Lorde released her new single "Solar Power" last night, and the song no doubt left more than a few aging Gen Xers crying foul. After all, the title track from Lorde's Solar Power album sounds almost exactly like Primal Scream's 1990 mega-hit "Loaded." Well, before you get too bent out of shape about the whole thing, Lorde has now admitted that the songs are indeed incredibly similar.
Lorde spoke about the massive similarities between "Solar Power" and the Screamadelica track in a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. In fact, she called Primal Scream's song "100 percent the original blueprint for this," but apparently Lorde wrote "Solar Power" without ever actually hearing "Loaded" — or even Primal Scream — somehow.
Here's how Lorde explained the whole thing:
I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I'd been told to check them out. I wrote the song on the piano and then we realized like, this is, it sounds a lot like "Loaded." It's just one of those crazy things that like, they just were the spiritual forebears of the song. I reached out to [Primal Scream frontman] Bobby [Gillespie] and he was so lovely about it. And he was like, you know, these things happen. You caught a vibe that we caught years ago. And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state "Loaded" is 100 percent the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically. And I'm glad we did.
So just like that, this potential controversy — and plagiarism lawsuit — has been gracefully snubbed out. And to that we say, good work Lorde!
Down below, you can compare the two songs for yourself.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lorde also talked about the origins of "Solar Power" and explained the following:
I was on Martha's Vineyard with my good friend, Cazzie staying at her house. We had just been for a big swim all day. My hair was wet and when I came back into my room, I had made a little Yamaha DX keyboard, and I just started singing and kind of figuring this thing out. I was like, what is this? It almost felt like a "Rock DJ" to me, the Robbie Williams song. I was like, I don't know what's going on here, but I love it. And then I just put it away and like had a paddle board, I think, but it really was such a natural, like joyful extension of an awesome day. And then I think I took it back into, into the city to Jack [Antonoff]'s and, you know, we had all the windows open. It was summer. And when we just followed it through. I sampled cicadas on my phone for the last few summers. I was like, it has to have the cicadas in it. I really wanted to capture, there's something so specific about the New Zealand summer.
Lorde also spoke about the song's special guest stars Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, saying: "I love those girls so much. They killed it on the song. I was like, who are my most like God-tier female vocalists friends that could be on this. And they both just crushed. It was such a pleasure for me to have them. So talented, so cool, and I've never had any other voices on my songs. This is the first time people were singing with me. I just knew it had to be a gang."
So far, no release date for Solar Power has been set, but we still hope this will actually be the album's cover art.
Lorde spoke about the massive similarities between "Solar Power" and the Screamadelica track in a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. In fact, she called Primal Scream's song "100 percent the original blueprint for this," but apparently Lorde wrote "Solar Power" without ever actually hearing "Loaded" — or even Primal Scream — somehow.
Here's how Lorde explained the whole thing:
I had never heard Primal Scream in my life. I'd been told to check them out. I wrote the song on the piano and then we realized like, this is, it sounds a lot like "Loaded." It's just one of those crazy things that like, they just were the spiritual forebears of the song. I reached out to [Primal Scream frontman] Bobby [Gillespie] and he was so lovely about it. And he was like, you know, these things happen. You caught a vibe that we caught years ago. And he gave us his blessing. So let the record state "Loaded" is 100 percent the original blueprint for this, but we arrived at it organically. And I'm glad we did.
So just like that, this potential controversy — and plagiarism lawsuit — has been gracefully snubbed out. And to that we say, good work Lorde!
Down below, you can compare the two songs for yourself.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lorde also talked about the origins of "Solar Power" and explained the following:
I was on Martha's Vineyard with my good friend, Cazzie staying at her house. We had just been for a big swim all day. My hair was wet and when I came back into my room, I had made a little Yamaha DX keyboard, and I just started singing and kind of figuring this thing out. I was like, what is this? It almost felt like a "Rock DJ" to me, the Robbie Williams song. I was like, I don't know what's going on here, but I love it. And then I just put it away and like had a paddle board, I think, but it really was such a natural, like joyful extension of an awesome day. And then I think I took it back into, into the city to Jack [Antonoff]'s and, you know, we had all the windows open. It was summer. And when we just followed it through. I sampled cicadas on my phone for the last few summers. I was like, it has to have the cicadas in it. I really wanted to capture, there's something so specific about the New Zealand summer.
Lorde also spoke about the song's special guest stars Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, saying: "I love those girls so much. They killed it on the song. I was like, who are my most like God-tier female vocalists friends that could be on this. And they both just crushed. It was such a pleasure for me to have them. So talented, so cool, and I've never had any other voices on my songs. This is the first time people were singing with me. I just knew it had to be a gang."
So far, no release date for Solar Power has been set, but we still hope this will actually be the album's cover art.
