“What was it? Words: the meaning, which it is, explained

On the heels of her impromptu pop-up at Washington Square Park on Tuesday, which attracted a crowd so large that it was closed by the NYPD, Lorde officially launched its new music era Thursday with the brand new single, “What was it?”

Synth-Pop’s song arrives almost four years after Lorde’s third album, “Solar power”, fans and criticisms divided with his brilliant acoustics and serene lyricism.

On the other hand, “what was it?” is heavy and nervous, like waking up a dream. Cowritten by Lorde and Jim -E Stack and co -produced by the duo with Daniel Nigro – who made a name for a pop -star whisper through her work with Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan – The song was obviously inspired by a new sorrow.

“At the end of 2023. Back in New York. Deep Breakup,” wrote Lorde on his website to accompany her release. “Stop birth control. Each meal a battle. Flashbacks and waves. Feel the vortex of sorrow and let it take me. Opening my mouth and recording what fell … the sound of my rebirth.”

Since the breakthrough of Lorde in 2013 struck “Royals”, which she wrote when she was still a teenager, the New Zealander, now aged 28, was generally social media and lips tight on her personal life – so much so that the fact that she was even in a long -term relationship was able to surprise for many fans.

On “What was that?”, The style of introspective composition of Lorde, of Lorde, offers an avenue to retrace its recent milestones and its emotional arcs.

The song is full of references to its past work, real places and flashbacks powered by drugs. Here is a narrow reading of the lyrics.

‘What was that?’ was probably inspired by Justin Warren, a music director who, according to Lorde, came out together

The rumors began to swirl in 2016 according to which Lorde went out with Justin Warren, director of promotions at Universal Music who is about 17 years old.

Although Warren denied information reporting a romance at the time, the pair was photographed kissing in the streets of Auckland in 2020 and to display more PDA in 2021.

Still in 2021, Lorde published the track “Solar Power” “The Man with the axis”, which was largely interpreted as an open letter to Warren. She described the ballad as “fragile, vulnerable” and “very private”.

“I express a huge amount of love and affection for someone,” she told Apple Music of the song. “I don’t even like thinking about people who listen to him because it’s just for me.”

On September 20, 2023, Lorde seemed to announce their break in an email to fans.

“I live again with sorrow. It’s different but the same thing. I hurt all the time, I forget why and I remember,” she wrote in her newsletter. “I am not trying to hide from the pain, I now understand that the pain is not something to hide, that there is really a great beauty to move with it. But sometimes I’m tired of being with myself.”

This chronology would suggest that “what was it?” was born following this break.

Neither Lorde nor Warren have never publicly confirmed their relationship, but he is the only person to whom she was a romantic linked since she separated from her first serious boyfriend, James Lowe, in early 2016. (Lowe apparently served as inspiration for Lorde’s second album in 2017, “Melodrama”. “)

The refrain of “What was it?” presents a reference to MDMA, drawing a connection to the “melodrama”

“MDMA in the rear garden, exploding our students,” sings Lorde. “We kissed for consecutive hours, well, baby, what was it?”

MDMA is an abbreviation of the drug commonly known as Ecstasy, which was popularized in the 2010s as a stimulant of the party.

Lorde previously revealed that she used the MDMA while doing “melodrama”, and the emotion which is the most central to the album is “Ecstasy”. (In comparison, she said that she combined her first album, “Pure Heroine”, with alcohol and her third album, “Solar power”, with cannabis.)

There are lyrical reminders to songs like ‘Girl, So Confusing’ and ‘Perfect Places’

“I wear smoke like a wedding veil / I have a meal that I will not eat,” sings Lorde in the first verse of “What was it?”

The first line is probably a reference to smoking, which Lorde is explicit in the refrain of the song. (“I then remember saying:” It’s the best cigarette in my life. “”) Cigarettes have historically been sold as appetite suppressors, which can help explain the second line of the verse.

In addition, Lorde has already written about the difficulties with its body image and its eating habits for disorders, especially for the remix of “Girl, SO Confused” from last year.

“Because in recent years / I have been at war with my body,” sings Lorde in her verse from the Charli XCX track. “I tried to be thinner / then I gained all the weight.”

In the 2023 e-mail to fans who revealed his recent sorrow, Lorde also wrote about the veracity of inflammation through her body and his concerns about his intestinal health. She also admitted to having compared herself to “beautiful people” who publish photos of themselves online with “arched backs and mouths of wet flowers”.

“Everyone looks very thin. I just think it makes me tired and far,” she wrote.

Sorrow is known to cause physical symptoms such as nausea and loss of appetite, in addition to psychological effects such as self -doubt and stress.

“What was that?” Also recalls the hedonistic atmosphere of “melodrama”, which Lorde described as “a disc on being alone. Good parts and bad parts ”. In particular, the closing piece of the album, “Perfect Places”, portrays Lorde as a frantic adolescent which takes parts to deal with solitude and existential anxiety. (“I hate big titles and the weather / I am 19 years old and I’m on fire / but when we dance, I’m fine / it’s just another night without grade.”)

Likewise, the second verse of “What was it?” represents the author as a woman possessed by sorrow, even when she is surrounded by a glamorous crowd.

“Do you know that you are still with me / when I am with my friends? / I look at the painted faces / who speak common affairs”, sings Lorde.

She also names Baby All Right, a little music place in Brooklyn: “When I’m in the blue light, Baby’s Tack / I face reality.” In the outroid of the song, this word is modified to more closely resemble its philosophy of “melodrama”: “When I am in the blue light, I can do it well.”

“What was that?” Also reflects “perfect places” in its explicit reference to a formative age. Where Lorde sang, “I am 19 years old and I am on fire”, she is now thinking about her unusual, stunned and indignant youth: “Since it was 17 years old, I gave you everything / Now, we are waking up with a dream, well, baby, what was it?”

Dream Logic is a recurring theme in Lorde’s discography

Throughout his song career of songs – but especially in her first album – Lorde used dreams or dreams as lyrical stenography to illustrate the meetings and experiences that feel surreal, superficial, condemned to end, or simply out of her reach.

Examples of this motif include “Royals” (“We are not careful, we lead Cadillac in our dreams”), “400 lux” (“Dreams of Clean Dent”), “Ribs” (“This dream does not feel soft”), “Buzzcut Season” (“All girls with heads in a dream”), “Wonkre In My Dreams “),” White Tens “Sober” (“When you dream with a fever / bet, you want you to touch our precipitation”).

More recently, in the track “Solar Power” “” California, Lorde asks to be delighted with the reverie of Hollywood, which she depicts like a world of fairy tale with a lot of flattery and small substance (“just a dream / I want to wake up, I want to wake up”).

Now, “What was it?” Described Lorde as finally obtaining his wish – and being forced to deal with the consequences of life in a fantasy for so long, to look at his “Dreamer” self -written.