Lorde fans were ecstatic last week when the singer released a new single, "Green Light," the first from her long-awaited sophomore album, Melodrama. "Green Light" is a dramatic change from her previous work, but Lorde says that's the point.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1, Lorde explained, "I really just wanted to make something that was so different. It is so different to 'Royals,' but...I'm so proud of it."
Lorde says the upbeat dance tune actually describes a very sad moment.
"I had my heart broken," she reveals. "And this song...really is a breakup song, even though it doesn't sound like a breakup song. And it's kinda just about me trying to figure out how to put myself back together and move on."
Lorde adds the entire album documents what she calls her "crazy" first year of being an actual adult and living solo.
"I partied a lot and I felt all the feelings, and it was all so sort of fluorescent," she says, explaining the title Melodrama.
She also kept one particular artist in mind while working on the project: the late, great rock icon David Bowie, a huge fan of hers.
"The whole time spent writing this record, I've just had him in my thoughts, I've had him in my heart," she told BBC Radio 1. "It's hard to make something and not think, 'What would David think of this? If I could play it to him, what would he say?'"
Lorde worked on the record with fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff, in a studio in his Brooklyn apartment "for the better part of a year," she says. Jack also worked with Lorde's pal Taylor Swift on her most recent album, so it's no wonder Taylor gave "Green Light" the thumbs up, calling it "a magnificent bop for the ages" on Instagram.
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