‘What Was That’ marks Lorde’s first solo release since 2021’s sun-soaked ‘Solar Power’, and she remains as much a lyrical powerhouse as always. The melancholy is familiar, but now it rides a beat that builds from a quiet simplicity into punchy bass and dancefloor rhythms — the kind of track that feels equally at home under strobe lights or in the passenger seat, crying at midnight.
Lorde charts a familiar journey throughout the song, leaning into well-known themes like fleeting youth. There's a striking push-and-pull between anguish and anger, especially evident in the chorus’s transition from the aching “since I was 17, I gave you everything / now, we wake from a dream” to frustration in the song’s titular line “well, baby, what was that?”. The entire track is rife with emotion – a gutting introspection that is equal parts caustic and confessional.
It’s clear that ‘What Was That’ isn’t a return to any particular album – it’s an amalgamation of Lorde’s musical and emotional journey thus far. It feels like a triumphant rebirth by way of ‘Pure Heroine’ and ‘Melodrama’, with the newfound maturity of ‘Solar Power’ seamlessly bleeding into the palpably self-aware lyrics. She’s not quite the cynical teenager from the suburbs or the same heartbroken city girl anymore, but not fully free of her either.
Particularly eagle-eyed fans will spot the parallels between this lead single and ‘Melodrama's’ ‘Green Light’ straight away: the nod to “MDMA in the back garden / blow our pupils up” echoes Lorde’s admission that MDMA helped inspire ‘Melodrama’, while “when I’m in the blue light / I can make it alright” feels like a grown-up continuation of “I’m waiting for it / that green light / I want it.”
This isn’t the only moment of recollection, either. Listeners familiar with themes of social alienation woven through earlier songs like ‘A World Alone’ (“all my fake friends and all of their noise / complain about work / they’re studying business / I study the floor”) will recognize callbacks in lyrics like “do you know you’re still with me / when I’m out with my friends? / I stare at their painted faces / they talk current affairs.”
The atmospheric production by Jim-E Stack and Dan Nigro fuels the song’s slow-burning psychedelic longing. The lyrics hit with a fever dream clarity – despite the sharp edges and faded memories, the visceral heartsickness of lines like “Indio haze, we’re in a sandstorm and it knocks me out / I didn’t know then, but you’d never be enough” is so pronounced it leaves the listener breathless. It’s chemical nostalgia, straight from the source.
The entire track is a masterclass in using sonic minimalism to ground a thematic maximalism, and it’s this alchemy that makes Lorde one of the most vital artists of her generation. ‘What Was That’ reintroduces everything that made the world fall in love with her in the first place, and – as evidenced by Lorde’s return to the US Spotify Streaming Chart – leaves fans eagerly anticipating more.
Riya Kataria
@katariamedia / riyakatariax
Image: Lorde / Facebook
