Hard News: Game Lorde
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@Danielle I'm guessing you've heard this. It's really kinda great.
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Sacha, in reply to
it might get a breezy
you may have to translate that for some of us
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Matthew Littlewood, in reply to
Also: having watched the new Miley Cyrus video, I am even more strongly of the view that if Lorde can rescue pop music from that kind of hideous formulaic bombast, humanity wins.
Some stray observations about Lorde (forgive me for the fragmented nature of this post, I felt it would be better stringing a whole lot of separate ideas in one go, rather than clogging up the thread)
--It's fascinating how her lyrics can often be read as treatises on the pressures of fame or the pressures of "being yourself" as a teenager. "Buzzcut Season", "The Love Club", "Ribs" all seem really conflicted in that way- and there's this striking uncertainty to them. In fact, I wonder whether her songs will make more sense if she breaks really big
--It's also really interesting watching performance clips of her and comparing them to the Miley Cyrus ones. Whereas Lorde (as observed by others) occasionally seems exhausted or hesitant, but slowly works herself into a groove, Miley is flailing all over the place, all "energy" and "provocation" all the time. Yet ironically, she never looks as if she knows who the hell she is up on stage, or where the cameras really are, whereas Lorde is already quite aware of what sort of presence she has. I think that's crucial.--Nearly all of Lorde's best songs are surprising stripped back, "Royals" and "Tennis Court" are about as minimalist as anything out there at the moment. It puts a lot of pressure on both her to carry the conceit of the songs, and on the production to stick. Ironically, Joel Little's own stuff with Goodnight Nurse was the exact opposite of that- horrible, cramped, overly shiny and ultimately as dull as dishwater. He's clearly got talent behind the decks.
--Unlike some, I actually found Lorde's Kanye West cover really clumsy, it didn't fit with her persona at all. She is not bolshy. In contrast, her cover of the Replacements' "Swinging Party" definitely did- right down to the subject matter and the lowkey nature of the song.
--The Lana Del Rey comparisons don't quite work for me, either, because LDR's stuff is pretty much playing right into the "vulnerable girl who likes the bad men" vibe, and the arrangements on her tunes are (for good and ill) massive. Lorde doesn't strike me as vulnerable.
-- The "Tennis Court" video harks back to "Nothing Compares 2 U", but it also belongs to a recent trend of very "upfront" music videos featuring the artist looking straight at the screen (the Weeknd's videos are almost all variations of this). I wonder whether Youtube's smallscale nature has something to do with this.
(carry on!)
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Russell Brown, in reply to
–It’s fascinating how her lyrics can often be read as treatises on the pressures of fame or the pressures of “being yourself” as a teenager. “Buzzcut Season”, “The Love Club”, “Ribs” all seem really conflicted in that way- and there’s this striking uncertainty to them. In fact, I wonder whether her songs will make more sense if she breaks really big
There’s that conflict in ‘Tennis Court’, too: “pretty soon I’ll be getting on my first plane” (I kind of wondered whether there was a literal blow in that, given that she was getting on a plane the next day) and “I’m doing this for thrill of it”. She’s certainly an interesting writer.
It’s also really interesting watching performance clips of her and comparing them to the Miley Cyrus ones.
Good observation.
Ironically, Joel Little’s own stuff with Goodnight Nurse was the exact opposite of that- horrible, cramped, overly shiny and ultimately as dull as dishwater. He’s clearly got talent behind the decks.
I’ve been feeing like I need to apologise to the radio guy with whom I made a sort of bet regarding The Checks and Goodnight Nurse. I was correct in believing that The Checks would get a deal and play in Europe while Goodnight Nurse were derivative NZ-radio crap. But what Joel Little’s done with Lorde (and to an extent with Kids of 88) is miles bigger than anything The Checks did.
The Lana Del Rey comparisons don’t quite work for me, either, because LDR’s stuff is pretty much playing right into the “vulnerable girl who likes the bad men” vibe, and the arrangements on her tunes are (for good and ill) massive. Lorde doesn’t strike me as vulnerable.
But if you recall Lorde’s comments about LDR in interviews, … ‘Tennis Court’ refers to LDR stylistically, but completely rejects the I’m-in-love-with-a-bad-boy theme. I honestly see it as a bit of riposte.
I wonder whether Youtube’s smallscale nature has something to do with this.
If there’s a genre that YouTube can call its own, it’s the first-person lesson to camera – the vlog. So, yeah.
I like how us old dudes are debating this stuff, but I don’t think it’s that far from the mark.
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Matthew Littlewood, in reply to
But if you recall Lorde’s comments about LDR in interviews, … ‘Tennis Court’ refers to LDR stylistically, but completely rejects the I’m-in-love-with-a-bad-boy theme. I honestly see it as a bit of riposte.
Oh yeah, I can get with that. Lorde is also interesting in that her voice and lyrics sound like someone her age would write (if they were as switched-on as her, but still), whereas a lot of LDR's stuff sounds like someone in their mid-20s pretending to be in their late teens pretending to be older. It's a lot more distant and removed.
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A couple of things.
1. It's not Miley vs Lorde. They are two young female pop singers but they are not the only pop singers out there. It's even possible to like both Miley and Lorde. And there's a lot of really good non-Miley and non-Lorde pop out there. Pop doesn't need saving.
2. It's ok to compare Lorde to artists who are not female or white. Her influences are obviously many and varied, but so often it's Lana Del Ray and not Nicki Minaj or Paul Westerberg.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
1. It’s not Miley vs Lorde. They are two young female pop singers but they are not the only pop singers out there. It’s even possible to like both Miley and Lorde. And there’s a lot of really good non-Miley and non-Lorde pop out there. Pop doesn’t need saving.
Okay .... let me put it another way: 'Royals' has jumped to No.3 on the US pop chart. The two songs above it, Katy Perry's 'Roar' and Rapey Douchebag's 'Blurred Lines', were both produced and co-written by one guy -- Dr Luke, a 40 year-old with a songwriting factory. So was the horrible new Miley song. I certainly don't dislike everything he's done ('I Kissed a Girl' is a great pop record) but I find it bloody wearying having him be the sound of of pop music.
If 'Royals' manages to get to No.1, it will be a breath of fresh air in more than one way. It'll be amazing that a US No.1 was produced not just outside the machine, but in a little studio in Morningside, Auckland. It'll be great that it sounds different, nimble and not at all bombastic. It's already great that a 16 year-old's sharp lyrical critique of pop music has become an actual pop hit itself.
She's not exactly reinventing the wheel -- she's signed to a proven hit-maker and that Billboard wrap-round probably cost half a million bucks -- but I honestly don't think it's unreasonable to think a song like 'Royals' is a good thing for pop music.
2. It’s ok to compare Lorde to artists who are not female or white. Her influences are obviously many and varied, but so often it’s Lana Del Ray and not Nicki Minaj or Paul Westerberg.
But when I heard 'Tennis Court' I thought it did sound like a cleverer version of Lana Del Rey (and I've played the Lana Del Rey album a lot). And she's really not like Paul Westerburg.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
lyrics sound like someone her age would write
That's something I very much like about her songs. Even from mumble mumble years away the emotions and conflicts are genuine. I recognise them. I remember them. So how they must resonate with the teens now I can only guess.
But where she lifts it beyond normal pop, for me, is that she is clearly well read and articulate. Her lyrics may not be the height of poetry (not that I would know) but they are interesting in a way that so much of pop is not. She doesn't feel the need to say the same thing 27 times to make her point she simply says it once in an interesting enough way that it sticks.
Miley's songs just aren't that clever or interesting to me, nor are Lady Gaga's, nor most of pop. Even if they get the earworm designed right I still get annoyed by the banal and repetative lyrics.
oh and 3!!!!!
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America is another world (charts), from billboard:
Sixteen-year-old New Zealander, and current Billboard magazine cover act, Lorde blasts 8-3 on the Hot 100 with her breakthrough U.S. single “Royals.” The track wins top Digital Gainer honors for a fourth time in five weeks, vaulting 8-2 on Digital Songs (225,000, up 34%). It reaches the top 10 on Streaming Songs (12-8; 4 million, up 40%) and lifts 17-13 on Radio Songs (72 million, up 26%).
Aided by its support at alternative radio, “Royals” rules Hot Rock Songs for a second week. It tops the Alternative Songs airplay chart for a fifth week, tying Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” (1995) for the longest domination on the ranking for a song by a solo female. (Browse Billboard’s 25th anniversary celebration of the Alternative Songs chart’s all-time top songs and top artists.)
This is exciting… and not long to wait to see what and how well the album will be greeted in larger markets.
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I wonder if the inevitable bootleggers have made their first million$ yet?
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JacksonP, in reply to
This is exciting… and not long to wait to see what and how well the album will be greeted in larger markets.
Really exciting. Hard to ignore that sort of across-the-board dominance.
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Oh, wow. And in comes Simon Sweetman to be a patronising dick
She made this music in her bedroom at home – alone, went the original lie.
Really? Who said that? As far as Im aware, the songs have always been acknowledged as a collaboration. It’s hardly like some evil foreign mega-producer was flown in under cover of night. It’s a little studio in Morningside.
Except I don’t get the buzz around this EP at all – sorta extraordinary to think that Lorde has gone on to appear on Billboard covers and play Jools Holland and whatever else. Hey, good on her, if that’s what she wants – and I’m sure she doesn’t even know what she wants – that’s all fine if fame is what you are after.
Fucksake: “good on her if that’s what she wants” – because real artists don’t want to be on Later With Jools Holland? And : “I’m sure she doesn’t even know what she wants”? Oh, really …
Look, it’s fine not to like the music. But this is NOT OKAY:
Actually all Tennis Court is – really – is another here-today/gone-tomorrow song. And this 16 year old is still being sexualised in the selling of her music – it’s just to dudes that wank over Farmers lingerie catalogues rather than being honest and hiring porn.
No, Simon Sweetman. It’s you who has written that about a 16 year-old girl. You stupid, talentless fucking fuck.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
You forgot this line:
and really what is there to know, ultimately?
Somehow, I don't think he's channeling Zhuangzi here. I tried to read the rest, but I really couldn't. I guess I could print it out and show it to my students as an example of why if you're going to be an arsehole, you should at least have the decency to write well.
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Mark Thomas, in reply to
Well I agree with you entirely, up to this point:
You stupid, talentless fucking fuck.
...where you really could have used something further up the swear word scale provided by the BSA to describe Simon. What a creep.
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Alan Perrott, in reply to
urgh, I went and read that piece and had to stop when I got to the wanking over a farmer's catalogue bit. now I'm feeling dirty for giving him traffic.
this is spite at truly comical levels.and what's with the "she's not making music for NZ!" line?
whack job.
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This is a scam. We’re all being played. The way we get played any time pop music actually sticks for a bit.
I have decided that music critics obsessed with "realness" and "authenticity" are going to be first against the fucking wall when the revolution comes.
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James Butler, in reply to
I have decided that music critics obsessed with “realness” and “authenticity” are going to be first against the fucking wall when the revolution comes.
"Does he really want to hold her hand? Who is she anyway? I don't think she exists."
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Lilith __, in reply to
good on her, if that’s what she wants – and I’m sure she doesn’t even know what she wants – that’s all fine if fame is what you are after.
Can someone give me a list of musicians and performers who'd rather their talent were unrecognised?
A lot of miserable sods are peeved that a NZ artist is making it big, instead of soldiering on in poverty and obscurity like they're supposed to. Shame on them.
And comments about Lorde's "sexualisation"? Jesus fuck. Projecting, much?
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Haven't seen any of her shows. But the videos I have seen seem to focus on Lorde's face. Someimes pretty, sometimes haunting. Is that the "sexualisation" he's complaining about?
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While I agree with all you've said, the man in question just seems to lap up criticism as if it was praise. There is no difference, when all you want is to put yourself in the frame.
Pathetic.
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James Butler, in reply to
"And this 16 year old is still being sexualised in the selling of her music"
This makes me think Sweetman's not seen any pop music by young women in the last, er, 40 years
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Russell Brown, in reply to
While I agree with all you’ve said, the man in question just seems to lap up criticism as if it was praise. There is no difference, when all you want is to put yourself in the frame.
Yes, you're probably right. But it actually made me angry.
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Miley Cyrus riding demolition equipment naked, that’s sexualisation.
Lorde, yeah nah.
Sweetman’s given it a go and wreaked his terrible taste in music on NZ for quite a while now. Time to hang up the keyboard.
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Just as a break from the crazy, here is a woman making art with her naked body, and a kicking tune as well. NSFW.
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Success is a great revenge. Thankfully Sweetman's only in a position to rant impotently from the sidelines.
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