Lorde Reflects on the Public's Reaction to 'Solar Power' a Year Later

“It took people awhile to get the album — I still get emails every day from people who are just coming around to it now! — and that response was really confounding and at times painful to sit with at first,” Lorde admitted.

“I learnt a ton about myself and how I’m perceived by making and releasing this album, and I feel significantly more connected and alive in my art practice and life than pretty much ever before. Sounds dry but it’s true!!! It’s been interesting as the year has progressed taking in works of art (movies, albums, TV shows, visual art) made in and around the pandemic, and feeling like most of them have a greater degree of interiority than others made by that artist before,” she continued.

“You already know about my belief that artists work to metabolise collective feeling, and it makes sense to me that when the collective feeling of the past few years has consisted of long stretches of isolation, vulnerability, abject terror and existential questioning, those feelings would be reflected in the art of the times.”

Lorde also discussed an experience with a friend recently, during which they discussed the album.

“She said, it’s clearly one of those works that gets made between peaks, the kind that’s necessary for makers sometimes, no less precious, in fact, there can’t be peaks at all without such works. I think this is true of the record. I needed to go low, to roll a neon ball through tall grass and see what happened. Playing songs from SP live each night in what is undoubtedly my best live show ever is also an incredible feeling — it all makes sense there, both to you and me, in a new and vivid way. And thanks to SP, I’ve been able to work through some big personal stuff that was making it pretty difficult for me to do stuff like travel or play shows without getting completely overwhelmed. I used to sit alone in my hotel room on show days, binge watching Bake Off, Ambien and Vitamin D on the bedside, my skin pale, my stomach knotted in fear. These days, I’m out the door in every city, walking for miles, eating gelato after dark, finding tiny wine bars, trying on vintage clothes down secret streets, laughing with friends, and playing better and better shows for you as a result. So yeah. Thankyou for all of it.”

Lorde recently defended her “shush”-ing the crowd, which went viral.