Lordes Album and Music Evolution

Lorde has been making music since she was 16 years old and since then, she has released 3 studio albums and has amassed over 20 million monthly listeners. Here is how her music style has changed over the years! 

Pure Heroine

Pure Heroine was released in 2013 when Lorde was only 17 years old. The album is centered around adolescence and what it is like to be in between adulthood and childhood. This theme is specially present within the most popular song off the album “Ribs”. Other themes that are explored is the need to fit which is most prominent in the song, “White Teeth Teens” and “Team”. The exploration through what it is like to experience maturation can be heard within both the lyrics and the soundtrack. The most popular song in her discography is “Royals” off of this album and has over a billion streams. This was a perfect freshman album and highlighted the teenage experience expertly.

Melodrama

Melodrama, Lorde’s sophomore album, takes the listener through the experience of being in a house party. This perfectly follows up Pure Heroine as it has a much more mature feeling in both subject matter, lyrics, and musicality. The album opens with the song “Green Light”, which has amassed over 500 million streams. This song opens up with the bittersweet feeling of getting ready to go out to a party while lamenting the times you had with other people in your life. As the album moves through the night, the listener experiences both the highs and lows of being intoxicated while out with your friends on songs such as “Liability” and “Homemade Dynamite”. The album was released in 2017 when Lorde was 21 years old.

Solar Power

Solar Power is Lorde’s latest album and was released in 2021 when she was 25 years old. The album is centered around her doubts about not only her future but the future of the natural world. Her doubts about the future of the earth is highlighted on the track named after the album, “Solar Power”. Lorde’s doubts about her future and growing further into adulthood are the central themes on the song “Stone at the Nail Salon”. The album has a bright feeling to it with darker undertones. This is mostly found in the juxtaposition between the lyrics and the soundtrack. As the third album within her discography, it is fitting that Lorde keeps up the themes of maturing and growing and being scared of the future which is apparent on her other studio albums!

While Lorde continues to explore what it is like to grow up in the modern day, her fans grow with her and are able to continually have their experiences be expressed through her art. Hopefully, Lorde’s next studio album won’t be too far on the horizon!