On the one-year anniversary of the announcement of her highly-anticipated third studio album, Solar Power, Lorde got real with fans in a newsletter about the mixed reviews the record got.
Along with a new music video for “The Path,” the 25-year-old singer shared her feelings, writing, “It’s been a year since I announced the release of Solar Power. I can honestly say it has been the year with the highest highs and lowest lows I think I’ve ever experienced.”
“It took people a while 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,” she admitted. “I learned 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!!!”
Lorde went on to explain that despite mixed reviews, she is thankful for her fans and that she thinks the album was necessary for her growth and evolution as an artist. “I was sitting with a friend recently drinking chai at a country house in England, she’s an artist too, and we got on to the topic of the album somehow. 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.”
As for her summer solstice treat, Lorde said of her sixth music video, “The Path,” that the video represents the “first chapter in the mystical Solar Power story, a prequel to the title video. You see my character joining her friends and family on the island where they’ve chosen to start life anew, arriving in her trademark suit and quickly being transformed by nature’s strange magic. I’m so proud of my buds for learning the dance in this one. Hope you like it.”
Watch the new music video for Lorde’s “The Path” below: