The first track that likely comes to mind when people think of Lorde is the 2013 smash hit ‘Royals’, which spent nine weeks on the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 and is one of the biggest-selling singles of all time. My favourite Lorde song was also released in 2013, on the same EP as ‘Royals’, but did not reach the same level of commercial success.
via Universal Music
‘The Love Club‘ was also the name of the EP it was released on. The song was later also featured alongside ‘Royals’, and other well-loved Lorde tracks such as ‘Team’ and ‘Tennis Court’ on the extended version of her debut album, Pure Heroine. However, it was never released as a single.
The song lyrically explores the idea of falling in with the wrong friendship group, and how this can have an effect on your mental well-being and other relationships in your life. Lorde opens the song with the line ‘I’m in a clique, but I want out’, immediately setting up the confusion between simultaneously being adored as part of a popular group, and wanting to leave it all behind. She calls attention to the new personas that people can often develop in order to fit in with their peers with the lyric ‘The other day I forgot my old address’. It is clear that this is regrettable for the singer, as towards the song’s climax she states that ‘the only problem that I got with the club, is how you’re severed from the people who watched you grow up, when you’re a member’. The song, therefore, reflects on the importance of being your true self and reuniting with those who have raised you and loved you from the start, such as family and childhood friends.
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Musically, the song has an ethereal quality, with Lorde’s background harmonies at the track’s beginning luring you in as if an angel itself were singing to you. Combining these harmonies with a clapping beat and synthesizer-esque sounds makes it an addictive earworm. It is simple but incredibly effective, making ‘The Love Club’ a track that I will never get sick of listening to, no matter how many times I may do so. It truly makes me feel as if I am floating in space, completely weightless.
It is a shame that ‘The Love Club’ both did not reach the commercial success of other Lorde tracks and was not released as a single. However, as one of the very first pieces of music that Lorde released, self-releasing the EP of the same name in 2012 before its official release the following year, it still sounds fresh with each listen. A track does not have to have immense chart success or fame in order to be one of the best from an artist, and, to me ‘The Love Club’ is one of Lorde’s very best.
