• News

• All

Aug 17, 2021 By Mark Redfern

New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde is releasing a new album, Solar Power, this Friday via Republic. Now she has shared its third single, the airy “Mood Ring,” via a video for it. Lorde co-directed the video with Joel Kefali. Watch it below.

Lorde had this to say about “Mood Ring” in a press release: “This is a song I am very excited about, it’s so much fun to me. Obviously when making this album I did a deep-dive into ’60s, Flower Child culture. I wanted to understand the commune life, dropping out from society and trying to start again. That really resonated to me when writing this album. One thing that occurred to me as a major parallel between that time and our time is our wellness culture and our culture of spirituality, pseudo-spirituality, wellness, pseudo-wellness. Things like eating a macro-biotic vegan diet or burning sage, keeping crystals, reading tarot cards or your horoscope. These were all things that they were dabbling in back then, and that me and my girlfriends are dabbling in today. I was like ‘I think there’s a pop song in here.’ So this is kind of my extremely satirical look at all of those vibes.”

Previously Lorde shared the album’s title track, “Solar Power,” via a video for it. Then she shared its second single, “Stoned At the Nail Salon,” which features backing vocals from Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, Marlon Williams, and James Milne.

Of the album as a whole, Lorde said in a previous press release: “The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalizing the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors. In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers. I’ve learned to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through.”

Solar Power will not be released on CD due to environmental concerns. Instead it will be put out via an “eco-conscious Music Box.”

The previous press release explained this in more detail: “This innovative offering will contain extra visual content, handwritten notes, exclusive photos, and a download card. The card will give purchasers a high-quality download of the music, two exclusive bonus tracks, and access to some special surprises along the way.”

Lorde added: “I decided early on in the process of making this album that I also wanted to create an environmentally kind, forward-thinking alternative to the CD. I wanted this Music Box product to be similar in size, shape and price to a CD, to live alongside it in a retail environment, but be something which stands apart and that’s committed to the evolving nature of a modern album.”

Jack Antonoff produced Solar Power, which is Lorde’s third album and the follow-up to 2017’s Melodrama (also produced by Antonoff).

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.