Lorde

A couple days ago, around 10 am, my wife was packing a bag to go see some friends, asked me what I was going to do with my day, to which I had no reply. Staring at her phone, she then asked if I’ve “heard of lord.”

“You mean Jesus Christ my personal lord an-”

“No, some chick named Lorde, singer.”

“Lorde with an E?

“Yes, does it matter?”

“No, I guess I don’t know any chick singers named Lord without an E either.”

She then played me about 4 seconds of Royals, through shitty iphone speakers, from across the room and I knew I loved it. She looked at me and said, “You love this don’t you?” She knows me fairly well. I just nodded in shame.

Ella Yelich-O'Connor goes by Lorde, is sixteen years old, and from Auckland. In addition to that, she’s got some amazing pop singles on her EP The Love Club. If this is what New Zealand wants to do with their pop music, I’m all about it. I wasn’t even really aware New Zealand was a place that cared about making new music, I just figured everybody from down there just listened to 30 year old rap records all the time and complained about Lady Gaga or whatever.

I’d tell you more about Lorde, but her web page (http://lorde.co.nz/) is charmingly sparse, and all wikipedia has to add is that she’s a senior at Takapuna Grammar School on Auckland's North Shore. She’s listed as singer-songwriter, which makes sense. A lot of this is cute-but-angry girl music with big, ghostly production, and tack sharp lyrics. It’s a lot of Lily Allen, mixed with Charli XCX, the chick from The XX, and Robyn. The Allen comparison is probably the best, but with the understanding that Lorde sings much better than Lily Allen. Girl’s got a voice. This EP of hers hit #1 on the New Zealand charts, which is not something I really keep up with, but her video for Royals made it’s American debut yesterday on Billboard, so I’m giving my wife double points for being early as Fuck on Lorde.

I’m shorting her a star because there’s two songs on a five-song EP that I really don’t care for that much. The production... is great on Royals and Bravado, and amateurish on Million Dollar Bills. The defining song on this EP is definitely Royals, and it had me from the opening line:

“Never seen a diamond in the flesh.”

She then goes on to trash bling culture and the fascination the lower class has with music about things they’ll never be able to afford. It’s a grown up take on pop culture from the people who matter: 16 year old New Zealand girls. I’ll be looking forward to hearing more from Lorde.