Any artist would hope to create on their own terms. Lorde is one of the few not beholden to some restriction or deadline. It makes the flow of her work feel natural. Three albums in over a decade suggest a lack of activity, but the crucial part of the trio is that they are still discussed. There is a confidence from Lorde in these projects that they are not cast aside so soon after release. Works which are well-considered last longer; that is just a fact of history. Where there may be some moments in the latter works, Solar Power for instance, which fall a tad short, there is still the overwhelming expectation, the experience of quality, which Lorde sticks to. It is what makes her latest song, the reflective and confident What Was That, so peculiar. A collaboration here, a cover there, Lorde’s first piece of original material in four years is a letdown.
Lorde gives herself, and her listeners, a chance to understand the longevity of her music. She has been doing this since she was seventeen, and What Was That questions the highs and lows, the whiplash feeling of breaking through over a decade ago and maintaining her place in pop relevancy. In reflection there is the risk of repetition, and it sounds as though Lorde is playing up to those already learned lessons. Repetition is not the issue here, it is the relatively similar and flat tone, the sudden end to this pondering question. It is the response you would have to a bump in the night, the investigation is not paired with the adrenaline, the thrill or fear, because Lorde keeps What Was That away from activity. It is reflection on the microscopic, a more than fair lookback to make as we fixate on the minutiae of life. These fixations, and perhaps this is the wider point Lorde wishes to make, are nothing special.
Cigarettes and romantic, drug-fuelled encounters sound like trivialities. There is no love behind the wide-eyed pupils, but there is a sense of perspective which makes What Was That an important part of Lorde’s discography. Not a song which can be repeatedly listened to, but one which informs the work preceding it. We have woken from the idyllic dream. Lorde questions not the experiences we learn from but the results of it. She has been working, writing and creating since she was seventeen, and now asks what it was all for. This is not a representation of questioning legacies or understanding the past, but being truly lost for words at the thrill, the highs and lows experienced when in the creative bubble.
While the dream is far from over, What Was That provides a sudden stop for Lorde. This is not to question the likeability of the song; the genuine nature of it is intact. What the song struggles with is its endurance, its longevity as a projection of more than just the past being dug up. Perhaps we will look on What Was That in time as Lorde getting the reflective process out of her system, so it does not affect what comes next. But even then, there is a sluggish, slowed sense to this song which begins ripping into the very meaning, the true necessities and desire for emotional connection. A tad short on quality, with its understated instrumental approach and the relatively hollow message, which starts to crack after just a few listens. Whatever the case, What Was That is a dealing with shock, and it works.
