I'm currently obsessing over Lorde's debut single "Royals." It replaced the magnificent recording of "Joy of the Lord" from the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Hands on a Hardbody that burrowed into my brain upon release.
Originally, I was just intrigued. She had a unique voice. The beat was different from the synth-driven dubstep-esque pop dominating the airwaves but it wasn't the totally organic new folk revival happening, either. It stood out.
Then I really started the break the song apart and fell hard. A 16 year old (now 17) writing a song this clever is a rarity, indeed. There's a playful sense of disinterest that really drives the song. Lorde claims she's not driven by the high life in her music or life yet she's interested enough to namedrop a rather lengthy list of pop culture tropes.
But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room, We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams. But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your time piece. Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash. We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.
By disassociating herself from those other songs that obsess over those things, she's connecting her music to the same movement in a new light. It's not rocket science. It's just an unexpected play on pop culture. With artists like Miley Cyrus diving head first into those cliches and artists like Lady Gaga doing everything they can to reject them, a passive endorsement is a novelty.
There's a simplicity to the arrangement that reminds me of the minimalism of a Fiona Apple, only with a strong hip-hop influence. It's like Lorde has arrived to continue the far too short legacy of of the late, great Lamya.
The song opens with drums, a snap, and a heavily distorted bass. At most, the chorus adds on an octave effect to the deep bass line to bridge the gap between Lorde's vocals and the arrangement. Synth effects start to come in to create almost an echo of harmony, but it's still the vocal and snap doing the heavy lifting. The actual synthesizer part doesn't kick in until the song is finished with an intriguing outro that never gets played on the radio.
There are a few artists right now who are attempting to break out through pop music without straying too far outside of the norms. Some are doing it with near self-parody, like Katy Perry. Others are attempting to raise the discourse of pop music with more intelligent lyrics and throwback vocals, like Lana Del Rey. Lorde is doing something all her own within the same framework. I'm really interested in seeing if critical acclaim and radio play for a very unusual single can actually give her a run at a successful mainstream career in America.
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