A Rush At The Beginning

Lorde “The Louvre”

I envy the emotional connection people have with this new Lorde record, not necessarily because I feel a deep need to like this particular album more than I do, but because I wish the intense feelings in the music didn’t feel so removed from my life. When I see people talk about how vivid and urgent these lyrics about passionate infatuation and its bitter aftermath feel for them, there’s a part of me that quietly mutters “…must be nice.”

So at this moment in my life, I can only really approach Lorde’s new music in formalist terms. This means I get frustrated with some of the melodies being a bit slight for my taste, and feel actively annoyed that the catchiest song on the record by far – “Loveless” – is reduced to an unfinished sketch tacked to the end of another song. But it also means that I’m intrigued by her unconventional song structures and impressed by her inspired turns of phrase. I’m particularly fond of the pithy, self-effacing way she says “we’re the greatest / they’ll hang us in the Louvre / down the back, but who cares / still the Louvre” – a great punchline in a song that is otherwise no joke at all.

The structure of “The Louvre” feels inverted, with all the momentum and catchy bits happening in the verses, leading up to relatively inert elliptical moments that are technically pre-choruses and choruses on a purely structural level. The lyrics reflect that inversion too, with the chorus “broadcast the boom boom boom and make em all dance to it” completing a poetic thought about anticipation while also feeling like “hey, that’s where this feeling should go, but I need to focus on the moment right now.”

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