If the earthy ennui and sun-soaked New Zealand setting of Lorde’s final album Photo voltaic Energy didn’t do it for you, you’ll be happy to be taught she’s returned to Melodrama mode. In truth, she’s returned to New York Metropolis, the place she crafted Melodrama almost 9 years in the past, to have a good time (and promote) her new single, “What Was That.”
Name it a comeback, a return to type, or a brand new breakup anthem for the ages — “What Was That” finds Lorde reprising the cathartic pop sound that lots of her followers had been craving for, as soon as once more utilizing her deft songwriting vocabulary to precise knotty, difficult emotions. Whereas it’s not essentially the most adventurous new providing from the singer, it does teem with maturity and knowledge.
On “What Was That,” Lorde seems to be again at a vital time in her life, the place she was consumed by a relationship and the brand new experiences related to it, the place private progress was going hand-in-hand with trauma. It’s becoming that the sonics recall the throbbing pop of Melodrama, as a result of “What Was That” serves as the subsequent chapter of that story: these messy early/mid 20s, stuffed with intense rushes and harrowing lows, and the following numbing that units in as you become old.
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Lorde, now 28, captures the expertise of ruminating on earlier experiences, desperately eager to relive each single good second, and expressing bewilderment that the dangerous ones occurred in any respect. It’s method much less of a ‘keep in mind again then when every thing was so easy and I used to be in love?’ track as it’s a fraught montage of reminiscences, a poignant reminder that even essentially the most releasing moments of our lives can occur within the foreground of the worst ones. “I didn’t know then, however you’d by no means be sufficient,” she proclaims with conviction within the refrain earlier than the sobering query, “Since I used to be seventeen, I gave you every thing/ Now we wake from a dream, child, what was that?”
Mainly, Lorde’s been going to remedy. Whereas the providing of a modified perspective is each genuine and refreshing, “What Was That” feels loads like a step sideways than a leap in any path. Maybe that’s as a result of track’s slicing, ecstatic manufacturing, which snaps into type similar to “Inexperienced Mild” did all these years in the past. This time, she’s ditched her Melodrama and Photo voltaic Energy collaborator Jack Antonoff for fellow pop connoisseurs Jim E-Stack and Dan Nigro, who add a contact extra reverb to Lorde’s vocals and stability her anthemic hues with tight, syncopated synths and the thwack of a snare drum.
It’s fine-tuned dance pop, however it’s value questioning what the track would sound like if the cracks started to indicate unexpectedly, if the reminiscence collapsed on itself a bit extra. Photo voltaic Energy prevented these moments too, however Lorde overcompensated with stirring lyrical moments like “I don’t know, perhaps I’m simply stoned on the nail salon” and Robyn’s monologue about demise.
Nonetheless, what a rush it’s to listen to Lorde break down the aftermath of a relationship with such expressive element and honesty. “I attempted to let no matter has to move by way of me move by way of, however that is stayin’ some time, I do know/ It won’t let me go,” she sings earlier than the ultimate chorus, a slightly direct method of acknowledging that she gained’t have the ability to reply the query, “What was that?” for a while. The nice reminiscences, the excessive highs, the craving and grief… it’s all nonetheless caught in her physique. So she’s out within the park, thrashing it out on a desk with strangers, attempting to shake it off and reside within the current second. She doesn’t have her solutions, however because the music video for “What Was That” suggests, that gained’t cease her from having enjoyable.
