"Writing Pure Heroine was my way of enshrining our teenage glory, putting it up in lights forever so that part of me never dies, and this record – well, this one is about what comes next.
I want nothing more than to spill my guts RIGHT NOW about the whole thing – I want you to see the album cover, pore over the lyrics (the best I’ve written in my life), touch the merch, experience the live show".
Lorde, "A note from the desk of a newborn adult"
Lorde’s “Green Light”, the lead single from her long-awaited sophomore album Melodrama (2017), is closer in terms of theme and sound to "Magnets", her 2015 collaboration with Disclosure, than to the precocious, thought-provoking anti-pop lyricism that characterized her debut album. But even if Lorde has toned down her use of poetic images and metaphors (the song's title refers to the traffic light's 'Go' colour, and not the mystical green light in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby), her cool-yet-fiery intensity (and unself-conscious dance moves) allow the familiar pop trope of heartbreak to take on a relatively rare cathartic edge:
'I do my makeup in somebody else's carWe order different drinks at the same barsI know about what you did and I wanna scream the truthShe thinks you love the beach, you're such a damn liarThose great whites, they have big teethHope they bite youThought you said that you would always be in loveBut you're not in love no moreDid it frighten youHow we kissed when we danced on the light up floor?On the light up floorBut I hear sounds in my mindBrand new sounds in my mindBut honey I'll be seein' you 'ever I goBut honey I'll be seein' you down every roadI'm waiting for it, that green light, I want it'Cause honey I'll come get my things, but I can't let goI'm waiting for it, that green light, I want itOh, I wish I could get my things and just let goI'm waiting for it, that green light, I want it'
Lyrics: Genius
The 'new sounds' in Lorde's mind are a step away from the cool minimalism of her debut, which are still apparent in the song's early (dark and whispery) verses. As the pre-chorus kicks in, Lorde's vocals gain momentum and grandiosity from the house piano sounds, lively backing vocals and bursts of euphoric late 90s alt-pop influences. The emotional inertia in her lyrics is effectively contrasted with the heady momentum in the track's instrumentation (courtesy of Jack Antonoff from Bleachers and fun.). This is Lorde's first sonic representation of heartbreak, and it successfully perpetuates her self-representation as a intense, thoughtful and assertive young woman in charge of her own destiny:
"The song is actually about a heartbreak. And it’s not something that I really am used to writing about. It took me a while to be able to figure out how to write about that. It was my first major heartbreak. The song is really about those moments kind of immediately after your life changes and about all the silly little things that you gravitate towards. I say, “She thinks you love the beach, you’re such a liar”. What the fuck, she thinks you like the beach?! You don’t like the beach! It’s those little stupid things. It sounds so happy and then the lyrics are so intense obviously. And I realized I was like, “how come this thing is coming out so joyous sounding?” And I realized this is that drunk girl at the party dancing around crying about her ex-boyfriend who everyone thinks is a mess. That’s her tonight and tomorrow she starts to rebuild. And that’s the song for me".
Lorde, in a radio interview with Zane Low
