I. Have. Been. Swamped. I’ve been drowning in homework, school, work, and college related tasks. The time I’m taking to write this blog post is the moment in which I have been allowed to come up for air. So, I best make what I have to say useful-as if my life depended on it.

I haven’t updated my blog in a couple of weeks. During my absence, I’ve been swimming through the waters of daily life, but I also found the time to go to a Lorde concert up in Denver this past Monday. My friend and I are both Lorde fans, so back in the fall we bought tickets, and after months of anticipation, we finally went.

I’ve been a Lorde fan since I was 14, which was around the time her number one hit “Royals” was circulating around the airwaves. I actually found the song to be overrated and overexposed, so it was the rest of what was on her debut album Pure Heroine that really got me into her music. Although it’s not my favorite Lorde song , I actually like “Royals” now. Maybe I was too stupid to understand the brilliance of its message in the past.

Pure Heroine became the soundtrack to my life, and Lorde’s sophomore release Melodrama( the album in which she’s touring for), hits me right in the feels. Lorde is ridiculously talented, so it was amazing to witness her gifts in person. An added bonus was that the show had heightened emotion and wonderful imagery. Lorde also has a lovely personality.

I was inspired by the concert to make a list of my top 10 Lorde songs. It may have been better to create this list before the concert, but remember, I’ve been drowning with no time to come up for air( except for now of course).

So, here we go. Below are my top 10 favorite Lorde songs (as of right now) with my favorite lyrics and notes on what each track means to me.

10. “Hard Feelings/Loveless”

“…I care for myself the way I used to care about you…”

” Bet you wanna rip my heart out, bet you wanna skip my calls now, well guess what? I like that.”

Upon my first listen of Melodrama, I didn’t like this song. Then as I listened to it more, I liked “Loveless,” but I felt that “Hard Feelings” was unnecessary. Now, I like the whole package. “Hard Feelings” is vulnerable and relatable. People always say, “no hard feelings” when they brush something off that hurts them, but the truth is there are always hard feelings, and Lorde acknowledges the fact that she’s hurt in this song. I appreciate her honesty. I experience hard feelings occasionally ,and it’s nice to know that it’s okay for me to feel this way from time to time. “Loveless” is a biting track and I enjoy its sarcasm. Sometimes when we are most hurt, we protect ourselves by acting like we don’t care at all, and this is what Lorde does in this song. She calls our generation loveless in the most unapologetic fashion, and I’m here for it. As a side note, Lorde’s vocals and the production are superb.

9. “Green Light”

“I hear sounds in my mind, brand new sounds in my mind…”

“Oh I wish I could get my things and just let go!”

“Green Light” was my first encounter with Lorde’s new era as it was the first single released from Melodrama. “Green Light” starts off as a bitter breakup track, but it turns into a triumphant anthem about starting fresh after heartbreak or another difficult situation. It’s about letting go, learning how to smile again, dance again, and love again. When Lorde belts out “Oh I wish I could get my things and just let go!” I feel that in my soul, as that is exactly what I wish to do. This song had me at the jazzy pianos, and the rest was history.

8. “Supercut”

“But when I reach for you there’s just a supercut…”

“In my head I do everything right…”

“We were wild and fluorescent…”

“Supercut ” is the track on Melodrama that resonates with me the most from an emotional standpoint. I’ve never been through a breakup, but Lorde’s lyrics and performance gives me a taste of what that feels like, and I think her ability to do this is a mark of a brilliant artist. Although I’ve never been in a relationship, I can relate to doing everything right in my head and then messing it up in reality. Aside from the lyrics concerning heartbreak, “Supercut” has great imagery, and the airy, atmospheric production only adds to this. The juxtaposition of “wild” and “fluorescent” is beautiful and it makes me feel light every time I hear Lorde sing the words.

7. “Homemade Dynamite”

“A couple rebel top guns pilots flying with nowhere to be. Don’t know you super well, but I think you might be the same as me.”

I love the personality that Lorde exudes in this song. It’s sounds mischievous and fun, as she describes doing crazy stuff with people at a party-like blowing things up with homemade dynamite. Again, the imagery in this song is great, as is the production. When I’m blasting this song I feel cool, and I love the mood it creates.

6. “No Better”

“Your breath’s hot and gross, but I kiss you like a lover.”

“Now the days are getting cooler and the burning of our limbs doesn’t happen quite as bad and the burning’s just skin.”

“No Better” is a track taken from the deluxe version of Pure Heroine. What I love most about this song are the lyrics. Lorde is so poetic and crafty with her words. In this track Lorde describes the dog days of summer and every day teenage life with her friends. The track also has a clever swimming metaphor that I hadn’t picked up until I got older. “No Better” is a fun song that shows Lorde’s skills as a songwriter.

5. “Ribs”

“This dream isn’t feeling sweet, we’re reeling through the midnight streets, and I’ve never felt more alone, it feels so scary getting old.”

“We’ll laugh until our ribs get tired.”

“We can talk it so good. We can make it so divine. We can talk it good how you wish it would be all the time.”

“Ribs” was one of the songs on Pure Heroine that really got me into the album. In Stephen Chbosky’s novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the main character-Charlie-talks about feeling “infinite” with his friends as they drive through the city at night. This song gives me an idea of what that feeling is like. Lorde talks about cruising through her New Zealand suburb with her friends, but all the while she’s thinking about all of her fears like getting old and growing up. I can relate to this, as I want to hold onto youth and memories, and special moments with the people I care about most. As the song closes, Lorde gives us some more great imagery of people “laugh[ing] until [their] ribs get tired.” Too bad, she muses, the memories won’t ever “be enough.”

4. “400 Lux”

“We’re never done with killing time. Can I kill it with you? ‘Till the veins run red and blue?”

“We’re hollow like the bottles that we drink.”

“We move in the tree streets, I’d like it if you stayed…”

When Lorde performed “400 Lux” at her concert, she dedicated the song to all of the kids who grew up in suburbs, aka me. “400 Lux” is a simple song with minimalist production, but that matches Lorde’s feelings about her mundane life living in the suburbs. I really connect with this song because I often feel bored a lot too. In the song, it sounds as if Lorde has finally found a person to remedy her boredom, and she doesn’t want them to leave, or else she’ll be bored again. I love this concept; this idea that one person can light up an otherwise dull and predictable life.

3. “Team”

“We live in cities you’ll never see on screen. Not very pretty but we sure know how to run things.”

“I’m kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, so there.”

“Everyone’s competing for a love they won’t receive.”

“Team” was the second track I heard from Lorde after “Royals,” and I liked it so much that it moved me to look more into her music. Much of Pure Heroine is a social commentary. In “Team” Lorde calls out how superficial we humans can be. The glitz and glamour we see on TV isn’t real life. In fact, most of us live relatively boring lives where we have to go to school and work. The dullness of our lives is probably why we find movies and reality TV so appealing, but even though are lives aren’t perfect or shiny, at least we are getting though it. “We’re on each other’s team.” I’m not much of a party person, and I have a hard time letting go in public places, so I relate to Lorde getting tired of being told to “throw [her] hands up in the air.” Lorde is an old soul like me and that’s probably why her music speaks to me.

2. “Tennis Court”

“Don’t you think that is boring how people talk? Making smart with their words again, well I’m bored.”

” We’re so happy even when we’re smiling out of fear.”

“Lets go down to the tennis court and talk it up like yeah.”

“Tennis Court” is my anthem. If you wanted my perspective on high school and how I feel about some of my peers, then listen to this song. I do think it’s boring how people talk about things with no meaning even though they are attempting to sound important. I think people my age are often superficial and fake, concerning themselves with trivial things. Lorde pokes fun at this phenomenon of the youth. In “Tennis Court” she plays pretend high school. Her friend will be the “class clown” and she’ll be the “beauty queen in tears.” It’s like we all play characters at school, and the whole ordeal of high school is just going to a role play. I love how biting Lorde is and how she doesn’t hold back.

“A World Alone”

“Maybe the internet raised us, or maybe people are jerks.”

“All my fake friends and all of their noise .Complain about work, they’re studying business I study the floor.”

” I know we’re not everlasting. We’re a train wreck waiting to happen.”

“That slow burn wait, while it gets dark. Bruising the sun, I feel grown up with you in your car. I know its dumb.”

“You’re my best friend and we’re dancing in a world alone.”

You know, I had a great time seeing Lorde live, but I was kind of sad that she didn’t play my favorite song of hers-“A World Alone.” “A World Alone” serves as the closer on Pure Heroine, and what a note that album ends on. The instrumentation, consisting of synths and acoustic guitars, is beautiful and Lorde sounds amazing. However, the lyrics are the best part. As I said earlier, Pure Heroine is a bit of a social commentary and Lorde summarizes her whole message in this track. Lorde sings of isolation, but she’s okay as long as she has the one person that makes her smile. She discusses again how people keep up these pretenses that they’ve got everything figured out even when they don’t. Lastly, Lorde doesn’t care about what people think of her or her lover because what do they know anyway? This song resonates with me so much because I often feel isolated from my peers, but not in a physical way. I just don’t connect with or relate to a lot of them. I find it frustrating when people act as if everything is perfect all of the time, when we all know this is not the case, and like Lorde, I keep my circle small, and as long as I have those people I’ll be okay as I dance through this world alone. Lorde doesn’t care, and I hope to reach a point in my life where I don’t care either-about what people say/think about me that is. As “A World Alone” closes, Lorde’s final words are “let ’em talk,” as the sounds of people chattering fades out in the outro. Brilliancy at its best.

Hopefully you enjoyed this list of my favorite songs from Lorde. She is such an amazing artists with so many great songs that it was hard to rank them. If you haven’t seen Lorde live, you ought to if given the opportunity. She’s “wild and fluorescent,” and shines like the “craters in the moon.”

Couturely Sound ❤