SOLAR POWER | LORDE P2

(Scroll down for the English Version)

 1ª PARTE 

Acho que não é necessário fazer outra introdução. Para ler a minha análise da primeira metade do álbum é só carregar no link ali em cima!

7. THE MAN WITH THE AXE

Depois de na faixa 6 dizer 
"You're gonna love again, so just try staying open
And when the time comes, you'll fall"
passamos para esta música.

The Man with the Axe é uma música sobre amor, e é para mim a que tem metáforas mais difíceis de desvendar, muito provavelmente por ser a música mais pessoal de todo o álbum. É uma música linda. E soa muito a um poema.

"But our shapes in the dark are the reason I've stayed
For all these years"
É por tudo o que eles sabem um do outro nos momentos mais difíceis que continuam juntos, ou por tudo o que só eles sabem um do outro.

"With my fistful of tunes that it's painful to play - talvez esteja a referir-se aos seus álbuns anteriores e ao sentimento que os construiu
Fingernail worlds like favourite seashells - só me lembra as unhas que ela usou nos Grammy's de 2014, do facto de lhe lembrarem quase um mundo diferente, de uma era diferente, tal como vemos as conchas como recordações de um mundo diferente do nosso
They fill up my nights and then they float away" - o facto de estar com esta pessoa faz com que as preocupações que tinha com o passado se desvaneçam

"You felled me clean as a pine
The man with the axe and the look in his eyes"
"the boy with the plan" que ela refere num dos versos anteriores tornou-se agora "the man with the axe", uma mudança que a fez cair ainda mais.

[E a multidão a gritar ao fundo? De onde ele a consegue tirar, ele conhece-a fora de onde toda a gente conhece]


8. DOMINOES

Esta é outra das músicas escritas sobre uma personagem. É uma música divertida sobre uma pessoa que decidiu "começar do zero" e mudar a sua vida toda sem ter em conta o que fez ou fazia, ou mudar por tentar demasiado encontrar quem realmente é. Quase como se de um momento para o outro se tivesse transformado magicamente numa pessoa totalmente diferente.

Lorde aponta ao longo da música inúmeras coisas que este rapaz faz de novo, como yoga, regar as plantas que tem com a nova namorada, fumar marijuana quando era o que fazia mais cocaína [ahahaha]

"Just another phase you're rushing on through
Go all New Age, outrunning your blues"
Exatamente a referir-se à tentativa de alguém a reinventar-se, mas adoro como ela construíu estes versos.

"Fifty gleaming chances in a row
Then I watch you flick them down like dominoes
Must feel good being Mr. Start Again" [referência a Taylor??]
Aqui é exatamente a descrição de uma pessoa a ter 50 oportunidades ótimas à sua frente para melhorar a vida que tem, mas todas essas vezes deitá-las abaixo e querer começar do zero.

"I know
know a girl who knows a
Another girl who knows the woman that you hurt"
Para além de ter magoado alguém e não ter feito nada em relação a isso porque só queria começar do zero, estes versos parecem sugerir que também começa do zero relativamente às pessoas que tem na sua vida, porque "nós" não conhecemos a mulher que ele magoou, mas sim uma amiga de uma amiga de uma amiga. E por cada vez que começa de novo, maiores são as hipóteses de alguém conhecer esse alguém que ele deixou para trás.

No último refrão achei mesmo engraçado ela adicionar "Don't get up", como se os problemas que ele quis deixar para trás não tivessem nada que ver com ele, e ironicamente não precisa de se levantar para os ir resolver.

Na música ouvem-se sirenes no fundo, achei interessante referir que elas existem porque a música foi gravada com as portas do estúdio abertas, e Lorde usa neste álbum muitos sons do que está a acontecer à sua volta em várias músicas, mas normalmente são sons da Natureza.



9. BIG STAR

Esta é definitivamente uma das minhas músicas favoritas deste álbum.

Big Star é uma música que Lorde escreveu sobre o amor que tem por Pearl, o seu cão, que morreu algum tempo depois de ela a ter começado a escrever.

O que é mais interessante nesta música é que há nela também o conceito de quando olhamos para a nossa família, para pessoas importantes na nossa vida e para os nossos animais os vermos como celebridades, querermos estar sempre com eles, ou estar sempre a tirar fotografias deles. São celebridades nos nossos corações, são estrelas e não desaparecem porque continuamos a lembrarmo-nos delas.

Esta é uma das músicas que mais me emocionou de sempre.

"Everyone knows that you're too good for me, don't they?
I'm a cheater, I lie, and I'm shy
But you like to say hello to total strangers"
Os cães principalmente são dos animais mais puros e verdadeiros que alguém pode ter

"Shivering pines and walls of colour
I can't believe I used to stay inside"
Parece que a vida muda quando passamos a ser donos de um cão, temos outra perspetiva do mundo exterior porque temos de ir passeá-los, e se calhar se não tivéssemos perdíamos a beleza desses sítios lá fora.

"But every perfect summer's gotta say goodnight
Now I watch you run through the amber light
I used to love the party, now I'm not alright
Drinking in the dark, take me home tonight"
Estes versos foram os que me atingiram mais. O verão perfeito acaba, talvez o último verão com Pearl, e ela está a olhar para uma fotografia (que ela pôs no Instagram) dele a correr na praia no nascer ou pôr do sol. E lembra-se como adorava a festa, ela a chegar a casa e o cão feliz de a ver, mas agora isso já não acontece, e é difícil ajustar-se a essa nova realidade.

"You're a big star
Wanna take your picture"
Aqui é aquilo que estava a descrever, de vermos as pessoas e animais que amamos como estrelas na nossa vida, quase como se fossem celebridades para nós.

"I toss up if it's worth it now every time I get on a plane
I've got so much to tell you and not enough time to do it in"
Aqui é o facto de pensar se tem mesmo de ir a eventos e passar tempo sem Pearl, porque ele é com quem ela está todos os dias e mesmo assim tem medo que esse tempo não seja suficiente.

"But every perfect summer's gotta take its flight
I'll still watch you run through the winter light
I used to love the party, now I'm not alright
Hope the honeybees make it home tonight"
Aqui a primeira linha pode ser uma referência a outra música, Liability, e é uma variação da que já tinha cantado em cima, tal como o resto dos versos.
A segunda linha ela pode ter escrito quando ainda não sabia que havia alguma coisa de mal com Pearl. 



10. LEADER OF A NEW REGIME

Esta música tem pouco mais de 1 minuto, é como um interlúdio. Parece uma espécie de continuação de Fallen Fruit. Fala essencialmente de um futuro onde já não se consegue viver na Terra por causa do ambiente e a sociedade teve de se dividir. As pessoas estão a fugir para locais longínquos e naturais para tentar começar do zero.

"Wearing SPF 3000 for the ultraviolet rays
Made it to the island on the last of the outbound planes
Descrição do que está a acontecer, tem de se usar protetor solar de nível 3000
Got a trunk full of Simone and Céline, and of course, my magazines
I'm gonna live out my days"
E aqui é a imagem de uma antiga celebridade que escolheu levar com ela apenas roupa de designers e revistas [ahahah]

"Won't somebody, anybody, be the leader of a new regime?
Free the keepers of the burnt-out scene another day
Lust and paranoia reign supreme
We need the leader of a new regime"
Aqui é mais sobre para aqueles que conseguiram escapar, para se lembrarem dos erros que foram cometidos no passado e não os cometerem outra vez, não caírem na tentação que os outros caíram.

Esta música na ordem do álbum quase que parece uma resposta à Stoned at the Nail Salon, como se as preocupações fossem resolvidas, mesmo que no final desta música ela volte a pensar:

"Watch the sun set, look back on my life
I just wanna know, will it be alright?"


12. OCEANIC FEELING

Esta é a última música do álbum, e é sobre a Nova Zelândia, sobre a família de Lorde, o passado, o presente e a família no futuro. É uma música sobre as raízes dela e consegue passar tão bem essa sensação.

"It's a blue day, we could jump Bulli
When I hit that water
When it holds me 
I think about my father
Doing the same thing when he was a boy"
Descreve uma rotina que todos na Nova Zelândia muito provavelmente conhecem, e ao longo da música há muito mais referências a coisas específicas como esta, e de como adora que assim seja.
"Sliding the knife under the skin
Grateful for this offering
And all the living things under the sun"

"Now the cherry-clack lipstick's gathering dust in a drawer
I don't need her anymore
'Cause I got this power"
Aqui refere o batom que costumava usar e a pessoa que era com 16 anos, e como já não precisa dele mais, já encontrou o seu caminho. Pode ser também uma referência a The Path e a Solar Power, já que esta é a última música e conectam assim o álbum todo como uma continuação.

E acaba com
"Oh, was enlightenment found?
No, but I'm trying, taking one year at a time"
O caminho ainda não lhe revelou nada do que ela pergunta em Stoned at the Nail Salon, por exemplo, mas agora sabe que tem de viver cada ano, cada dia não à procura mas sempre no caminho que lhe parecer melhor no momento.
"Oh, can you hear the sound?
It's the shimmering higher
On the beach. I'm building a pyre
(Use the wood brought in by the tide)"
Ela está a afastar-se de quem era aos 16 anos, mas porque está a usar o que aprendeu para crescer e evoluir
"I know you'll show me how. I'll know when it's time 
To take off my robes and step into the choir"
Talvez uma referência ao Sol, e o coro como algo que usa em várias músicas durante o álbum, começando logo em The Path.

Adoro esta música principalmente pela calma que transmite, acho que é a música perfeita para acabar o álbum tendo em conta todos os temas e todas as sensações que Lorde tenta transmitir com ele. 

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ENGLISH

PART 1

I guess that there's no need for another introduction. To read my analysis of the first part of the album just click on the link above!

7. THE MAN WITH THE AXE

After track 6 saying
"You're gonna love again, so just try staying open
And when the time comes, you'll fall"
We enter this song.

The Man with the Axe is a love song, and for me, this is the one with the hardest metaphors to unravel, probably because it is the most personal song of the whole album. It's a beautiful song. It sounds a lot like a poem.

"But our shapes in the dark are the reason I've stayed
For all these years"
It is because of all they know of each other in the hardest moments that they are still together, or because of the things that only they know about each other. 

"With my fistful of tunes that it's painful to play - maybe she is referring to her previous albums and the feeling that built them 
Fingernail worlds like favourite seashells - this is reminding me of the nails she used in the 2014 Grammy's, the fact that it reminds her of almost a different world, a different era, as we see seashells as memories from a different world than ours
They fill up my nights and then they float away" the fact that being with this person makes all her past worries vanish

"You felled me clean as a pine
The man with the axe and the look in his eyes"
"the boy with the plan" that she refers to in a previous verse is now "the man with the axe", a change that made her fall even harder.

[And the crowd screaming in the back? It's from where he can take her, he knows her outside of where everyone else knows her] 


8. DOMINOES

This is the other song written about an imagined character. It is a fun song about someone who decided to "start from scratch" and change his life without having into account what he did or used to do, or change because he is trying too hard to find who he really is. Almost as from one moment to another he magically became a whole different person. 

Lorde talks about a lot of new things this guy is doing throughout the song, like doing yoga, watering the plants that he owns with his new girlfriend, smoking marijuana when he was the one who did the most cocaine [ahahaha]

"Just another phase you're rushing on through
Go all New Age, outrunning your blues"
Exactly the attempt of reinventing himself, but I love how she built this verse. 

"Fifty gleaming chances in a row
Then I watch you flick them down like dominoes
Must feel good being Mr. Start Again" [Taylor reference??]
This is exactly the description of someone having 50 great changes to improve his life in front of him, but he crushes them every time and only wants to start over again and again.

"I know
know a girl who knows a
Another girl who knows the woman that you hurt"
Besides hurting someone and not doing anything about it because he just wanted to start over, these verses might suggest that he is also starting over with the people in his life, because "we" don't know the woman he hurt, but a friend of a friend of a friend does. And for every time he starts over the bigger are the chances of someone knowing that someone he left behind. 

In the last chorus, it was really fun that she added "Don't get up", as if the problems he wanted to left behind have nothing to do with him, and ironically he does not need to get up to solve them. 

In this song we can hear sirens in the back, I thought it interesting to say so because this song was recorded with the doors of the studio open, and Lorde uses a lot of surrounding sounds in this album in a lot of the songs, but normally nature sounds. 


9. BIG STAR

This one is definitely one of my favourite songs from this album.

Lorde wrote Big Star about her love for Pearl, her dog, who died sometime after she started writing it. 

What's most interesting in this song is also the concept of when you look at your family, at people who are important in your life and your pets you see them as celebrities, we want to be around them all the time, or taking pictures of them. They are celebrities in our hearts, stars and they never disappear because we keep remembering them. 

This is one of the most emotional songs ever for me. 

"Everyone knows that you're too good for me, don't they?
I'm a cheater, I lie, and I'm shy
But you like to say hello to total strangers"
Dogs are the purest and most truthful animals someone can have

"Shivering pines and walls of colour
I can't believe I used to stay inside"
It seems like life changes when we become dog owners, we have another perspective of the outside world because we have to walk them, and maybe if we didn't have them we would miss those beautiful outside places. 

"But every perfect summer's gotta say goodnight
Now I watch you run through the amber light
I used to love the party, now I'm not alright
Drinking in the dark, take me home tonight"
These verses were the ones that got to me the most. The perfect summer ends, maybe the last summer with Pearl, and she is looking at a photograph (that was on her Instagram) of him running on the beach at sunset or sunrise. And she remembers how she used to love the party, her arriving home and the dog happy to see her, but now that does not happen anymore, and it is hard to adjust to that new reality. 

"You're a big star
Wanna take your picture"
This is what I was describing before, the fact that we see people and pets we love like stars in our lives, almost as they were celebrities to us. 

"I toss-up if it's worth it now every time I get on a plane
I've got so much to tell you and not enough time to do it in"
Here is the fact of leaving Pearl to go to some event, because she is with him every day and even if she is she is scared that that time is not enough. 

"But every perfect summer's gotta take its flight
I'll still watch you run through the winter light
I used to love the party, now I'm not alright
Hope the honeybees make it home tonight"
This could be a reference in the first line to another song of hers, Liability, and it is a variation of what she had already sung before, like the rest of the verse.
The second line she could have written when she didn't know that there was something wrong with Pearl. 



10. LEADER OF A NEW REGIME

This is a song with a little more than 1 minute, it's like an interlude. It seems like some kind of sequel to Fallen Fruit. It is essentially about a future when it is impossible to live on Earth because of the environment and so society had to divide itself. People are running away to someplace far away and natural to try and start from scratch. 

"Wearing SPF 3000 for the ultraviolet rays
Made it to the island on the last of the outbound planes
The description of what's happening, we have to use sunscreen level 3000
Got a trunk full of Simone and Céline, and of course, my magazines
I'm gonna live out my days"
This is an image of some former celebrity who chose to only take with her designer clothes and magazines [ahahah] 

"Won't somebody, anybody, be the leader of a new regime?
Free the keepers of the burnt-out scene another day
Lust and paranoia reign supreme
We need the leader of a new regime"
Here it's more for those who were able to escape, to remember the past errors and not make them again, to don't fall to the temptation that the ones before fell. 


Looking at this song in the tracklist it almost seems like the answer to Stoned at the Nail Salon, as if all her worries had been solved, even if at the end of this song she thinks again:

"Watch the sun set, look back on my life
I just wanna know, will it be alright?"


12. OCEANIC FEELING

This is the last song in the album, and it's about New Zealand, about Lorde's family, the past, the present and her future family. It is a song about her roots and she is able to pass that feeling so well. 

"It's a blue day, we could jump Bulli
When I hit that water
When it holds me 
I think about my father
Doing the same thing when he was a boy"
It describes a routine that everyone in New Zealand could probably relate to, and throughout the song, there are a lot more specific things like this, and how she loves that it is this way.
"Sliding the knife under the skin
Grateful for this offering
And all the living things under the sun"

"Now the cherry-clack lipstick's gathering dust in a drawer
I don't need her anymore
'Cause I got this power"
Here she is referencing the lipstick she used to wear and how she was as a person at 16, and how she doesn't need it anymore, she found her path. It could also be a reference to The Path and Solar Power, as this is the last song and that way the whole album would be connected as one continuous circle.

And it ends with
"Oh, was enlightenment found?
No, but I'm trying, taking one year at a time"
The path still did not reveal anything about what she asks in Stoned at the Nail Salon, for example, but now she knows she has to live each year, each day not searching but always through the path, that feels right at the moment. 
"Oh, can you hear the sound?
It's the shimmering higher
On the beach. I'm building a pyre
(Use the wood brought in by the tide)"
She is walking away from who she was at 16, but only because she is using what she learned through the way to grow and evolve
"I know you'll show me how. I'll know when it's time 
To take off my robes and step into the choir"
Maybe a reference to the Sun, and the choir is something she uses in several songs throughout the album, starting with it in The Path.

I love this song mainly because we can feel the calm she transmits, and I think that this is the perfect song to end the album because of all the themes and feeling Lorde tries to transmit with it.



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