If you weren’t aware, Lorde has an album coming out this August called Solar Power. She released the title track as the lead single, along with announcing a big tour and revealing the track list. Today, she’s shared the second single called “Stoned at the Nail Salon,” which is a graceful ballad about getting high, with memories of being naked in bed with only earrings on and thoughts about losing interest in the music you loved at age 16.
Over a tenderly plucked electric guitar, she sings about the passing of time—a sun rising, wrinkles on skin, beauty fading. The song opens with a romantic safety set in place: “Got a wishbone drying on the window sill in my kitchen / Just in case I wake up and realize I’ve chosen wrong.” In a newsletter she sent after the song’s release, Lorde revealed the two worlds she felt torn between—her pop star reign and a home life in New Zealand—that inspired the track. “I was sure that I was building a beautiful life for myself, but I wasn’t sure if that life was going to satisfy the same thirsty, fearless person who could tear apart a festival stage or be in seven countries in seven days,” she said.
After the craziness of her last album cycle, she talked about the time she took off. “The first couple months of it were incredible—I’d run a bath at 10am and eat a slice of cake in it! My bandmate Jimmy and I would go out for these long lunches on Mondays and drink wine! But eventually, of course, the insecurity that this was my life now, that I wasn’t a titan of industry, but someone who just… cooked and walked the dog and gardened crept in.”
About the track, she said, “this song is sort of a rumination on getting older, settling into domesticity, and questioning if you’ve made the right decisions. I think lots of people start asking those questions of themselves around my age, and it was super comforting to me writing them down, hoping they’d resonate with others too. I used this song as a dumping ground for so many thoughts…”
Listen to the contemplative track below, and pre-order Solar Power here.
