Summer Hits: Lorde - Solar Power (w Hanif Abdurraqib)

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lorde's new song "Solar Power" set the internet ablaze when it dropped from out of nowhere in June. Some fans found the song to be a buoyant departure from Lorde's last release, Melodrama, while others thought the track felt half-baked. On top of that, listeners questioned the song's provenance — had Lorde cribbed too closely from 90s hitmakers like Primal Scream and George Michael? To listen closely to "Solar Power" and unpack its polarizing sounds, we needed to speak to someone with an unerring ear and a razor-sharp mind: the author, poet, and host of Object of Sound, Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif knows Lorde's catalog like the back of his hand, and he's got feelings about this latest release. But he also offers a word of caution: wait for the album before reserving judgment! Hanif doesn't just take us deep into "Solar Power," though, he helps us get philosophical on some trenchant musical questions, including: What is a summer song, anyway? Where's the line between stealing and inspiration? And most importantly, does Lorde's track end six minutes too early?? Songs Discussed: Lorde - Solar Power, Royals, Liability, Green Light, The Louvre Nick Drake - Bryter Layter Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache Primal Scream - Loaded George Michael - Freedom! '90, Faith Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley More Check out Hanif Abdurraqib's podcast Object of Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan and I'm songwriter Charlie
0:17.4	Harding. Low in Anno Domini 2021 our Lord has given unto us a new song and it is called
0:26.9	Solar Power and as part of our summer hit series we need to break the song down and in
0:33.6	order to do so let's bring in one of our favorite writers and podcasters the host of object
0:40.4	of sound it's honey of door a key. Yeah thanks so much for having me. Let's get to see
0:45.5	y'all get to talk to y'all. We are thrilled only a crossover episode I think could tackle
0:53.0	this kind of surprise release from Lord Solar Power is the first single from her album
1:02.1	which is forthcoming in August. Let's listen to this song and try and unpack what are
1:08.2	some of the musical and lyrical features at work here what is this song trying to accomplish.
1:26.1	Honey what was your first reaction when you heard this track? I didn't understand why
1:31.1	it was so polarizing. Yeah it seems like there's a line in the sand between people who
1:39.1	listen to Solar Power and hear this as an extension of Lord's artistry and others who
1:44.3	hear it as a step backwards. And that's just a thing that I think happens in you know
1:49.9	people enjoy picking teams and picking sides but I thought it was just fine and I think
1:55.9	few things are more puzzling to me in music than when songs or albums or artists that are
2:00.9	just fine. It was a really intensely polarizing response because I think most songs are
2:08.1	fine. I think they're interesting elements to it but I also think it's fascinating
2:12.2	to me that Lord has continued to kind of find ways to maneuver around the fact that
2:19.5	you know she's not really a singer. She's definitely not like a singer singer but she
2:23.4	is a very very skilled deliverer of language you know I think the way she is perhaps re-aligning
2:34.0	the way I consider the singer who is effectively just speaking. Because she's such a melodic
2:40.7	speaker and a melodic deliverer of language that even though the vocal flourishes aren't
	...

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