10 Of The Most Self-Aware Lyrics From Lorde’s ‘Pure Heroine’
It’s a new art form showing people how little we care (yeah)
We’re so happy, even when we’re smilin’ out of fear
– TENNIS COURT
Anyone who says apathy isn’t the new black has seriously been unplugged from media for the past five years or so. Haven’t you heard? It’s cool to be numb and uninformed. It’s cool to seem like you find everything passe. At least, that’s what society is trying to breed in us.
We’re hollow like the bottles that we drain
You drape your wrists over the steering wheel
Pulses can drive from here
We might be hollow, but we’re brave
– 400 LUX
Going off of being apathetic, if you feel nothing- what is there to be afraid of? We think we’ve seen it all, so little shocks and scares us these days.
I want ’em back (I want ’em back)
The minds we had (the minds we had)
How all the thoughts (how all the thoughts)
Moved ’round our heads (moved ’round our heads)
I want ’em back (I want ’em back)
The minds we had (the minds we had)
It’s not enough to feel the lack
I want ’em back,
– RIBS
Grasping the true complexity of childhood nostalgia at 16? Damn, girl.
Explosions on TV, and all the girls with heads inside a dream
So now we live beside the pool, where everything is good
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
I’m kind of over gettin’ told to throw my hands up in the air
So there
I’m kind of older than I was when I reveled without a care
So there
– TEAM
No-one ’round here’s good at keeping their eyes closed
The sun’s starting to light up when we’re walking home
Tired little laughs, gold lie promises, we’ll always win at this
I don’t ever think about death
It’s alright if you do, it’s fine
We gladiate but I guess we’re really fighting ourselves
Roughing up our minds so we’re ready when the kill time comes
– GLORY AND GORE
Lorde questions why our generation puts ourselves through so much media stressors (i.e. violence, over-exposure, etc.) and wonders if it is to make us stronger and less sensitive when the time comes for us to fight for the things that are hard to achieve in life.
Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone
What does that make me?
– STILL SANE
Although not technically a Lorde lyric, this allusion to Yoni Wolf shows she’s been studying other musicians way beyond her and is aware of how fame will forever change her life once she inevitably achieves it.
I’m little, but I’m coming for the crown
I’m little, but I’m coming for you
I’m little but I’m coming for the title
Held by everyone who’s up
– STILL SANE
Same, Lorde, same.
I’ll let you in on something big
I am not a white teeth teen
I tried to join but never did
The way they are, the way they seem is something else, it’s in the blood
Their molars blinking like the lights.
-White Teeth Teens
Lorde realizes she will never be an a-typical beauty Queen or popstar, but has made peace with that. It’s also beautifully relatable because how often have we felt as if our peers somehow see things in a way we’ll never fully understand?
All my fake friends and all of their noise
Complain about work
They’re studying business, I study the floor
And you haven’t stopped smoking all night
Maybe the Internet raised us, or maybe people are jerks
– A WORLD ALONE
Discussing how the internet has changed the way we view the world and each other, is perhaps the most self-aware and post modern idea Lorde explores throughout this album. Plus, the song title is about the feeling of being alone in a world full of people. The parallels to internet culture and the feeling of loneliness are overt, in the best way possible.
What are your favorite songs from Pure Heroine? Let us know in the comment section below!