Whats the Deal With Lordes Solar Power Alter Ego?
Lorde temporarily sent much of the internet haywire on Thursday her single Solar Power was temporarily uploaded and then almost instantly deleted from several streaming services. For many fans, even just the first taste of her third studio album, also titled Solar Power, was almost too much to bear. Up until Thursday night2021s only solar eclipseit had been a full four years since Lorde dropped new music. Not only did the songs first 30 seconds suddenly become available; they began with the words I hate the winter / cant stand the cold. Up until then, shed cited the opposite type of inspiration: Lorde was so struck by her recent travels to Antarctica that she published a photo book to memorialize the visit. (Though the Solar Power album cover, somewhat controversially starring the singers butt, did hint at the pivot.) From the look of the music video that eventually dropped on Thursday night (or Friday morning, in Lordes native New Zealand), Lorde will continue to stay clear of the arctic tundra. Instead of bundled up in negative temperatures, the video finds her leaping across a sunny beach, midriff on full display. Its a much more fitting location for a day out cavorting with a cult, which is exactly what the video seems to depict. Im going to tell my kids this was Midsommar, one YouTube user commented amassing 18,000 likes. Another compared the video to the ending of Mad Men. But this version of outdoor Eden of enlightenment has a leaderone that describes herself as kind of like a prettier Jesus. In stark contrast to the somewhat drab flowy garments of the beachgoersor, as she later called them, loversLorde is outfitted in tight-fitting, sunny yellow, dancing. (I took your standard apple bong and made it a bit more chic, a bit more me, she later explained, expressing her support for New Zealands effort to legalize cannabis.) The singer offered some answers in a newsletter email accompanying the video. Theres someone I want you to meet, she wrote in her newsletter. Her feet are bare at all times. Shes sexy, playful, feral, and free. Shes a modern girl in a deadstock bikini, in touch with her past and her future, vibrating at the highest level when summer comes around. Her skin is glowing, her lovers are many. Im completely obsessed with her, and soon you will be too.  As for her inspiration, it all came back to the environment. Solar Power is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when Im outdoors, she wrote. In fact, the act (and solace) of stepping outside has long been a direct inspiration: In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion. I look to the natural world for answers. Ive learnt to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through.  And, according to Lorde, this special someone might be as relatable as her persona of an angsty suburban teen. The songyet another collaboration between herself and Jack Antonoffis more broadly about that infectious, flirtatious summer energy that takes hold of us all come June. (Or, she added, in December, if youre a Southern Hemisphere baby like me but I know thats literally IMPOSSIBLE for you all to wrap your little heads around so dont worry about it!! Theres no word just yetnor even an album release datebut apparently, a truly comical amount of detail is on its way.