“You felled me clean as a pine,” she confesses in that depthless alto voice of hers on “Man with the Axe.” On “Stoned at the Nail Salon,” Lorde invites us into the warm light of her home by describing her immediate surroundings in cinematic detail. ![]() Beauty and nature have sharpened her poetic command of language and given her new reference points. With one or two exceptions, Lorde’s songwriting on Solar Power is the best it’s ever been. S olar Power offers glimpses into those nature-infused protocols as wall as the various obsessions-climate change, ex-lovers, the internet-that threaten to undo them. Lorde knows this and has protocols in place, a certain way of living, that she relies on to keep herself balanced. On "The Path" she describes herself in dichotomous terms: she was "raised in the tall grass" then all too swiftly became a "teen millionaire having nightmares from the camera flash." Rapid success can eat a young person alive. Being "alone on a windswept island" puts her at ease, and it's nice to see her feeling so relaxed. But mostly she’s just been soaking up the surreal, borderline stupid beauty of her natural surroundings in New Zealand. She tended to her garden and walked the dog. ![]() Written across the four years it’s been since a worn-out Lorde wrapped up her Melodrama tour, lassoed a storm cloud down from the sky, and rode it-this is how all sea witches travel-back to her native Auckland, Solar Power answers the question “What have you been up to?” with a sincere and quite literal “Not too much.” She’s been to the beach. “Now if you’re looking for a savior,” states Lorde on album opener “The Path,” “Well that’s not me.” Instead, she suggests the healing powers of nature. But Lorde never agreed to be Gen Z’s therapist, and on her new album, Solar Power, she gracefully but pointedly rejects the role.
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