The dance anthem Lorde calls “perfect”
Since making her debut with the mammoth success of ‘Royals’ a decade ago, Lorde’s distinctive brand of electropop has provided the soundtrack for gloomy evening drives, party pre-drinks, and everything in between. She flits between the melancholic and the euphoric with ease, her songs infused with a certain cathartic quality that speaks directly to the current generation.
On her debut record, Pure Heroine, Lorde provided the soundtrack for a generation of Tumblr users, the sonic embodiment of fishnets and Dr Martens. Shadowy and minimal, the album bore the darkest elements of the songwriter’s output, from the eerie ‘Glory and Gore’ to the pulsing ‘Team’. Rich in world-building and consistently elevated by her distinctive vocals, it remains an alternative pop staple a decade on.
Since then, the New Zealand-born singer has retained a sense of melancholy while venturing further into sunny soundscapes. Melodrama walked the line between the two, offsetting its central sadness with bright hits like ‘Green Light’. By the time she released Solar Power, she was working with pop producer Jack Antonoff and experimenting with psych-pop influences, resulting in calmer, sun-drenched releases like ‘Solar Power’, while still holding onto her lonely songwriting.
Between her moonlit early work and her more recent ventures into euphoria and escapism, Lorde’s fans have grown up alongside her. She has provided an indie soundtrack for all the highs and lows of life, inviting us to cry in the bathroom with her to ‘Liability’ and join her for a boogie to remixes of ‘Green Light’.
Just as many of us have developed personal connections with Lorde’s output, the songwriter once declared her own relationship with a dance anthem as “the most important friendship I’ll ever have.” Speaking about her love for Robyn’s 2010 hit ‘Dancing On My Own’ in a Tumblr post, she called the song “perfect” and explained her relationship with it.
“It’s happy and sad, fiery and independent but vulnerable and small, joyous even when a heart is breaking,” she stated, “Every line is perfect.”
Lorde went on to share one experience with the song in particular, recalling, “We put it on right there in the studio, and I was up out of my seat dancing with my eyes screwed shut, and my hands around my ears.”
“[My friends and I] looked into each other’s eyes and sang the words, and I could feel something hot and teary in the back of my throat just from FEELING so much at once,” she concluded. The iconic synth-pop hit is certainly sing-a-long-worthy while also containing an indescribable nostalgia and emotion beneath its disco potential.
In this way, it’s quite similar to Lorde’s own catalogue, walking the line between nostalgia and catharsis, melancholia and euphoria, joy and heartbreak.
Listen to ‘Dancing On My Own’ by Robyn, the dance anthem Lorde calls “perfect”, below.
