Lorde returns to yearning pop ballads with new track 'Stoned at the Nail Salon'

Lorde has released her second single 'Stoned at the Nail Salon' for her upcoming third album Solar Power. The much-anticipated track was announced yesterday via a bright yellow graphic on the Kiwi singer's website.

The song matches the simple instrumentation of the record's title single, this time opting for a more melancholy tone. The yearning pop ballad is full of Lorde motifs of roses, night fading to day, and lost loves as she contemplates a change of direction and a need to "cool off" after a "lifetime of summers".

Her lyrics also pay subtle homage to the pop star's early beginnings as she sings "all the music you loved at sixteen you'll grow out of / and all the times they will change, it'll all come around". However, even with this tonal shift, Lorde maintains this era's lighter sound with fresh, breezy production implemented by Jack Antonoff.

"I wrote this song about six months after stopping touring with Melo [her nickname for her 2017 album Melodrama]. I was so tired, I'd been so busy for so long." Lorde wrote to fans in her email newsletter. Despite her young age and critical success, she claims she wrote the track out of feelings of insecurity about being over the hill. "I could feel the next round of precocious teenagers starting to come up and I felt insecure they were going to eat my lunch, so to speak."

Lorde has been active over the past month following her four-year hiatus; from releasing new music to announcing an almost sold-out tour to performing her new songs live for the first time. The artist has revealed she has a lot more up her sleeve for fans before the release of her album on August 20.

Watch the single's accompanying visualiser below.