Photo by Thistle Brown

With “What Was That”, Lorde sounds like she just got her driver’s license and is doing her most to enter a new life phase with the past still visible in the rearview, yellow light approaching. The gear shift away from the therapy pop pivot that was the unflattering lightness of 2021’s Solar Power is a welcome one for one of the last decade’s most natural forces of electro-pop sandstorm. Swapping out Jack Antonoff for the synth-smeared execution of Jim-E Stack and the bombastic alternative Antonoffisms of Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan) tempers the energy of her situationship melodrama to match the post-MDMA morning after comedown. Scenes shift from sandstorms in Indio to the blue light of Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right. It’s like a dream sequence where everything races past you in the blink of an eye, but you’re crawling to catch up. Rest assured, it’s all Lorde’s new reality where it’s less about hitting the gas on green and moving toward the light at a more cautionary pace.

Lorde’s “What Was That” is available now on Republic Records.