Lorde’s bold live return showcases a radically different chapter

The sun was low on the horizon but for Lorde night had already arrived, full of mystery and possibilities. After celebrating the joys of soaking up rays with friends with 2021’s ‘Solar Power’, Ella Yelich-O’Connor kicked off a blitz of summer shows with a radical reboot at the All Together Now festival in Co Waterford, Ireland (Aug 6).

“This is the Night Vision edition of the Solar Power tour,” she grinned early in the 60-minute performance. Her stark red and black outfit reinforced that this was a clean break from the honeyed and beige aesthetic of her ‘Solar Power’ gigs, which concluded last March following an 11-month stint crisscrossing continents.

Whether Night Vision was a new project or a musical whim she was trying on for size was unclear. But it made for a thrilling pivot that steered into sinewy subterranean beats and pitched Lorde’s epic voice against gothic grooves. If ‘Solar Power’ had been a sad-girl party on the beach, this was a rave in a monastery – a baroque jamboree delivered with fight and bite.

LORDE PERFORMING TEAM AT #AllTogetherNow pic.twitter.com/2HlUE4wcrk

— Lorde Updates (@LordeUpdatesBR) August 6, 2023

The singer started with a conventional reading of her 2013 break-out ‘Royals’ – though with a new framing, in which Lorde delivered three-quarters of the tune backstage. The video screens at the 27,000-capacity festival had flickered to life with the footage of someone triggering a beat on a drum machine. Pulling back, the camera revealed Lorde serenading the audience, fake tear-drops rimming her eyes.

She finally emerged on to a stage that signalled she was moving on from ‘Solar Power’. That tour was all about cradling the audience in her new lullabying songs – sweet tunes with an undertow of menace (partly inspired by her reading about ’60s cults). Lorde had been flanked by backing singers and musicians in oatmeal-coloured robes and by a sun-dial-shaped stage. Those vibes echoed ‘Solar Power’s themes of harmony with nature and making peace with life’s refusal to be predictable.

All that was now out the window in a 14-track set featuring a mere two ‘Solar Power’ cuts: the title track and ‘Mood Ring’. A glittering metallic curtain half-obscured an elevated disk that, tracing the arc of her recent career, went from bright to dark. The overhaul was most notable when she deep-dove into her catalogue. She bopped and blitzed through ‘Magnets’, her 2015 collaboration with house shapeshifters Disclosure.

“Let go, we can free ourselves of all we’ve learned,” Lorde sang. It was a message she had taken to heart. She slid into a crunching re-imagining of ‘Tennis Court’, built on the doomy 2014 remix by Australian producer Flume. Twenty minutes in, it was game set and match, Lorde.

To Lorde fans this will come as a surprise and a relief. ‘Solar Power’ was a fascinating mood-shift from an artist who had long made it clear she wasn’t interested following the industry expectations. She had already radically changed course by working with Jack Antonoff on the tonally diverse and angst-splashed ‘Melodrama’ in 2017.

‘Solar Power’ was a breath of fresh air that carried the distinct whiff of passion project. It highlighted how powerful Lorde’s voice could be as a sort of musical tranquilliser. But after that departure, how encouraging it was to see her pivot and to remind us that her epic vocals are a perfect fit of punishing nightclub rhythms. The album was gorgeous, and the live show acclaimed – NME praised it as a “euphoric extravaganza”. However, not everyone adored the hazy, cosmic vibes. The New York Times suggested that the LP had prioritised introversion over connecting with an audience and that some of the material could have scored a yoga class.

But what was clear was that Lorde was ready to move on, and she landed at All Together Now like a comet. The three-day-er in the rolling Waterford Hills has established itself as an eclectic favourite with Irish festival-goers. But this year, a pall had hung over the event as Irish music reckoned with the death of Sinéad O’Connor. Villagers, Lisa O’Neill and Saint Sister were just some of the artists who had paid tribute to the late vocalist with covers of songs such as N’othing Compares 2 U’ and ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’.

By Sunday, it was time for a switch-up. Enter Lorde in a mood for reinvention. “Night Vision” is an evocative title for a potential next phase of Lorde’s career. In a post-gig Instagram, she said she would “do a different show pretty much every night” and was in a “fuk why not?” mode. So it’s hard to know how much to read into the radical pivot All Together Now represented. Or to what degree she will replicate the performance through the rest of her festival dates in Norway, Cornwall, Finland, Hungary and Portugal over the coming weeks.

The yoga mats have been put away for now. At All Together Now, Lorde was conjuring with the ‘best, craziest night of your life” energy of ‘Melodrama’ – but with menacing synth-wave beats layered through new versions of ‘Homemade Dynamite’ and ‘Buzzcut Season’. It was as if she’d looped back in time and smuggled herself onto the Miami Vice soundtrack or to the Tech Noir nightclub in Terminator. She was the only one on stage, the sisterhood aura of ‘Solar Power’ packed away.

This will thrill fans who appreciate what she was shooting for on album three, but were ready for Lorde to return to the day job. She has always stood apart in a crowded pop scene as a performer who combines unsinkable hooks with left-of-centre energy. As she finished with a straightforward ‘Green Light’, the big single from ‘Melodrama’, shadows were creeping around the venue. The night was almost here and for Lorde, it was ripe with potential.