#secrets from a girl (who's seen it all) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sofullofloveicould · 1 year

Text

my thoughts on

Solar Power - Lorde

A thematic diversion from Lorde’s previous two albums, Solar Power is full of theatrical and powerful lyrics, wrapped up with the feel of a wistful summer. With airy, heavily-vocal songs and a deluxe version with two almost-mythological add-ons, and a visually stunning tour, the music and its companion elements are a testament to the overall quality of the album.

The Songs

“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

'Cause we are all broken and sad

Where are the dreams that we had?

Can't find the dreams that we had”

The Path is a beautiful opening to the album, a segway into the overall themes and melodies of Solar Power. Representative of the name, The Path is about choosing directions and being comfortable with change. I interpret The Path as being auto-biographical, written as if telling someone about your life and the encounters and paths taken within.

This song has been written a million times, by a million singers. It shows a crack in the facade of fame, of having people worship you when you’re simply following the orders of someone else. It’s a relatable concept, even to those not at the forefront of media production and fame.

On the other hand, it can be interpreted not as a fan-singer parasocial relationship, but one intrinsically connected to your immediate life, someone who can be controlling and possessive. If you’re serving a passive role in your relationships, waiting for someone or something (the sun) to show you the way forward, sometimes that way is out. You can’t be expected to house someone’s entire catalog of pain and trauma. To be or be perceived as someone’s savior requires an immense power balance and the somber notes at the beginning of the song hint at the emptiness and heartbreak that is inevitable with an unhealthy relationship.

The rhythms and melodies of The Path start as something subdued and reminiscent but quickly crescendo into an energetic melody, with Lorde’s crooning vocals painting a picture that is as much carefully-sculpted art as it is up for interpretation. The lyrics are simultaneously ambiguous as well as steady and confident. The Path takes you by the hand and leads you into the album, a testament to the quality of music to come.

“No shirt, no shoes, only my features

My boy behind me, he's taking pictures

Lead the boys and girls onto the beaches

Come one, come all, I'll tell you my secrets

I'm kinda like a prettier Jesus”

The second track, and namesake of the album, Solar Power, has a contradictory theme to the previous song. The juxtaposition of feeling unbeatable, a god-like figure, and disliking the concept of becoming one’s “savior” is a common theme throughout the album and a feeling that exonerates the late-summer themes of the album.

Solar Power is about being above things, developing confidence, and knowing your worth.

After seeing this song live, my appreciation for it deepened. The captivation of the song comes, not necessarily from its lyrics or its instrumentation, but from the general air of the song. It’s catchy, repetitive, and best played loud. It’s a strong namesake song and easily ranks as one of my favorites from the album.

“Goodbye to all the bottles, all the models

Bye to the clouds in the skies that all hold no rain-

(Don't want that California love)”

The third track, California, is a strong escapist piece, with almost absurd lyrics that make it difficult to discern meaning as a fan and onlooker. With lyrics such as “Once upon a time in Hollywood when Carole called my name” and "I'd pay it all again to have your golden body back in my bed," I don’t have many concrete feelings about the message behind the song. However, the overall feel of the song is very ethereal and psychedelic.

Is California a metaphor for someone, or something, or are you leaving a location and a time of your life behind? That’s up to you, as the listener, to decide. It’s a heartbroken, calmer song for this album, a mix of introduction and social commentary, meant to discuss leaving behind the plasticky LA fame. Much of this album is centered around leaving control and finding new life and new ways, and this song is a great example of such.

“'Cause all the beautiful girls, they will fade like the roses

And all the times they will change, it'll all come around

I don't know

Maybe I'm just stoned at the nail salon”

Stoned at the Nail Salon is maybe the easiest song for me to discern meaning from, with its clear messaging about choosing and changing your course in life, being comfortable where you are but always wondering how it would be somewhere else. Are your feelings real and is the doubt validated, or is the grass always greener? It’s melancholic, heartbroken, and questioning. It’s a song to feel lost to.

Lorde poses questions and thoughts about her life experiences, phrasing them in a self-deprecating way. It’s pensive, with a positive-sounding track, and easy lyrics that gain depth upon further inspection.

It places as one of my top songs and has a very different feel than the others. It’s less carefree, less psychedelic, and is soothing when you’re lacking direction.

“Took the great minds and the vapers

And a pocketful of seed

It's time for us to leave

And we will walk together (we will walk)

Psychedelic garlands in our hair”

The song that follows, Fallen Fruit, is very different. While it carries much of the melancholic lyrics and vocals of Stoned at the Nail Salon, it’s much more kaleidoscopic, and the ambiguous nature of the lyrics helps to add to that feeling. There’s a robust instrumental presence in this song as well, with different sounds being added here that may not be heard in other songs in the album.

I find it difficult to analyze or draw significant meaning from Fallen Fruit, and that may be part of the point. The lyrics are ethereal and the music is sometimes contradictory in theme to the words being said. This makes it a modern-art installation of music, but also not necessarily one of my favorites, personally surpassed by Mood Ring and Stoned at the Nail Salon.

That being said, I do enjoy some of its almost mysterious nature, and the flora-like metaphors and imagery create an interesting headspace and internal image of the song.

“Guess it's been a while since you last said sorry

Crying in the dark at your best friend's party

You've had enough, gotta turn the lights up, go home

Couldn't wait to turn 15

Then you blink, and it's been ten years”

Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All) is similar to what you’d expect from the title. It’s an indirect catalog of a person’s life and experiences, told as if offering someone advice. Lorde is offering narration to the issues and changes in many teenage girls’ lives, maybe talking to her past self.

She compared her current life and maturity to that of her past, with the bulk of the song spent detailing specific experiences, and possible projections of her past phrased in a manner that makes them universal. The most interesting part of this song, however, is the ending. It’s a vocally intimate loudspeaker-like announcement, that starts with a flight attendant speaking, even saying; “thank you for flying with Strange Airlines, I will be your tour guide today.”

It slowly evolved from a PSA to a pickup line, as if she’s now talking to one person specifically. It’s one of my favorite “quirks” of the song and the album.

“We've been through so many hard times

I'm writing a love song

For you, baby”

The lyrics above are the ending of The Man With the Axe, and nearly perfectly sum up the themes of the song.

The Man With the Axe is a classic breakup song, almost as if a Hozier song was sung by Lorde, with potent imagery and a slow, soft pace. The Man With the Axe is a lover, a friend, someone you should never forget and also never talk to again. The song is a spot of calm in the tropical storm of Solar Power.

“You get fifty gleaming chances in a row

And I watch you flick them down like dominoes

Must feel good being Mr. Start Again”

The eighth track, Dominoes, honestly takes the spot for my least favorite on Solar Power. While the metaphors and songwriting are as always, eloquent and layered, much of the lyrics feel clunky. Specifically the line; “It's strange to see you smoking marijuana. You used to do the most cocaine, of anyone I'd ever met.” It may be ironically or purposefully clunky, but much of the song comes off with the cadence of someone just learning to sing, and the speech-like qualities it has are not appealing to me as a listener. Coupled with the often repetitive tune and lack of apparent depth, it’s not as meaningful or enjoyable as the other tracks.

Some of the lyrics stand out to me, however, and I enjoy the cadence with which the chorus is sung. The phrase “Mr. Start Again” specifically is an aspect I enjoy about this song.

“But every perfect summer’s gotta say goodnight

Now I watch you run through the amber light

I used to love the party now I’m not alright

Drinking in the dark, take me home tonight

Baby, you’re a big star”

The next song, Big Star, has a similar feel to Dominoes, but is less clunky, with a faster tempo and a slight return to the tropical airiness of previous songs. It’s the Liability of Solar Power, self-critical and reflective. The melodies are beautifully sung, and it places at the top of my song hierarchy. It’s soft, intimate, a ballad to unconventional love.

“Won’t somebody, anybody, be the leader of the new regime

Free the keepers of the burnt-out scene another day”

Leader of the New Regime is the third-to-last track on the regular version of the album, and the first Lorde song I’d ever heard live. She opened up every one of her tours with it, serving the same purpose it does on her album, as an interlude. It’s extremely short, just over one minute thirty seconds, and barely two verses.

Those two verses, however, are strong and decisive, marking a progression in the path out of control and liberation. It’s a common theme throughout, and this song, quite obviously, hints at the reinstatement of some sort of control over her life. Displaying, maybe, a sense of maturity and loneliness, the high of liberation having worn off. This song represents a segway, whether into a new period of life or the start of a concert, it symbolizes new beginnings, a new life starting to form under the watchful eye of relaxed disobedience.

“Ladies, begin your sun salutations

Transcendental in your meditations

(Love, and light)”

Mood Ring may be one of my favorite tracks on the album, and for good reason. It has a lightness to it, with sounds that feel carefree and summery, but there is a strong lyrical and emotional depth underneath. It documents the process of becoming emotionally out of touch with oneself and then finding yourself again. Our minds have been trained, in many ways, to respond to placebos, caring for plants as a replacement to caring for ourselves, looking at your mood ring to feel anything at all.

Does self-meditation help, or is it a bandaid on larger problems within oneself? Mood Ring poses those questions without actually asking them, describing the somewhat-universal experience of trying to cure your problems with candles and tarot cards. In some ways, it's the manic-pixie femininity that this album constantly leans into which shines through this song.

“It's a blue day

We could jump Bulli

When I hit that water

When it holds me

I think about my father”

The last song of the regular album is the longest and serves as a summary of an entire life, its past, present, and future. Oceanic Feeling is a lyric-heavy and relaxed number, heavily hallucinatory and incorporating sounds not used in the other songs. A few verses use the background sounds of cicadas for the rhythm, and the very end includes another voice in the mix, a man who appears for only one line.

The previously mentioned ending feels almost like a different song altogether, breathy and questioning, pitched much higher than the rest of the song. There must be hidden meanings behind much of the absurd lyricism, it’s so layered that only Lorde herself could know exactly what the messaging is intended to be. It’s generational, with lyrics referring to her father, brother, and future daughters. I interpret it as documentation of her life, having lived a long time but still unsteady on new legs.

“Oh, was enlightenment found?

No, but I'm trying, taking it one year at a time

Oh, oh, can you hear the sound?

It's shimmering higher”

(Deluxe)

There are two additions to Solar Power released in the deluxe version, Helen of Troy and Hold no Grudge. They both fit beautifully into the album, however, Helen of Troy feels much more ethereal and vocally similar to other songs, and the latter seems like a mesh between Melodrama and Solar Power.

This album is one of the few examples of an album in which I can confidently say that the Deluxe edition songs are just as good as the originals.

“You've heard it all before

One minute I was killing them all

And the next, the brown suit wouldn't let me perform, aah

Typical”

Helen of Troy is an ode to powerful femininity. Helen of Troy herself was rumored to have beauty so immeasurable that it sank a thousand ships. Lorde’s song holds a candle to the fragments of beauty that lives within every woman. It’s beautiful and mythical and heady, self-dedicated “to the girls”.

“Now that the ocean's all waves, and the diamonds are blood

There's a new girl on your song

I didn't know that I could be replaced”

The very last song is one post-breakup. Hold No Grudge reflects on the past, looking at a messy breakup that they’ve grown and matured beyond. It’s looking back on something that failed, but not necessarily regretfully. Despite all that, and the name, there are hints of resentment in the lyrics, but never vicious ones. An album consisting of a lot of self-reflection and improvement naturally ends with a song reflecting.

The Deluxe songs are amazing additions, not copying or dulling the rest of the album, which is something that deluxe editions of albums tend to struggle with.

Solar Power Tour

By the time my friend and I had noticed that the Solar Power tour would be visiting The Mohegan Sun, a local Casino and concert venue, the tour was supposed to have been finished. Luckily for us, the show originally slated for April 15th was rescheduled for August 25th, due to a “particularly bad case of laryngitis” and I pounced on the first tickets I saw. They were a little pricey - about $130 apiece for mid-tier seats, but we were late to get them and just excited to see another concert.

The opening act was an artist called Jim-e Stack, who played electro-pop house music for about 15-30 minutes. After a few minutes of delay, a set was wheeled out and the show began. The set was by no means intricate, a large cylinder and ladder combination, with about three extras and musicians. The lighting and visuals were stunning, and the small amphitheater meant that everyone had a great view of the stage, including us in our sub-par seats. Those two props made the show, allowing coverage for the several outfit changes between songs, and created all-around amazing visuals.

Lorde opened with Leader of a New Regime and ended with Green Light, the songs getting louder and the lighting getting more intense the longer the show went on. Out of my two concerts so far, I have to say that this was my favorite. The smaller venue coupled with the nature of the songs and the fact that the concert hall had a no-smoking policy made this one of the best experiences of my life. Everything choreographed was done beautifully, and her few monologues dragged on for just the right amount of time. It was a fittingly ethereal tour for an ethereal album, and the memories from that night are ones that I will treasure.

Final Thoughts

Solar Power is sometimes called Lorde’s “weed album” in prominent reviews. I can wholeheartedly attest to that notion. Each track tells its own part of this story of gaining and losing freedom and maturity, having lived so much of your life and still having so long to go. I don’t know if I can confidently say it’s my favorite of her albums, but it certainly is the most cohesive in conception and varied in topics and instrumentation.

Despite (or maybe due to) its often psychedelic nature, Solar Power has carved a spot as a comfort album of mine and cemented Lorde as one of my favorite musical artists. The production quality is amazing, and the depth of the sounds she manages to create would be nearly impossible to replicate. I hope that her fourth album takes elements from Solar Power as well as her previous two, and listening to the three back-to-back displays her personal growth as well as her growth as an artist. Her first album, Pure Heroine, is an ode to teenaged rebellion, with heavy vocals and sounds, and Melodrama is heartbroken, singing of loss and personal grief. Solar Power is new beginnings, and possesses a lightness not otherwise found in her discography.

Solar Power is a masterpiece of an album and has secured me as a fan for the foreseeable future. I can’t wait to see what she creates next.

#lorde #music #music review #solar power #album #song #secrets from a girl who's seen it all #big star #dominoes #helen of troy #concerts #concert review #Spotify

1 note · View note