Oh Lorde, trouble so hard
Say hello to Lorde, a 17-year-old songsmith from the wild and windswept terrains of New Zealand. Here she is in a black room with a dog.
Lorde’s proper name is Ella Yelich O'Connor, and she was discovered "after I sang in my school talent show" in Auckland. "It got video’d, and it got to a guy at Universal," she continued, as if this was how everyone in the world got signed to a major international record label.
The label tried to set her up with a bunch of (unnamed) songwriters and producers but it all went a bit wrong, so she was encouraged to write for herself. That led to an EP called The Love Club, which went to number one in New Zealand last November. Here is the best bit.
The Love Club hasn’t been released yet in the UK but, as luck would have it, a very good remix has just been made available as a free download.
Meanwhile, follow-up single Royals got spotted by Buzzfeed – propelling it into the US iTunes chart. And there’s a sort-of-current song (released in June) called Tennis Court, which is all floaty and gauzy like a Sofia Coppola film. Except Lorde lampoons Coppola’s studied ennui with a lyric that insists teenagers should stop pretending to be cool and just get on with it. It is very good.
Lorde – Tennis Court
And that brings us up-to-date. Lorde is just back from playing a bunch of gigs in the US and is studying to finish her international baccalaureate, all the while adding to her collection of “more than 1,000 temporary tattoos”.
I suspect that once the album’s finished, there’ll be a proper assault on the UK charts. Consider your self warned.
Lorde’s proper name is Ella Yelich O'Connor, and she was discovered "after I sang in my school talent show" in Auckland. "It got video’d, and it got to a guy at Universal," she continued, as if this was how everyone in the world got signed to a major international record label.
The label tried to set her up with a bunch of (unnamed) songwriters and producers but it all went a bit wrong, so she was encouraged to write for herself. That led to an EP called The Love Club, which went to number one in New Zealand last November. Here is the best bit.
The Love Club hasn’t been released yet in the UK but, as luck would have it, a very good remix has just been made available as a free download.
Meanwhile, follow-up single Royals got spotted by Buzzfeed – propelling it into the US iTunes chart. And there’s a sort-of-current song (released in June) called Tennis Court, which is all floaty and gauzy like a Sofia Coppola film. Except Lorde lampoons Coppola’s studied ennui with a lyric that insists teenagers should stop pretending to be cool and just get on with it. It is very good.
And that brings us up-to-date. Lorde is just back from playing a bunch of gigs in the US and is studying to finish her international baccalaureate, all the while adding to her collection of “more than 1,000 temporary tattoos”.
I suspect that once the album’s finished, there’ll be a proper assault on the UK charts. Consider your self warned.
posted by mrdiscopop at 4:15 PM
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