Tag Archives: Lorde

Music

Green Light

Lorde is finally back!  This past Thursday, Lorde released her new single, “Green Light” from her upcoming second studio album, Melodrama.  And I got to say, it was worth the wait.  In the four years since Pure Heroine, Lorde has certainly matured – her lyrics are as sharp as ever and even her voice seems wiser.  When I first heard “Green Light,” it almost felt like a Robyn song, which makes sense since Lorde has said that Robyn has been one of her influences in creating the new album.

I recently wrote about how many artists require fans to do rather extensive research to find when new albums will be released, when in fact it should be the artist reaching them.  I did unfollow Lorde on social media as part of my experiment – I wanted to see if I would hear about Lorde’s album outside of social media.

My plan somewhat failed because one of the people I follow retweeted her tweet announcing “Green Light.”  I guess this really just shows the power of social media and how interconnected we are: I thought I could avoid any news from Lorde by simply unfollowing her, forgetting her millions of followers still have the ability to retweet (in actuality, I didn’t forget this was a function, I just assumed people wouldn’t retweet…but as they say, never assume).

Once I heard the news, I threw my experiment away and re followed Lorde on all platforms – I mean, based on this song alone, I can’t wait to hear the rest of the record.

I’ve heard that Melodrama is coming out June 15th, but it wasn’t officially from Lorde, but I think Lorde said it’s coming this summer!

I. CAN’T. FREAKIN. WAIT.

Music

Reach Me.

It’s been almost four years since Lorde has released Pure Heroine, and I’ve been dying for new music.  After months and months of silence, I had an idea: I was going to stop googling for information on Lorde’s new album, I was going to unfollow her on social media, and see how I discovered she had new music coming out (if that ever happened).

This is not about me giving up on Lorde – I am still a faithful fan – but I wanted to see which strategies would work best when marketing her new album.  I’ve observed that a lot of artists rely heavily on social media to update fans on new albums (not a surprise).  But some artists will simply send out a tweet, they don’t follow it on any other platform or stream.  Some artists with massive followings can get away with this because the news will be everywhere in two seconds.  Some artists are so successful (Beyoncé) they don’t even have to alert fans of new albums – they just release them.

But, it’s not enough to send out just one tweet and expect fans to know new music is coming – it takes a cross-promotional campaign.  Or, at least, it should.

I’ve become interested in how artists alert fans of new music. Indeed, I originally only joined Twitter because some of my favorite artists would only update fans via the platform – I was always a step behind if I wasn’t constantly checking their tweets.  But then I started thinking: artists should not make their fans work this hard.  I mean, they want me to buy their album, why should I do extensive research to find out if they even have a new album?

So I’ve selected a handful of artists (Lorde is the first) that I know are probably working on new music.  And I’m not doing my usual extensive research to find out any information.  Instead, I’m sitting back and just observing and seeing how they reach out to me.

 

Music

Where Is Home

If I made a list of music producers I would love to work/learn/intern with, Joel Little would be high on the list.  I can’t say I’ve heard all his productions…I’ve been looking, but it’s slightly hard because a lot of his stuff is New Zealand based and not released (as far as I’m aware) in America.  Regardless, everything I’ve heard so far is absolutely phenomenal.

You may be familiar with Little’s work as he’s the mastermind behind Lorde, having cowritten and produced her album Pure Heroine, her EP The Love Club EP, and her Hunger Games hit “Yellow Flicker Beat.”    From what I have heard, I think his other work is also mind-blowing.  Little also cowrote/produced Broods’ album Evergreen which is just as great as Pure Heroine.  I heard a snippet of the song he did with Sam Smith, which I was impressed with because I wasn’t sure how he would mix his style with Smith’s.  He has a great way of creating beats and this electric energy within his songs that is so different and refreshing.

You can view his list of credits here.

My love of Joel Little’s work has gotten to the point that I know anything he works on is going to be amazing, so when he tweeted out yesterday that a song that he worked on with Elliphant – “Where is Home” – is out, I instantly downloaded it.  And it’s currently on repeat and stuck in my head.

The thing I love about this song is the great beat, bass, and synth work that Little puts in.  It creates a big and full chorus and makes you want to get up and dance around.

It was also ingenious that he (I’m assuming Little came up with this idea, feels like him) added an electric guitar during the second chorus (1:31) which really elevated the chorus.

So, keep your ears peeled for Joel Little.  The guy is a genius.

#PhillipsSongOfTheDay, Music

Caracal

I recently got a copy of Disclosure’s new album Caracal, and naturally one of the first songs I listened to was “Magnets,” a song cowritten and sung by Lorde.  Being a huge Lorde fan and waiting rather impatiently for her follow up to Pure Heroine, I needed any jolt of new Lorde music.

“Magnets” instantly became one of my new favorite songs after listening to it one time.  It has a great dance beat and Lorde’s vocals are on point.  It’s one of those songs that you can’t help but dance a little when you hear it.  And then you’re sad when it’s over.  Thereby you put it on repeat.  It should be their next single.

My first instinct was that I liked the song only because Lorde sang and cowrote it.  But then I just started listening to other songs and realized that it’s a pretty fantastic album.  The beats and rhythms alone are incredible, but then you add the many collaborations (which include artists like The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Lorde, Miguel, and others) and it shows the Lawrence brothers (who make up Disclosure) are quite talented in the area of making catchy electric-dance music.

#PhillipRadio, Music

Biking/Work Out Playlist

I may have mentioned a couple times this past summer, like every summer, that I’ve been biking a lot.  There’s a great bike path right down the street from me, so it’s great to blare the music and peddle my problems away.  Usually I create a playlist each year, and then add or remove songs throughout the year.

I created a Spotify Playlist of some of the music I listen to while biking/working out in case you’re looking for some new beats or a song to change up your playlist.

NOTE: There’s no particular order because I just hit “shuffle” before I start biking.

 

Here’s other songs that I usually listen to, but couldn’t find on Spotify:

Music

NEW LORDE MUSIC

I saw this tweet today by Joel Little, Lorde’s co-writer and producer, and now I’m extremely excited.

I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I think this means that Lorde is working on her second studio album; I can’t wait.  Pure Heroine has become one of my most listened to and favorite albums because the beats and production is so different, so I’m really in need of her follow up album.  I read an interview where Lorde confirmed she has started work on her second album, but it is a departure from Pure Heroine in that it’s very different.

If she’s going to continue to work with Joel Little, as it seems evident by the tweet above, then her next album is going to be stellar.  I own three albums (Pure Heroine, Lorde’s Love Club – EP, and Evergreen by Broods) Little co-wrote and produced and his production is unique and mind blowing (I’ve been trying to find more music he has produced, but so far I can only get my hands on Lorde and Broods).  He creates incredible beats and his minimalistic approach paradoxically creates a fully and whole sound.  As a musician, it would be an honor to just be able to observe how he works in the studio, let alone begin able to write/record/produce a song with him.

In the meantime, I’m going to spend time dancing around to Lorde’s music and pray we get some news on her new album as soon as possible.  If you haven’t listened to Pure Heroine, I enthusiastically encourage you to, it is awesome.  If you’re a Lorde fan such as myself, I would also suggest you take a listen to Broods’ album Evergreen.  If you’re like me and you’ve been listening to both albums on repeat, sit tight because I have a feeling we’re getting a new album from Lorde very soon.  Fingers crossed!

Music

BBC Radio 1 Covers

I found this British radio show that posts videos on YouTube of different musicians performing cover songs.  Generally all the performances are incredible, but sometimes the cover songs some artists choose are rather unexpected,.  I mean, Ed Sheeran singing Christina Aguilera’s song “Dirrty” and Hozier singing “Problem” by Ariana Grande is so unpredictable but awesome.  I embedded some of the better/interesting performances I found.  I do have to say that I think Hozier and Bastille’s performances are perhaps the best ones because they really make them their own.

#PhillipsSongOfTheDay, Music

Don’t Tell ‘Em

Okay, I realize I’m a bit behind the times, but I just finally listened to “Don’t Tell ‘Em” by Jeremih featuring YG.  And I kind of liked it.

I remember over the summer hearing snippets of this song on the radio, and skipping past the channel.  I have no idea why I never gave it chance.  But, in my defense, I thought it was a completely different song than it actually was.  The song has a great beat/rhythm to it; the synths that start the song  really make the song.  I also think the way he sings/raps “don’t tell ’em” in the chorus is great, and sticks in your head.

I also saw this clip of Lorde covering “Don’t Tell ‘Em,” and while she did a good job, I thought it was kind of unexpected:

Films, Music

Yellow Flicker Beat

I think I’ve established before that I’m a huge fan of Lorde.  I’ve listened to her music endlessly and I’ve seen her in concert (which you HAVE to do, she’s incredible live).  So, naturally, I was over the moon when her song from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One got nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.  And probably like all the other Lorde fans out there, I was sad that it did not win the Golden Globe last night.

The great thing about this song is that Lorde perfectly captured the essence of Mockingjay Part One.  She sings in the chorus, “This is the start of how it all ends/ They used to shout my name, now they whisper it,” which perfectly resonates where Katniss is at this point in the film series.  The film is the start (part one) of how the whole series ends (there’s a part two coming November 2015).  Further, Katniss was once something revered in the Capitol, but now she’s their enemy and something not be admired, therefore they “whisper” her name.

The song as a whole has these incredible, thought provoking lines that just seamlessly fit to the story of Katniss, which I think means it deserved the Golden Globe, and quite possibly an Academy Award nomination.  I doubt we’ll see Lorde at the Oscars, but I hope I’m wrong!