therefore, this album will be her 1989 & it will be brilliant (sorry but this is math)." she's released 3 straight singles that sound like literally everything that was on VH1 in November 1996. Larocca: Earlier this week, Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield made an astute observation about the "Solar Power" singles on Twitter: "Lorde was born in November 1996. If we're looking to Lorde for leadership or salvation, she makes it clear she's just the conduit through which the sun may speak. "The Path" plays like the prologue to an epic poem, an invocation to her muse. We can choose to fill in the blanks with real details from Lorde's life, or infuse the empty spaces with our own dreams and delusions.Īs Lorde moves into the real crux of the song, she introduces the album's dominant theme: her devotion to the sun. In between her careful word selections that evoke precise images, places, and events - Ox圜ontin, windswept island, a fork in a purse, a pharaoh's tomb - there is romance and glamour and drama. This is the sort of vivid songwriting that's become Lorde's trademark, and "The Path" is some of her best work to date.
These lyrics land like a mini memoir, though they maintain a curious mystique. "The Path" is the first track on "Solar Power."Īhlgrim: I have rarely heard an album with such a glorious opening couplet: "Born in the year of Ox圜ontin, raised in the tall grass / Teen millionaire having nightmares from the camera flash."