Lorde is, dare I say, a revelation. While her dance moves leave a bit to be desired, her debut album Pure Heroine skyrocketed in popularity am
While most acknowledge that there exists an impressive measure of profundity in her songs, most don't compare Lorde to artists such as Adele or Bon Iver when it comes to her ability to make listeners *Christ Traeger voice* literally burst into tears. However, upon rediscovering my own rampant love for Lorde this past week, I realized that she also has that divine power to destroy a person's soul and make them cry like a baby. Alas, a definitive ranking of those special lyrics that make a person want to curl into the fetal position and never leave was born.
(Also, I definitely don't know this from experience. It's through a friend. Whatever. It's fine.)
20. "I don't ever think about death / It's alright if you do, it's fine."
- Glory and Gore.
19. "You're the only friend I need / Sharing beds like little kids / And laughing 'til our ribs get tough / But that will never be enough."
- Ribs
P.S. I'm just going to say the entirety of Ribs as a song makes me want to cry and so it really has no place being ranked.
18. "I'm kinda older than I was when I revelled without a care / So there."
- Team
17. "But when you're withdrawn it's the closest thing / To assault when all eyes are on you."
- Bravado
16. "The only problem that I've got with the club / Is how you're severed from the people who watched you grow up."
- The Love Club
15. "The men up on the news / They try to tell us all that we will lose / But it's so easy in this blue / Where everything is good."
- Buzzcut Season
P.P.S. Buzzcut Season is on the same boat as Ribs. It's all sad. It all makes me want to cry. Moving on.
14. "Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone / What does that make me?"
- Still Sane
13. "Everyone's competing for a love they won't receive / 'Cause what this palace wants is release."
- Team
12. "We're hollow like the bottles that we drain."
- 400 Lux
11. "This dream isn't feeling sweet / We're reeling through the midnight streets / And I've never felt more alone / Feels so scary getting old."
- Ribs
10. "I'm sitting pretty on the throne / There's nothing more I want / Except to be alone."
- The Love Club
9. "I remember when your head caught flame / It kissed your scalp and caressed your brain / Well you laughed 'baby it's okay / It's buzzcut season anyway.'"
- Buzzcut Season
8. "One day the blood won't flow so gladly / One day we'll all get still."
- A World Alone
7. "All my life, I've been fighting a war."
- Bravado
6. "I'll be the beauty queen in tears / It's a new art form showing people how little we care."
- Tennis Court
5. "The electronics of your heart / See how fast they fall apart."
- Biting Down
4. "If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side / At the swingin' party down the line."
- Swingin' Party
3. "I'm glad that we stopped kissing the tar on the highway / We move in the tree streets / I'd like it if you stayed."
- 400 Lux
2. "I want them back / The minds we had / It's not enough to feel the lack / I want them back."
- Ribs
1. "And nothing's wrong but nothing's true / I live in a hologram with you."
- Buzzcut Season
This is some deep stuff. Like, feel it in your bones, let it swim around your brain deep. I think the reason Lorde appeals so much to Generation Y is that she translates into words feelings associated with the hand we've been dealt in society. We've gone through a recession, experienced at least two wars, witnessed, both first- and secondhand, acts of hate and terrorism, seen technology progress in leaps and bounds, and are now living in the beginning of what appears to be a modern-day socio-political revolution.
With those undeniably difficult circumstances, uncertainty lurks in every corner of our lives. Nostalgia grows like a beast inside of us, willing us to come back to the days when life was easy, and is then knocked down by the burdens placed on our shoulders to carry a world falling apart at the seams. Through this, we have been hardened. I feel like Lorde exposes what's beneath that.
This also makes it super easy for us Y-ers to cry to her music. It just hits seriously close to home.
It's real.
