It's not that that the psych folk of Solar Power was bad, exactly, but Lorde's 2021 album didn't get its claws into me like 2017's Melodrama did — an opinion that the world at large clearly shares.
Lorde seems to know it, since her new single, "What Was That" (co-written with Jim-E Stack, and co-produced with Dan Nigro) returns to the clubby clang of Melodrama with lovesick nostalgia, as well as a show-stealing beat drop full of nocturnal reverb and distorted slices of synth.
It's not so much a retread of Melodrama (or "reheating nachos," as the kids say) as it is Lorde embracing her strengths, offering a very promising preview of her yet-to-be-announced fourth album (due out this summer, according to Charli XCX).