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.
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.
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.
Lorde’s Solar Power is an airy body of work that refuses to stand in the long shadow cast by its predecessor.
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.
On Solar Power, Lorde presents herself as a pop star in exile, one who’s rejected fame and all of its material trappings.
Her long-awaited third album is smooth and beachy, searching for serenity in anxious times.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
If you're not riding her wave, Solar Power can seem elusive, even cloying, as it circles and sways with a smile.
If you’re looking for a culture-changing album, an emotional experience, or more than two dance-worthy songs…Solar Power is not it.
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.
With her third album, the 24-year-old New Zealander writes her ode to the sky, but gets lost in the clouds.
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.
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.
Lorde lacks the writing chops or perspective to follow through on Solar Power’s themes and satire.
Get lost in Eilish’s album instead, for there’s really no need to return to Solar Power.
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
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
Solar Power is the third studio album by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. Lorde is an absolute icon when it comes to modern pop music, with her releasing, not one, but two masterpieces in her career. Pure Heroine is an electrifying debut, and I love Lorde's follow-up, Melodrama even more, as I consider that to be a 10/10 perfect album. With how much love I have for her first two records, Lorde's third LP became one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Unfortunately, it pains me to say ... read more
While not as good as Pure Heroine or Melodrama, it's still good, and carries a retrospective point of view.
The Path (6/10) the chorus is kinda cringe
Solar Power (7/10) Pretty good.
California (8/10) This works because Lorde's voice is versatile.
Stoned At The Nail Salon (10/10) Sad bop
Fallen Fruit (10/10) OH MY GOD
Secrets From a Girl (3/10) cringe
The Man With The Axe (9/10) Gets better the more you listen to it.
Dominoes (10/10) good.
Big Star (8/10) sad dog song
Leader of a New Regime ... read more
1 | The Path 3:41 | 79 |
2 | Solar Power 3:12 | 77 |
3 | California 3:11 | 73 |
4 | Stoned at the Nail Salon 4:26 | 71 |
5 | Fallen Fruit 3:58 | 78 |
6 | Secrets from a Girl (Who's Seen it All) 3:38 | 68 |
7 | The Man with the Axe 4:15 | 64 |
8 | Dominoes 2:03 | 59 |
9 | Big Star 2:47 | 64 |
10 | Leader of a New Regime 1:33 | 58 |
11 | Mood Ring 3:45 | 77 |
12 | Oceanic Feeling 6:39 | 72 |
#6 | / | The Atlantic |
#7 | / | The Forty-Five |
#11 | / | DIY |
#14 | / | The Sunday Times |
#19 | / | NME |
#19 | / | The Young Folks |
#27 | / | Dork |
#29 | / | Exclaim! |
#56 | / | MOJO |
/ | HYPEBEAST |