After much teasing and a live debut at New York’s Washington Square Park earlier this week, ‘What Was That’ is finally here. Lorde’s first solo music since 2021’s Solar Power, was co-written with Jim-E Stack, and the pair co-produced it with Daniel Nigro. Jim-E Stack also contributed drums, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, and engineering, while Nigro played bass and electric guitar, piano, synthesizer, and engineering. Talia Chetrit shot the cover artwork. Check out the video for the song, shot on location in New York, below.
“I really think that this song is the music of my rebirth,” Lorde said in a voice memo to text subscribers on Wednesday. “It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, ever produced. The video’s so sick. It’s just different this time. You’ll see.” Maybe it’s the fact that it’s been seven years since Melodrama, but it really sounds like it. ‘What Was That’ hews much closer to the sound and emotional resonance of that album than Solar Power, and the production packs an added punch. It’s thrilling. Here’s some more context from Lorde:
LATE 2023. BACK IN NEW YORK. DEEP BREAKUP. STOPPING BIRTH CONTROL. EVERY MEAL A BATTLE. FLASHBACKS AND WAVES. FEELING GRIEF’S VORTEX AND LETTING IT TAKE ME. OPENING MY MOUTH AND RECORDING WHAT FELL OUT. JIMMY SHOUTING IN THE BACKGROUND. A THOUSAND HOURS OF AUDIO EMBROIDERY. DAN TELLING US WHERE THE MOOG BASS SHOULD GO. ANDREW GIVING IT TEETH. THE NIGHT WE FINALLY GOT THE DRUMS RIGHT. THE SOUND OF MY REBIRTH
