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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
The New Zealand star's third album continues her winning streak, as she blazes a trail through the pop landscape with a beautiful paean to nature.
1mo
90
Solar Power is a new era for Lorde, matured as she turns her consideration outwards towards her role in fan’s lives, while still leaving space for her signature confessional lyrics.
1mo
80
Equipped with lovely melodies and a bombast-resistant sound, the New Zealander exchanges the spotlight for a sly reflection on true happiness.
1mo
80
Unsettling but pretty, her macabre pop still casts a shadow on even the brightest of days.
1mo
80
A new sun-loving Lorde tries to find her zen on album number three.
1mo
80
Solar Power seems like the start of a new chapter in Lorde’s career. A pop sensation that isn’t concerned with making music for anyone but herself.
1mo
80
Like Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift before her, the New Zealand star embraces mellowness on a third album shaded by climate anxiety and a rejection of celebrity.
1mo
77
On her third record, the New Zealand songwriter smokes a lot of dope and throws a middle finger at the lingering side effects of her former teenage stardom.
1mo
75
There's a subdued quality to Solar Power that feels a lot like caution, or just self-protection — a deliberate retreat from the raw, unfiltered verve of her earlier output into the safer remove of a wry bystander more at ease with cool observation than confessional bloodletting.
1mo
70
On Solar Power, Lorde presents herself as a pop star in exile, one who’s rejected fame and all of its material trappings.
1mo
70
Her long-awaited third album is smooth and beachy, searching for serenity in anxious times.
1mo
70
A heady trip that prances around greatness but settles for pretty good.
1mo
70
This might not be the album that everyone wanted from Lorde, but it’s a solid, dreamy effort that deserves exploration.
1mo
68
Lorde returns with a self-aware, scaled-back album. Its holistic beauty and revelations about the natural world are often lost in the drab music.
1mo
65
Where each song on Melodrama felt like rushing into the next room at a wild house party to discover a new scandal or hookup, each successive song on Solar Power feels like returning to the same yoga class day after day; there might be the odd new mantra or position, but there’s nothing truly revelatory.
1mo
60
The 24-year-old New Zealander's comeback single barely dented the charts and her new album feels similarly unlikely to set the world alight.
1mo
60
The album feels thoroughly tamped down both in terms of energy and emotion ... there’s nothing to match the thrill of hearing her pull back the veil and treat us to a glimpse of pop’s future on Pure Heroine, or the empathy engendered by Melodrama's visceral account of young adulthood.
1mo
60
The characterisation on the album can feel trite, trying too hard to lean into a particular aesthetic or, when attempting tongue-in-cheek, falling short of its own lofty expectations.
1mo
60
Gone are the days of an image of a teen girl with a low, raspy growl in her register and goth-plum coloured lipstick; instead, Solar Power champions an organic ethos, transience, and lots of yellow.
1mo
60
Lorde’s Solar Power is a disorganized, hackneyed collection that doesn’t deepen her existing body of work but introduces a woman riddled with white privilege.
1mo
60
Lorde’s third album, Solar Power, emerges at a moment where the world is begging for escapism, and Lorde is itching to provide it. So if Solar Power seems like an album well-calibrated for this moment, why does it feel so inessential?
1mo
60
If you're not riding her wave, Solar Power can seem elusive, even cloying, as it circles and sways with a smile.
1mo
55
If you’re looking for a culture-changing album, an emotional experience, or more than two dance-worthy songs…Solar Power is not it.
1mo
50
Solar Power is not a transformation so much as it is a straight regression. Lorde’s behind-the-scenes actions and motives may be admirable – inspirational, even – but unfortunately none of that translated to record here.
1mo
50
For an artist who often revels in big emotions and excels at melodrama, her return to the spotlight is intentionally low-key – a cooling balm put on a scab to stop you from picking at it.
1mo
50
With her third album, the 24-year-old New Zealander writes her ode to the sky, but gets lost in the clouds.
1mo
40
The New Zealand musician was dubbed ‘the future of music’ by David Bowie. But on her third album, she swaps her directness for tuneless detachment.
1mo
40
Solar Power sounds like an opting out from wider pop culture altogether. It’s a musical resignation letter, advising her fans to look elsewhere for a saviour in the first song.
1mo
40
It’s a shame to witness such a fall from grace, as all the genius on Melodrama seems to have stayed there, leaving Solar Power high and dry without any flavour or journey to embark on. Lorde has found her new world, and sadly, it’s not the one we’re living in.
1mo
40
Lorde lacks the writing chops or perspective to follow through on Solar Power’s themes and satire.
1mo
40
Get lost in Eilish’s album instead, for there’s really no need to return to Solar Power.
1mo
40
Lorde has always been a master of balancing satire and vulnerability, which makes her “summer album” all the more disappointing in how uneventfully she drops the ball on executing her promising vision.
Is this really the same artist who made Melodrama?
Lorde's new project, "Solar Power" only tells me one thing only, and that's that the mainstream pop artist turned folk trend needs to come to an end.
Anyways, Taylor better, Clairo better, and Youngboy better goodnight this disappointed me
Edit: I have relistened a few times from my original 3 listens and the project is only decreasing in value due to it being so boring for me. The highlights do stand out though. Anyways going ... read more
Lorde's new project, "Solar Power" only tells me one thing only, and that's that the mainstream pop artist turned folk trend needs to come to an end.
Anyways, Taylor better, Clairo better, and Youngboy better goodnight this disappointed me
Edit: I have relistened a few times from my original 3 listens and the project is only decreasing in value due to it being so boring for me. The highlights do stand out though. Anyways going ... read more
Oh Lorde, sadly made another one.. Power Solar had everything to warm our hearts, but it is limited by too little content. Lorde's performance is the very symbol of this first failure.
For once, it's necessary to go straight to the heart of the matter because there's no need today to really introduce Lorde. The New Zealand native has clearly (and normally) conquered the world by becoming one of the most talented pop artists of the last decade. Her previous album, Melodrama, put her on a ... read more
For once, it's necessary to go straight to the heart of the matter because there's no need today to really introduce Lorde. The New Zealand native has clearly (and normally) conquered the world by becoming one of the most talented pop artists of the last decade. Her previous album, Melodrama, put her on a ... read more
WOW!
I don’t love it.
There are moments in music, which are very rare, where you hear something and by the end of it it dawns on you that everything is different now. One of those moments that I can still vividly remember eight years later is when Lorde broke through with her debut album “Pure Heroine”, which managed to be not only an infectious pop album but seemingly killed mainstream pop music as we knew it. A long four years later saw her somehow outdoing herself with ... read more
I don’t love it.
There are moments in music, which are very rare, where you hear something and by the end of it it dawns on you that everything is different now. One of those moments that I can still vividly remember eight years later is when Lorde broke through with her debut album “Pure Heroine”, which managed to be not only an infectious pop album but seemingly killed mainstream pop music as we knew it. A long four years later saw her somehow outdoing herself with ... read more
Solar Power is not a flashy and attention-demanding return for Lorde, but it is a mature and subtle one, and I think it’s the subtlety and the growth shown that’s really connecting with me. And I’m really glad I like it this much, as I was nervous I’d be disappointed because the early response was not as positive as I’d hoped. But I do really love Solar Power, and it definitely exceeded my expectations.
thequietus.com
The Quietus reviews Lorde's Solar Power 
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Track List
| 1 | The Path 3:41 | 79 |
| 2 | Solar Power 3:12 | 77 |
| 3 | California 3:11 | 72 |
| 4 | Stoned at the Nail Salon 4:26 | 70 |
| 5 | Fallen Fruit 3:58 | 77 |
| 6 | Secrets from a Girl (Who's Seen it All) 3:38 | 69 |
| 7 | The Man with the Axe 4:15 | 64 |
| 8 | Dominoes 2:03 | 60 |
| 9 | Big Star 2:47 | 66 |
| 10 | Leader of a New Regime 1:33 | 58 |
| 11 | Mood Ring 3:45 | 78 |
| 12 | Oceanic Feeling 6:39 | 73 |
Total Length: 43 minutes
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2w
I'd say it's way too different and it's getting very hated, exactly like the change from Die Lit to WLR, although here it's more exaggerated here cause Lorde was the savior of modern Pop
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Added on: June 10, 2021