Chris Schulz says:
I don't want to be that guy. You know the type, the sweaty dude sitting behind his computer, gleefully hurling hurtful insults at pop stars in posts typed all in caps on YouTube videos. A troller, a tormentor, a hater. It's just not in me. Because I love Lorde, I really do. I love Pure Heroine, I love her twitchy twerking, I love her classy quips in interviews. What she's achieved at the age of 17 is absolutely phenomenal. I know what I was doing at that age, and it mostly involved drinking Kiwi Lager and singing along to Pearl Jam at dodgy backyard parties in Wanganui.
And the last thing I want is to enrage scores of teen movie fanatics. But when it comes to Lorde's new single, the Hunger Games' hyped Yellow Flicker Beat, I have one thought: doesn't it need a chorus? Yes, it's a big swelling feisty epic of a song with sinister undertones that will probably sound much better as the camera zooms in on Jennifer Lawrence's pouty, blood-streaked face just before the credits roll. There just seems to be something missing: an extra gear, a hook, some punch, another level. And if this is a taste of the new Lorde, isn't it just a little too similar to the old Lorde?
Remember, she's hyping her new material up as "weird and cool," telling Billboard she was "trying to get (Pure Heroine) out of my system". But those clattering drums and sweeping vocal samples, courtesy of Paul Epworth, sound suspiciously like Joel Little-lite. "I'm a princess cut from marble" are the song's defiant opening lyrics.
Maybe there's a small, tiny crack finally showing in that facade.