Spotlight // REVIEW: LORDE & 'Royals' (WATCH)

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I was recently introduced to the artist LORDE, which is the stage name for sixteen-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor from New Zealand (yes, she's only sixteen years old!)

Let me tell you, I'm impressed and obsessed with this lady's music.

She released her EP The Love Club in December 2012 and her music has been steadily gaining popularity since, especially in the United States. The album's overall vibe is rhythmic, simplistic, soulful, and subtly vibrant.

For such a young talent, she definitely gives off a more adult vibe due to her soulful vocal tone. It complements the solo electronic-beat-heavy music style she favors.

With a voice that's best described as a combination of Adele, Florence Welch and Kimbra (another amazing Kiwi artist worth checking out), she still has much of her own spark. She exudes an aura beyond her years. A similar artist is Birdy, A.K.A Jasmine van den Bogaerde, seventeen-year-old sweet-voiced English singer. However, the two have opposite music styles.

The lyric material is creative and fairly "party-central", but in a more thought-provoking way, but more on that in a bit. 

Though I really enjoy her recently released single Tennis Court and the other songs on her EP, I'm gonna talk about my favorite song Royals.

This song was introduced to me, which was how I found out about this artist in the first place. Take a listen below:

First, the music video.
LORDE is very much a minimalist artist, in music choice (mainly beats rather than usual musical instruments) and in filmography. The simplicity really fits with the song's theme about not having a lot of money, but not caring. As you can see, the original version (with over 2 million views) barely has her in it, focusing on the plain aspects of the boys' lives. It shows more ordinary and mundaneness of every day life rather than the glamourous party scene in which she and her friends will never truly belong. Most artists tend to be the focal point of their own video, but LORDE takes a different approach with Royals. Most likely the US version features her more (which isn't that much still) in order to match a name to the face of a soon-to-be mega-hit. Now, the song itself. Not only is it catchy (especially the chorus, my favorite part), it's almost thought-provoking. For example:

But every song's like gold teeth, grey goose, trippin' in the bathroom
Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room,
We don't care, we're driving cadillacs in our dreams.
But everybody's like cristal, maybach, diamonds on your time piece.
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.
We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.

She's commenting on how every song glorifies this partying lifestyle and how money is all that matters (awesome subtle use of hyperbole, girl). In the rest of the chorus, she admits she'd like to be apart of that life, but settles for living in the dream.

Cover art for The Love Club EP, very "Where the Wild Things Are"

And we'll never be royals (royals)
It don't run in our blood,
that kind of luxe just ain't for us.
We crave a different kind of buzz.
Let me be your ruler (ruler), you can call me Queen Bee
And baby I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule.
Let me live that fantasy.

It's certainly a different take on the usual crazy, exciting pseudo-life most of us wish we lived to some degree. In it's own way, it's a commentary on our greedy, consumerist culture.

My friends and I we've cracked the code.
We count our dollars on the train to the party.
And everyone who knows us knows that we're fine with this,
we didn't come from money.

LORDE isn't rejecting the desire to be apart of that completely, but addresses the reality of the situation: money isn't everything and we won't all be rich. And that's okay.

Final verdict: Awesome song, wicked beat, beautiful voice, pretty cool message.

Check out LORDE's full EP The Love Club on Spotify or iTunes (or wherever you listen to music)!

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As always, I love hearing what you have to say. Do you dig LORDE? Love Royals or not? Tell me why in the comments below.

Till next time xx,

Sierra