The massed wail of breathy backing vocals that crests with my favorite high note of the past decade. Her electro-goth marvel of a debut album, Pure Heroine, delivers on that promise throughout-“We’re so happy / Even when we’re smiling out of fear” is still a killer line-but “Ribs” is the one. It is 2013, and Ella Yelich-O’Connor is 16 years old, and the malevolent hush of her shocking smash-hit debut single, “Royals”-“We’re bigger than we ever dreamed / And I’m in love with being queen”-has made her 21st-century pop’s most improbable and vital superstar yet. Take her at her word, even when it seems like she might be joking. (OK, this record isn’t the end of the world.) We’ll get through this together. She knows how that might sound-a little tuned out, a little pedantic-and yeah, sometimes it sounds like that. She just wants you to put your phone down and catch some rays.
Most likely this uneasily blissful and banger-averse record isn’t what you want, but it’s clearly what Lorde thinks you need. But I figured I’d get that out of the way because I value your time, and so, quite earnestly, does she, though all the beachy and weedy and deep-spacey earnestness makes Solar Power somewhat of a sun-kissed bummer. Not to bum you out, here on release day for the serenely restless New Zealand pop star’s third full-length, Solar Power.
The best Lorde song is still “Ribs” the best Lorde album is still Melodrama.
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