Updating her Instagram page to read “The themes are always the same, a return to innocence, the mysteries of the blood, an itch for the transcendental,” was the perfect precursor to Lorde’s next delivery.
Videos by American Songwriter
The second single of 12 tracks off Solar Power, out Aug. 20, “Stoned at the Nail Salon” finds Lorde in a more vulnerable, nostalgia-ridden state from her previous, Primal Scream-tinged single, singing ‘Cause all the music you loved at sixteen, you’ll grow out of And all the times they will change, it’ll all come around… Spend all the evenings you can with the people who raised you Cause all the times they will change, it’ll all come around, and backed by Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, and Jack Antonoff, who produced the album.
“This is pretty much all Jack… [he] just start playing everything, playing bass, playing beautiful guitar, and then I arranged all the vocals,” Lorde told Zane Lowe during an interview on Apple Music. “It’s definitely one of the quietest, most introspective, and internal moments on the record.”
She added, “It’s about the passage of time, which is a weird thing to even think about and be in conversation with. But thinking about me at 16, my parents getting older, all these big, heavy things really confronting my mortality, I split off when I think about this song, but I am proud of it.”
Whereas, “Solar Power” fused the more natural elements, the beach, the lightness, and the sun, as its focal points, “Stoned at the Nail Salon” is a dimmer vortex, where Lorde found a “dumping ground” for her many thoughts.
“This song is sort of a rumination on getting older, settling into domesticity, and questioning if you’ve made the right decisions,” said Lorde in a statement. “I think lots of people start asking those questions of themselves around my age, and it was super comforting to me writing them down, hoping they’d resonate with others too.”
Her third album, following 2017 release Melodrama, also produced by Antonoff, Solar Power is “a celebration of more natural elements,” said Lorde. “The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors,” she said. “In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. I’ve learned to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through.”
Keeping loyal to the natural and sustainable theme of Solar Power, the album will be available as The Music Box, an eco-conscious, disc-less format featuring extended visual content, including exclusive photos, handwritten notes, and a card to download the album, two bonus tracks, and more.
Set to go on a world tour in 2022, Lorde has been making the Solar rounds, recently performing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and set to join Late Night with Seth Myers for day drinking and a performance of the new single, along with Antonoff, on July 21.
“I hope you love this song and this side to the album,” said Lorde in her newsletter. “And I hope if you’re someone who also has a habit of tiptoeing up to a deep thought, then doubting yourself or dissociating, you know you’re not alone.”
