Bella Fiddler

Lorde’s new single can be enjoyed by many different audiences, from teens to adults.

Lorde, also known as Ella Yelich-O’Connor, has been in the music industry for over a decade and has become a staple in the world of indie-alternative pop princesses. With her debut album Pure Heroine becoming a hit in 2013, Lorde has been dropping albums every couple of years. Each of these albums has brought a new vibe and genre to her discography, including moody electro beats, emotional and intense art pop, and sunny psychedelic sounds. Lorde has been on a hiatus since 2021, with her last release being Solar Power. After her 4 year break, Lorde is back in the pop world with her new single, What Was That?

Since the start of Lorde’s career at the ripe age of 16, she has always been an expert at expressing the ups and downs of adolescence and cherishing the fleeting moments of girlhood. Now, as she is furthering her career as a woman in her mid-20s, Lorde can look back on her teen years, specifically in this new single.

The song starts off with a repeated intense beat, and sings of recounting melancholic and isolating aspects of her life. Lorde states, “I cover up all the mirrors, I can’t see myself yet,” and as she “steps out into the street, alone in the sea, it comes over me.” These lyrics imply that Lorde is not feeling content with herself or her life, and feels alone in her city. But with that said, the end of the first verse leaves on a more nostalgic and reminiscent note, as if she is remembering a feeling she thought she lost.

Lorde goes on to speak about how she’s missing this person and has a lot of desire to go back to what she once had with them, and even the person she was when she was with them. The song as a whole seems to be about wishing you could go back to a part of your life, and how someone else had such a big impact on the trajectory and quality of her life and emotions. Lorde narrates specific smaller details of her time with this unnamed person, and she goes on to say how, although the relationship has passed, she hasn’t detached from it. Lorde rhetorically directs her thoughts to this person by saying, “Do you know you’re still with me when I’m out with my friends,” and “I tried to let whatever has to pass through me pass through, but this is staying a while, it might not let me go.” Both of these statements demonstrate that this relationship has had a significant impact on Lorde, and to her, it was so integral to her life that she cannot part with it even if she wanted to.

Throughout the repeated chorus and in the last lines of the song, Lorde asks this person, “What was that?” Although a short question, this lyric holds a lot of weight. Lorde is asking, what were all the memories we created together, and the amount of time she dedicated to the person? Were they significant to them? Did they mean anything to the other half of the relationship? Although Lorde doesn’t get her question answered, she does get to express these feelings of rumination, longing, and frustration in her latest song.