Unauthorised item in the bagging area

Thursday 6 March 2014

Oh Lorde



We've reached a point recently where if we go out in the car as a family I have to share the car stereo with my daughter, ET, aged 10. I get to choose the music on the way there, her on the way back, or vice versa. This sometimes leads to my routes being more circuitous and her's much more direct. The other day on her leg of the journey my music was playing when we pulled out of the multi-storey carpark and a few minutes later she cottoned on and asked for her turn. 'After this song' I said, knowing it was a seventeen minute and two seconds long Orb remix. One-nil to Dad.

Her in-car cd collection is made up of three Now That's What I Call Music! compilations (numbers 84, 86 and 88 I think. I don't know why it's just the even numbered ones). On the current one there are three good tunes, which over two discs and nearly forty songs is a low hit rate (for me,  not her- she likes 1D, Lawson, The Vamps etc). Now! 86 had a handful of good ones that helped soundtrack last summer's jaunt to France. The previous one had nothing on it that didn't want make me to want to cut my ears off.

To get to the point, I have actually discovered a new song from Now! 88 that I love. I may be late to the party here, but Lorde's Royals is stupendously good. In fact, seeing as it's had over forty seven million views on Youtube and has been number one around the world I am clearly very late to this party. The song is terrific, with a minimal backing track- just simple drums, some finger snaps and bass- and Lorde's wonderful voice, and lyrics about not being like the others, rejecting gaudy material goods, how she 'craves a different kind of buzz'. You can call her Queen Bee. It's stripped down, dramatic and moody, slinky too, a bit like The Xx with a more distinctive vocalist possibly. Lorde is a teenage New Zealander and seems to be outrageously talented. You probably know this already but it was a bit of a revelation to me.

Royals




7 comments:

thewalker said...

I'm with yah there. Pretty proud that she's a Kiwi and bloody happy that my Zoe is preferring an artist with considerably better than average pop lyrics and sonics.

Chur.

drew said...

The car stereo is the domain I have left and I will not let go of that!
Lorde is pretty good.

george said...

Jo likes this more than me. Much more. She has also heard it before and I have never heard it.

Simon said...

You should get out more. But yes she's definitely one to watch. The album it's from is pretty good too, if a little samey. But that single is superb. Springsteen covered it on his tour the other week. Have yet to hear if that was any good!

Luca said...

'Royals' is one of my daughter's three (not children's or Italian) fave songs, along with Of Monsters And Men's 'Little Talks' and Katy Perry's 'Roar' and the only one she likes not because of its videoclip, so it must be good.

As for the car stereo, my daughter gained control of it from the age of three, but I'm gradually getting her to let me play at least some music from Italian artists such as Ligabue and Lorenzo 'Jovanotti' Cherubini: it's still a struggle, though. That way, I've been exposed, for much more time than the average human being should, to things like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpYTbQFcBY&feature=kp.
Although I can detect a slight 'Din Daa Daa' influence in this video, I still prefer the original version which uses, I kid you not, the'Funky Drummer' beat. Should I seek professional help?

londonlee said...

Get with it Grandpa!

My daughter likes One Direction and the two Katy Perry songs we've let her hear (Fireworks, Roar), she's a little young for the rest of her oeuvre (I mean, have you heard 'Peacock'??? Filth!)

Been playing them 3 Feet High & Rising in the car this week. No complaints yet.

flycasual said...

I too was late to the party but I love this song and what it stands for. 40 mil views and number one everywhere, where had I been? Served me right for dismissing the charts all the time. I also have been playing 3 ft High and Rising with my 4 year old son, it's the only Hip Hop I can play with fear of any mutha£&?*in profanities!