Lorde Says Response to Solar Power Was 'Really Confounding' and 'Painful': 'I Learnt a Ton'
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Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Lorde
Lorde is unpacking the complicated feelings that followed the polarizing release of her most recent album, Solar Power.
The "Green Light" singer, 25, marked the one-year anniversary of her announcing Solar Power with a lengthy newsletter sent to fans on Tuesday that revealed she struggled with the lukewarm critical response to the record.
"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 the lowest lows I think I've ever experienced," she wrote. "It took people awhile 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."
Solar Power, which came out in August, was the long-awaited follow-up to 2017's Melodrama, and embraced a folkier, more laid-back sound than its synth-heavy heartbreak predecessor.
Though Solar Power fared well, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, it didn't quite reach the same heights as Melodrama, which topped the charts and was nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.
Critics were also torn on the record; Entertainment Weekly gave it a B, saying it had a "subdued quality," while the British online magazine The Line of Best Fit took it further, calling Solar Power "somewhat of a swing and a miss."
In her newsletter, Lorde said she's spent the past year embracing all of the learning experiences that accompanied the album's release.
"I learnt 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," she wrote. "Sounds dry but it's true!!!"
The New Zealand native said that she and a friend recently discussed Solar Power while drinking chai at an English country house, and the friend pointed out to her that the album is "one of those works that gets made between peaks," something she considered necessary to achieve said peaks.
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"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," she wrote. "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."
RELATED: Lorde Defends Shushing Fans Onstage After Melodrama Tour Video Goes Viral: 'Don't Stress Too Hard'
Lorde also credited the album with helping her "work through some big personal stuff" that was impeding her ability to travel or perform live "without getting completely overwhelmed."
"I used to sit alone in my hotel room on show days, binge-watching Bake Off, Ambien and Vitamin D on the bedside, my skin pale, my stomach knotted in fear," she wrote. "These days, I'm out the door in every city, walking for miles, eating gelato after dark, finding tiny wine bars, trying on vintage clothes down secret streets, laughing with friends, and playing better and better shows for you as a result."
Elsewhere in the newsletter, Lorde shared a new music video for "The Path," which she described as a prequel to the "Solar Power" music video.
Lorde is currently on tour in Europe, and will return to North America for U.S. dates in August.
