Illustration by Justine Daquioag
Born Ella Yelich O’Connor, the 22 year-old grew up in the suburbs of Devonport, New Zealand. Tracing back her family background and history, one can already testify to her inclination towards the written word. Lorde’s mother, Sonja Yelich, is an award-winning poet, and thus, she grew up in a household that valued literature. Lorde began reading a wide range of genres - at the tender age of five, she had developed impressive public speaking skills. As a young teen, she began perusing the books of J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, among other literary nobles, and famously proofread her mother’s
masters’ thesis for her. This early cultivation of a cultural repertoire is instrumental in Lorde’s development, both as a person and as a songwriter.
Fast-forward into the future, and Lorde’s hip-hop infused debut album “Pure Heroine” cemented her as a pop icon with its ‘so-over-it’ attitude, while sophomore album “Melodrama” sashays into her discography with its reckless ballads and “galloping crescendos” as critic Kitty Empire best puts it. Melodrama is anything but mellow, and gung-ho on the drama – and dare I say, danceable? Regardless, Lorde doesn’t lose herself, and in fact, she gets even better. We see her growth in a span of just a few years, from the gritty, minimalist “Pure Heroine” evolve into “Melodrama”, which is colored by her experience with her newfound fame, and her reflection of her life now. These changes are also clearly seen in the evolution of her writing.
Delving into the work of Lorde, imagery is quite an essential to her style of composition. The natural poet that she is, Lorde has tended to conjure very precise, somewhat harrowing images and metaphors.
“Green Light”, for example, is one standout from the album. The adrenaline-filled, pumping ballad uses compelling imagery. While one might attribute the green light to being associated to a “go signal”, it might also stand as an image of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s elusive green light in ‘The Great Gatsby’. The green light at the end of the dock is an important image throughout the novel, symbolizing Gatsby reaching out for his dreams and desires. An iconic snapshot of the novel portrays Gatsby standing by the dock, staring out at the green light, longing for something so near, yet so far. The entire song captures the yearning of something greater that Lorde has been aching to contain. The buildup of the song is ostensibly one of her finer songwriting moments – from her lashing at her lover: “I know what you did, and I wanna scream the truth”, to a poignant admission of her inability to accept things: “Oh, honey, I’ll come get my things, but I can’t let go”, to a brazen, but stunning realization: “I hear sounds in my mind/ Brand-new sounds in my mind” – the song is a whirlwind of tumultuous emotions.
Fascinatingly, one observable quality of Lorde’s imagery is her use of the human body, or elements thereof. She uses a jumble of body parts as images in her songs, such as:
“Well those rumors they have big teeth,” (Green Light), “You drape your wrists over the steering wheel / Pulses can drive us from here” (400 Lux), “Dancing around big eyes” (Team), and a personal favorite: “I’ll see the veins of my city like they do in space” (Tennis Court). One could only imagine Lorde seated in an airplane, peering out the window, and seeing the rows and lines of unfurling city scrapers, attributing it to such an image – veins.
“Tennis Court” is another example to her masterful songwriting. Its hypnotic, head-bobbing beat is accessorized by a magnetizing use of internal rhyme: ‘Because I’m doing it for the thrill of it, killing it / Never not chasing a million things I want’. This makes for a smoother sounding flow that wraps up well and is gratifying to the ear.
Lorde has also perfected the craftsmanship of making catchy one-liners. From rattling and rapping away signias of opulence in “Royals”, she’s able to seize that recklessness one can only associate to the youth. She sings in “Team”: “We live in cities you’ll never see on screen, not very pretty but we sure know how to run things.”
Her emotions are bubbling and seething, and it pours forth in her music. As she croons in “The Louvre”: “I call and you come through / blow all my friendships to sit in hell with you”. In “Supercut”, she talks of a lost love: “These visions never stop / these ribbons wrap me up / but when I reach for you / there’s just a supercut”, which paints a clear, but panging image of how one cannot resist returning to an old flame. The same song is able to evoke feelings of entrancement: “We were wild and fluorescent / come home to my heart”. “Hard Feelings/Loveless” shares similar sentiments on glitches with love in “Supercut”: “Cause I remember the rush / when forever was us / before all the winds of regret and mistrust". These are only a few examples, but they’re enough to show how Lorde is an artist of nostalgia and emotion. Her sentiments are so raw and real, and she laces it in such unapologetic, honest writing.
Whether you’re a fan or not of the eccentric synaesthete that is Lorde, her ability is unreckoned. The lyrical powerhouse proves you don’t need to be highfalutin to be a good songwriter, as her words (which are all too familiar) have captured a certain artfulness that is well beyond her years.
Today’s mainstream pop scene can be easily characterized by flighty, party-crazed dance tunes that are more than happy to boast about senseless opulence. Most listeners have made themselves quite comfortable with such a set-up: of singers crooning about the same old things, about the same old people, with the suspiciously same old beats.
Enter Lorde - the gothic, witchy songstress who dominated the pop charts before she turned seventeen, and has cemented her name in the mainstream industry forever. One might think a young girl like herself would be impressionable enough to fall into the sticky trap of the business’s glamour, but think again. Lorde shocked the world with her refreshingly honest music that rebelled against the traditional tides of pop, but shockingly, made it a defining genre unto herself. Beyond her hypnotizing synths and carelessly carefree attitude is arguably the crown jewel of her entire career: her songwriting.