Music Review: Lorde "Royals"

Lorde

Royals

Album: Love Club EP

Year: 2013

           Lorde rather be a normal person scraping by than plastered on magazines in the  halcyon “Royals.”

            Composed synths open the single, setting an understated tone. While she dries her dishes, droplets of water splatter on the sink.  She puts her towel aside and after jiggling the handle a couple times, it stops. She wishes she could live in a better apartment. The strip mall across the street from her is nearly empty. Leaving anything valuable in her car will cause it to get broken into. However, the rent is affordable for her. In her bedroom, she goes through her jewelry to find her favorite necklace. Her jewelry box is cheap stuff she found on clearance in the department stores. She knows of Tiffany’s from watching “Sweet Home Alabama” on DVD a dozen times. But she’s never been inside a store. (“I've never seen a diamond in the flesh/I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies/And I'm not proud of my address, in the torn up town/No post code envy.”)

           In the pre-chorus, she flips on the radio. The station plays three songs in a row about partying hard and spending every penny on ridiculous things. The DJ comes on, talking about the new Hollywood couple. The fandom, he adds, is exploding. She rolls her eyes and turns the radio off. This is the most pressing story going on today? (“But every song's like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin' in the bathroom/Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room/We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams/But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your time piece/Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash/We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.”)

           In the chorus, she and her friends only contact with Prince William and Dutchess Catherine is through the images they see on the televisions. She has no desire to be like them, though. Although they have money, the loss of privacy and every gesture nitpicked in the news. Going out with her friends to see a movie or having a barbecue is enough for her. (“And we'll never be royals/It don't run in our blood/That kind of lux just ain't for us./We crave a different kind of buzz/Let me be your ruler, you can call me queen B/And baby I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule/Let me live that fantasy.”)

            When they were teenagers, they bought into the designer labels and wanting the expensive cars. However, as they grew up, they realized it’s a shallow achievement. As they head out to the bar for a friend’s birthday party, they make sure they have enough cash on them to at least get a drink. It may not be much. However, seeing the friend and catching up on their lives is what she’s looking forward to tonight. The number of drinks she has doesn’t matter. (“My friends and I we've cracked the code/We count our dollars on the train to the party/And everyone who knows us knows that we're fine with this/We didn't come from money.”)

             The pre-chorus and chorus are sung again.

          In the bridge, two of her friends have gone on to college which is far more than they hoped. Her friends ask her about the new guy she’s interested in and she complains about her landlord. Her life is really awesome. She wouldn’t want it any other way. (“We're bigger than we ever dreamed, and I'm in love with being queen/
Life is game without a care/We aren't caught up in your love affair.”)

            The chorus is sung again to close the single.

            Lorde’s plainspoken, worldly vocals are forward, finding the immense worth of pop culture to be overestimated. She’d rather hang out with friends or read a non-fiction book than discuss what performance was a trainwreck at an awards show. She comments on the continuous influx of pop culture without being pretentious, knowing it’s her opinion and not everyone will share it.   

         The refined “Royals” deserves to be a sleeper hit.