Everything you need to know about Lorde’s ‘sad and joyous’ new single ‘Green Light’

Lorde first wowed the world with her brooding electropop back in 2013, with haunting, catchy tracks like ‘Royals’, ‘Team’ and ‘Tennis Court’. 

Now, after a three-year hiatus, she’s back. After a week of teasing us on social media, the 20-year-old pop star has released ‘Green Light’. It‘s her first new material since 2015, and comes ahead of a second album which is due to be released later this year. 

So what do you need to know about ‘Green Light’?

It‘s ‘very different’

Tonally, it’s a big change from her previous music, a fact that she’s addressed on Twitter, saying: ‘It’s very different and kinda unexpected.’ 

It’s about heartbreak

Listen to lyrics like ‘Honey, I’ll come get my things, but I can’t let go’ and it’s clear this track is about a difficult break-up. But it’s not melancholy, it’s a celebration and a story about moving forward. It’s ‘about me trying to figure out how to put myself back together,’ she told Mistajam on Radio 1 yesterday. 

It’s ‘the first chapter of a story’

This is just the beginning of a story about the last few years of Lorde’s life, which she’s described as ‘wild’ and ‘fluorescent’. 

It was inspired by David Bowie 

The late, great David Bowie influenced Lorde’s new work. ‘I feel like the whole time I spent writing this record I’ve had him in my thoughts, I’ve had him in my heart,’ she said on Radio 1. ‘It’s hard not to make something and not think: What would David think of this? If I could play it to him, what would he say?’

It was co-written by Lena Dunham’s boyfriend – and recorded in his home studio 

American musician Jack Antonoff (member of .fun, co-writer of three songs on Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ and Lena Dunham's boyfriend) worked with Lorde on her new album. 

He even makes a cameo appearance in the video:

It’s from new album ‘Melodrama’ 

'Melodrama'

Here’s the album artwork, which Lorde shared on Twitter this week. 

It’s as ‘pop-dance’ as the album gets

‘This is as pop-dance as it gets,’ she told Mistajam. ‘We were just in the studio, mashing around on the piano and... that's what it is.’

And we can expect more surprises on the album as a whole: ‘There's a lot of beats again but there’s also instruments that are going to surprise people.’

And people are loving it 

Listen to ‘Green Light’: