Hi! If you read my last review (Random Access Memories), then you should have noticed that I focused more on the sound more than the lyrics. Well today when reviewing Pure Heroine by Lorde, I will focus more on the lyrics than the sound. But first, we should know a little bit about her!
Lorde is a 17-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand (Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor). She is known for her debut single, Royals, right now #20 on The Hot 100 for Billboard but hit No.1 in 2013, making her the first New Zealand solo artist to have a hit song in the US.
Song #1 “Tennis Court” Tennis Court is one of my personal favorites on the album, it gives me a bronze like feeling, you know? Well it’s just me but… What I think she is trying to say that what people are saying in their songs now, she’s a little bored with it (Don’t you that it’s boring how people talk? Making smart with their words again, well I’m bored). She just here to have fun (because I’m doing this for the thrill of it, killing it) and won’t get caught up in fame and just be the same kid from the classroom (Baby be the class clown, I’ll be the beauty queen in tears, it’s a new art form ,showing people how little we care).
Song #2 ” 400 Lux” To me, this song is about having time to kill, so she wants to kill it with her friend until they are tired, I had the impression the friend is a boy ( We’re never done with killing time, can I kill it with you ’till the veins run red and blue?). First, they go out drinking (We’re hollow like the bottles that we drain), then they go out and drive using the pulse of his/her wrist (You drape your wrist over the steering wheel, pulses can drive from here). She says that she like him/her and the houses because they don’t change (not in a dating type way I believe) by saying (And I like you, I like these roads where the houses don’t change, and I like you,where we can talk like there’s something to say).
Song #3 “Royals” Royals is a really popular song, I’m sure you’ve heard it, but what she says is that she never seen things you might have (I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh), her town is torn up (and I’m not proud of my address, in a torn up town, not post code envy). She dreamed of being big and famous, but she’s more famous than she very dreamed, but she won’t be a ‘royal’ like most stars are, she won’t be caught in the love affair (fame).
Song #4 “Ribs” Ribs is another one of my personal favorites because of the way it starts quiet and then you hear the voices get louder and I just love the way she sang it. Anyway, this song is about a party she had when her parents went away and left her home. Realizing that she is old enough to be left alone at home and having responsibilities to stay home by herself. She wants the mind she had before the thought of being old (My mom and dad let me stay home, it drives you crazy, getting old or looking at what’s going on around her, like thing you wouldn’t see at kid parties The drink you spilt all over me, lover’s spit left on repeat). She thinks it’s a dream but not a sweet one (This dream isn’t feeling sweet) and she’s never felt more alone (And I’ve never felt more alone, it feels so scary, getting old). She wants the mind she had before she felt old (I want them back I want them back, the minds we had). Sharing beds like little kids and laughing ’til our ribs get sore will never be enough (You’re the only friend I need, sharing beds like little kids, and laughing ’til our ribs get sore, but that will never be enough).
Song #5 “Buzzcut Season”
Personally, this song is a little hard to review. To write these reviews, I’ve been taking my ideas of the song that I’m reviewing and reading others (comments from websites that have the lyrics) and agreeing with them on some of the ideas they have and mixing it in with my own (not most of the time but when I can’t really fin the words to help you understand what the song is talking about). But this time when I was looking for some reviews, it was hard to find a good one to understand since people had different points of views (most of the time when I look at ideas they have, they are mostly the same). Finding that people had different P.O.V’s, I can’t really write a review about this song because it may sound different for everyone.
Song #6 “Team”
Team is about having a palace (or a dream), and if you were in the palace (involved in the dream) you were on each others team. She then describes the people of the palace, like she is the ruler and is sitting on her throne. Even though they don’t live in places that you don’t see on the screen or are fairly pretty, they still know how to run free. With bottle shards on the ground, saying it wasn’t her fault, everyone is fighting for love they won’t get because this palace wants ‘release’ or what I believe is freedom. As the ending before the course, she says that she is a bit older than she was when she could throw her hands in the air (probably saying she is old enough to understand things she didn’t know or understand as a kid)
Song #7 “Glory and Gore”
This is another one of my favorites from this album. But to begin, she is talking about slipping off the path they planned by drinking and dropping the glasses (dropping glasses just to hear them break. you’ve been drinking like the world was gonna end -it didn’t-, took a shiner fro the fist of your best friend -go figure-) but saying there is calculation or a way to fix it all (but in all chaos there is calculation). What she is trying to say is that getting glory comes with consequences,like getting in a fight to get what’s yours back, someone’s bound to get hurt. We shouldn’t pick battles (Chance is the only game I play with baby, we let our battles choose us).
Song #8 “Still Sane”
Still Sane is about being sane when things around her are not (All work and no play never made me lose it). She says she won’t be the girl tripping on stage or what people say she is (I won’t be tripping over on stage or Everything I say falls right back into everything I’m not). She might change her option about things later (I still like hotels but I think that’ll change) but she promises she’ll stay good (Hey, promise I’ll stay good). She’s might be little (less famous) but she’s coming for the crown (being really famous)
Song #9 “White Teeth Teens”
White Teeth Teen refers to as being rich and spoiled ( a rich person would probably have white teeth). She tried to be one but couldn’t (I wear the robe like no-one could, I’ll let you in on something big, I am not a white teeth teen)
Song #10 “A World Alone
This song’s music reminded me about The XX with how slow and peaceful it sounds. This time, she say’s that we’re in a world alone together, while everybody people are talking. Describing being in a world alone by she’s different from her “friends (the’re studying business, I study the floor) she feels alone. She loves the life she lives and knows it won’t last forever ( know we’re not everlasting)
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