Everything seems to be coming up Lorde this spring: Two weeks after teasing her new single, “What Was That,” on TikTok, the pop star made headlines last Tuesday for getting hundreds of her fans to flock to Washington Square Park to hear the full thing. (Predictably, the event was soon shut down by the police, but true Lorde stans will find a way—as the crowd proved by staging an extremely heartwarming impromptu singalong.)
The chaos of the meet-up got me thinking about Lorde’s gift for timing; just when I’ve worn out the grooves on her most recent album or single, she’ll drop a new one, never overplaying her hand or overstaying her welcome.
Literally all of Lorde’s records are good (fight me!), but her singles in particular have the unique capacity to make me hit play over and over and over again. In that spirit, here’s a roundup of all the Lorde songs that have haunted me since the year 2013:
If you didn’t avoid the cold during your winter semester abroad in St. Petersburg by sitting cross-legged on your bed and obsessively trying to learn “Royals” by heart until your hostel neighbor pounded angrily on your wall and threatened to kill you in Russian, I do not want to hear from you! In all seriousness, it’s a major credit to Lorde that a full decade later, this song still goes.
