Pop music artists face a constant battle – the need to foster their unfathomable popularity whilst trying to keep their artistic integrity. Many fail, almost unapologetically. Others manage to succeed, but rarely entirely on their own terms. So what the fuck do we make of Solar Power? It features glistening, sunny production and Lorde’s vocals are as crisp as ever. But the writing is… almost so cringeworthy that it’s hard to believe. We’re left with a mess from an artist who is used to being very tidy.
5.4
Solar Power breezes through at a brisque 43 minutes. It’s very different from anything she’s done before. Gone is the brooding goth conjuring deceptively relatable music. This music feels clean. It’s refreshingly positive for the most part. It’s also pretty boring, and just about every song has a couple of lines that will make you want to sink into your seat on the train out of embarrassment.
“California” embodies all of this. It is probably the best and most replayable song on the album (“Mood Ring” comes a close second). It’s beautifully produced, features a gorgeous swinging electric piano beat and a muted snare. And it breaks down beautifully on the back end with Lorde’s haunting refrain (“It’s just a dreeaaaam/ don’t wanna wake up”). But the entire track is replete with cringe-inducing lyrics (“goodbye to all the bottles/all the models/back to the kids in the lines for the new Supreeeeeme“). It’s supposedly a song about the superficiality of Lorde’s LA lifestyle and her conflicted thoughts on it. But that concept, and the writing, aren’t original and it’s not even done well here. Contrast it with something like Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids”. We’re already in weird territory here, given Lorde’s writing has always been her strength.
Things don’t improve later on in the album. The writing is all painfully literal and so dramatic. “Stoned at the Nail Salon” sounds like a Lana Del Rey track distilled to its worst elements. “The Man with the Axe” is a meet-cute song of the worst kind; like watching the sappiest of wedding speeches. “Big Star” is well-meaning but should not have made it onto the album of a global popstar. “Mood Ring” is probably the only track on the album that got it right. It’s dripping with sarcasm and a winking eye in a way that some of the other tracks could only dream. But even then, it’s hardly a world-beater and it only acts to make the other tracks feel feathery-light.
Plenty of the album is well-meaning, in fact. It’s a positive-sounding album, teeming with sunlight and a motif of “letting go”. None of that is necessarily a problem. Occasionally, Lorde speaks about her childhood and it feels like the New Zealand-born artist could craft a truly interesting album around that concept. This album isn’t it. It is literally on the concept, no skirting or subtlety or nuanced imagery. Whether it was Lorde or her advisors, someone needed to take a step back and wonder about what was being produced. Solar Power is nice and sunny. It just has no heat.
THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL 