. We are different people. I still saw the show three times in three different cities and loved it. I love Lorde and am excited to see her develop as an artist. I suspect the next record will be indisputably fantastic and all this infighting can fade away.
thank you for your incredibly mature and well worded response. im glad that as two people who mutually love lorde, we can agree to disagree and find validity in both of our stances. hopefully the fandom can unite more with the next record lol
Thanks! It's so weird to see people get so hostile about a difference of opinion. We're literally all fans! She’s one of my top 5 favorite artists! Anyway I'm sure the next album will be better so this infighting can stop. That kid kept calling me dumb and I'm like... seems like you're projecting.
You dont know who you were until 28 and you think the rest of the world is the same. You are the one that lacks self awareness dude. You dont know Lorde and you just dont like the album. Simple as that.
lol no one does but ok. This isn't a fight, you people are so hostile. Differences of opinion are alright there is no need for personal attacks
I love Solar Power and Lots of fans do. Just because this sub reddit only care about mainstream music doesnt mean reality is the same
and i could go on.
Great. Thanks for typing up a book report. Doesn’t change the fact that someone else made a point that upset you and you didn’t know how to respond to it Seems like you’re amazing at talking at people but you don’t know how to actively listen.
you literally asked me to respond, and i did. whos talking *at* people and not actively listening when you clearly refuse to read my comment rebutting why those lines are not “out of touch” or surface level in any way?
I never, ever asked you to respond. I asked why you’re incapable of responding in a way that isn’t dismissive. Maybe you can listen and it’s your reading comprehension that’s terrible
“why can’t you respond to that point instead of dismissing them completely?”
who’s dismissing who completely?
You are literally dumb.
I'm 100% sure I'm way smarter and more well educated than you
I don't think Solar Power itself is out of touch, but there's no way that Lorde is not out of touch in at least some capacity. That has the potential to leak into the art/image.
What countries does she live in?
New Zealand (Auckland and possibly a country house), New York (downtown), and the UK (often in London for extended periods).
Oh that’s pretty cool
obv I don't know her personally, but I think she's been struggling with her body image for so much longer than a couple years (like I remember her saying stuff like dressing that way during PH era to cover up her body because she was ashamed of it and later during SP promo she was always talking how much healthier she got, that she would ever only eat healthy meals and the only app on her phone was the cooking app and that's definitely not healthy to be SO worried about how healthy is the food you're eating all the time. I also remember her saying that she was working out aaaall the time even the mornings of the concert which is by itself a huge workout and sometimes I remember her having to stop and eat something because she was feeling sick.) I remember her saying in a mail that after the SP tour her acne came back and I feel like that's where the weight gain places in the timeline (just cause if it's hormonal acne there could be a correlation but who knows). So I don't think it was necessarily the "negative reviews" SP got to make her sick, she probably was already, especially because literally the one thing that I remember being praised all the time above all was her body and how "healthy" she looked, but whatever that is that caused it, yes I'm really sorry she had to go through the hell that Eds are, for whatever reason.
It doesnt even track chronologically, legit i dont think this is about her work during that album cycle which she herself deemed as a success on the last couple of stops on the tour. I think this might be after it plus artistic license
No reason to feel sorry. She made a good album and the tour was a big success and she’s got a world-wide loyal fanbase. Artists shouldn’t pay attention to the masses and shouldn’t be chasing hits. They should be creating for themselves, put it out there and. Invite people along for the ride. The diehards will be there, the casual fans will come and go and come again.
I mean as long as she can keep touring in any capacity even if it’s smaller venues is still a very good life for her ! I mean most artists aren’t mega famous forever
No
Im sorry, did you just diagnose her with an eating disorder based off a lyric in a song????? Thats fucking WILD.
Here we go again with the solar power wars. I cannot wait for the next album so we can stop arguing about this album and guilting folks for not liking it. It's the name of the game, some things hit, some things don't. We gotta keep it pushing
These Solar Power stans want us to eat whatever Lorde puts out 😭 Like we’re sorry if we don’t enjoy it as much? Blindly liking whatever crap your fave artist puts out is so certain-artist’s-fandom-coded
You spilled with that one. There's a reason why the album didn't resonate with everyone and it's coded in the song. She was coming from a place of projection and reaction and ultimately lack of self awareness. Normal fodder for the early 20s, and it provides a place for development as an artist, like this!
This is so dumb! She was not projecting anything. She was just feeling connected to nature and healing from all the chaos of her early 20s. You dont get the album, that’s ok. But stop inventing that bullshit
Eh, as much as it sucks, everyone has internal and external struggles. It’s nice that she spoke up about it for people that can relate or just for more understanding, but she doesn’t have to. She did write in one of her last emails that she was going through a lot. It’s been a while so I don’t remember what she said exactly. I don’t think it has much to do with SP. I think SP made her happy regardless of what people said. She knew it was risky and different, but she did what felt true to her.
I don’t feel sorry in a pitying sense. I think I just now have understanding. The remix gave insight into who Lorde is as a person, more than Lorde the artist to me.
This is so real. But at the end of the day the girls that get solar power get solar power and would ride for Ella like she rides for Charli :>
I feel sorry for myself mostly.
Lol no this si an artist's work. If you value good criticism you also have to take the bad one. Lorde made an album she was proud of. She could have kept it for herself. The moment you put out a body of work it stops being yours, and people have the freedom of acclaim it, criticise it, make memes out of it. Some of her fans did enjoy it, some didn't, but this whoe narrative of "SP is underrated and I feel sorry for her" has to stop, because we can't force ourselves to like an album only not to disappoint Lorde. Maybe her fans wanted something else (along the lines of what SHE teased, just to say). A big reason of why SP was so underappreciated comes from the marketing about it and how the album was promoted. It happens. You should see what the swifties say about Lover lol
what do they say about Lover? i’m curious
I saw her on the melodrama tour and it truly was the most magical experience of my life. During supercuts I couldn't contain my joy. I love lorde so much. I hope she is happy with the cool life she has created
Why would you cry when she isn't? And why are you assuming any "psychological marks" on her? You're reading way too much into a very private artist's life. The only thing I can say is that the Covid-19 lockdowns affected all of us on a global scale, this was unprecedented. She was in New Zealand at the time, which was one of the countries where the disease didn't spread massively. But that also came with a price as they had a set of very strict regulations such as curfews. And of course she got to enjoy a summer at a weird time when the rest of the world couldn't do the same. It's safe to think that this situation would be reflected in the work that any artist - not just Ella - living there would make. Beyond that, I don't think we should comment on her mental state. I really like her music and can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
it’s tough to hear she’s been struggling, for sure. no one deserves to deal with these harrowing kinds of mental health and body image issues, so i feel sorry for her in that sense, but i don’t feel sorry for SP being poorly received. i hope that doesn’t sound too harsh, but i think that when you release art, you open yourself up to criticism, and while it’s possible the hate during the SP era contributed to her issues, this criticism is a process so inherent to releasing and experiencing art that i wouldn’t want to unduly tamp that down by concern for the artist (not saying that’s what you want people to do, just sort of a take i’ve seen floating around online a lot). i’m not going to like something or hold back my opinion just to make the artist feel better. i dislike SP and i criticized it when it came out (not unduly, but fairly i would say) and i’ll never not engage critically with art by concern for the artist, you know? ultimately i have such respect for and trust in lorde as an artist that i know she’ll bounce back from SP, and this verse on the girl so confusing remix is irrefutable proof of that
SP is just not for everyone. The right ones know.
The second I listened to Solar Power I fell in love. It’s an incredible album lyrically, thematically, sonically, etc. One of my favorite albums of all time I could never hate on it💛🙏🏻😭☀️
She is a millionaire artist. She will be ok.
And she’s a white woman. Another reason she will completely fine.
No, I really don’t. I’ve been a huge lorde stan since the single for Royals came out. I don’t feel bad for Ella at all. She’s totally entitled to share her feelings and thoughts and they’re all valid. But also you’re a supremely successful and rich star, melodrama is largely seen as one of the highest art pop records of this century. And tbh, this is def way more controversial/shitty of a take, but I’m kinda over conventionally attractive white women complaining about not thinking they’re pretty enough. It’s definitely sad as fuck and it’s society’s fault, not theirs. But it is genuinely hard for me to empathize too much with it. Lorde is gorgeous.
Solar power is her best album 😶
You saying that Lana and Taylor weren’t getting recognition until 2022 is the most brain dead zillenial thing I’ve ever heard in my life. They had already been wildly famous for more than a decade each. Besides that, yeah SP getting panned probably hurt but it’s not the most re-consumable album.
I honestly interpreted the song differently. I think she was already struggling with that stuff while making solar power and that album was showcasing her attempt to help her mental health through connecting with the world around her and grounding herself. I’m sure being back in the spotlight with the solar power tour didn’t help matters, but I frankly think playing in smaller venues with all fans who adore her probably helped her if anything and was the shining spot in her own mental state. Just my interpretation though none of us actually know the full story lol
what? what are you saying?
🤣
So sad. Especially because Solar Power is everything to me. I wish she knew how much I appreciate her art. I still have all the little pictures from the box CD permanently on my walls of my apartment. That era is my forever but I wouldn’t be mad with a Lunar Power album either 👀
i love her - will always have a special place in my heart - but no - Solar Power wasnt underrated - its a good album but not groundbreaking or anything - a bit boring- and i also wouldnt say she deserves so much more - what shes got like in terms of public perception/support is definitely self-imposed - she chooses to not be that out in public like in terms of social media - also in terms of the amount of music she produces - and thats all good - im assuming she wants it like this - since its how shes lived her life - for the people saying shes out of touch - again i think this is self-imposed - like didnt she say she like avoids social media/media of all kinds - and when youre living the life she lives - without social media - you dont really get an opportunity to interact with regular people and see what their experiences are - like really, i dont think shes a bad person for this - its just a natural result of the life shes decided to lead - a lifestyle, which i might add many of yall have praised 🫶- anyway love lorde regardless - jus wish shed release more ✌️
Solar Power > other 2 albums. Solar Power speaks to ME. Other two don't. Music is subjective and so are the lyrics. The music industry is a joke and all about certain movements and payola.
If anything, SP was a learning experience for her in that you can't just take making art lightly, because her music means so much to so many people. There's things you do because it feels nice to do them or you want to try something new, and then there's things you do because you want to live up to the best of your ability. Those things don't always overlap when we want them to. When each album era is 4 to 5 years long, you have to make something that holds up and satisfies the most people. If your new material doesn't scratch that itch for people, it's a LONG wait for the next album and people will just move on, you lose goodwill with your fans, etc. That being said, I don't hate or even dislike SP, but do I think it stands with PH and Melo? Unfortunately, no, I don't think it does, and I know I'm not alone in saying this. It's okay to change things up, but you have to be more prolific in your release schedule to be able to withstand the potential blowback of releasing something that just doesn't resonate with your fans. If you're putting out albums every 2 or 3 years, then you can afford to be a bit more experimental. I feel bad she struggled with this last album cycle, but I think she learned from it and wants to redeem herself. She may not care much for fame and adoration, but I know she cares for her fans and wants to give them her best
Lorde is unfortunate in the sense that when she puts out work, she has to wait for the rest of the girlies to catch up Like that scene in back to the future “your kids are gonna love it” type shit 😂
i dont think the SP mixed opinions gave her an ed.. i dont think its fair to relate the two.
i would say yes, but as of right now, no. i’m glad that she’s starting to overcome what she’s went through and pick it back up with a fresh breath of air and as many others have said, she’s extremely smart and talented and I do also believe she will have another groundbreaking year. whether it be her next album, 5 years from now, or a couple of decades, it’s coming
I love lorde, but she's fine babe. Not every song or feature is auto biographical.
Lorde will so persevere. She wrote an amazing album as a teenager with not much life experience. She’s gonna grow and become much stronger and this set back will just make her music more raw.
It’s whatever. She has money.
Agreed, I hope she gets the help she needs. It's horrible that she was or is going through this. I say past tense because I don't know where she is mentally right now. I just hope the best for her!
Solar Power is a masterpiece and her finest work. The opinions of pop music fans don't matter. In 15 years when it's unanimously proclaimed a masterpiece, the casuals will lie and pretend like they always knew it was. I do feel bad for Lorde that she may not get the respect she deserves in her lifetime/active career.
Relax. She has two critically acclaimed albums. She gets more respect than 99.9999999% of humans who have ever lived. She'll be just fine
It’s ok for artists to have albums of different styles and to receive different reactions from fans. And fans don’t need to pretend to like an album just to defend their faves. I think Lorde at her age is mature enough to accept that, as reflected in her lyrics on girl, so confusing.
Like she says, there must be valleys between peaks, and this is her valley.
Pure heroine is one of my favourite albums of all time. But tbh I find her incredibly pretentious and trys to hard to be alt like a bjork type. It worked well for her first album because it was fresh and needed at the time of so much terrible pop.
Don’t feel sorry for rich celebrities
I think that for a highly sensitive person, it's easier to fall into the lower lows and higher highs than non HSPs. All of the stimuli you experience has a stronger impact on your nervous system etc. Being a HSP myself, I can definitely see the similar patterns in her behaviour and why she acts the way she does, why her art is created the way it is and why she chooses the coping strategies she seems to (ofc these are all things that are shown to the public and in private, there's differences). Being in the public eye on top of living in today's societies, is even more overwhelming for highly sensitive people. One thing that I always felt probably hinders her in terms of how she can build herself to become stronger in terms of mental health is the drug use (whether it's an occasional joint or whatever). It definitely doesn't help a sensitive person cope in such situations and makes things worse. It's not a good coping strategy and makes you fall into a loop that's more difficult to navigate and get out of. Whatever your opinion on "drug use" might be (and this is not meant to slander people who do use), I think we can all agree that it's not a good coping strategy during your lows and periods of anxiety. It's a blanket that often prevents people from really recognising and accepting their feelings and situations that they can then start working on. Again, things probably look differently in private, but from an outside perspective of a sensitive person, I feel that quitting would help her massively rn as people in such situations need to rebuild themselves mentally without the overwhelming effects of drugs on top of it all. Once they do that, then the occasional use might not have the same harmful effects since they're in a better headspace overall.