Unspooling with effortless cool, Ella Yelich-O’Connor’s 2013 debut single as Lorde cast a dismissive eye over the clichéd bling celebrated in rap songs and beyond. “Royals” was downright massive, influencing years of pop music and eventually achieving multi-platinum sales in the US. Not bad for a teen from suburban Aotearoa New Zealand, whose combination of vocal brooding, lyrical frankness and skeletal electro-pop powered that same year’s debut album Pure Heroine—included on Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list—and further hits “Team” and “Tennis Court”. That success was no fluke, and Yelich-O’Connor found strength in different kinds of isolation on 2017’s world-weary Melodrama. Yet there was room for celebration too, as when “Green Light” hit a sudden surge of self-empowerment and “Homemade Dynamite” gathered global rap royalty for its blockbuster remix. Yelich-O’Connor laid low for four years before releasing her third album, 2021’s Solar Power, complete with an overhaul in vibe and image. Suddenly, she was strutting in the sun on the album cover and taking cues from both Laurel Canyon and Primal Scream on the breezy, baggy title track. Yet her lyrical acuity remains unmistakable as she muses on the passage of time (“Mood Ring”) and the fading of beauty (“Stoned at the Nail Salon”). For someone who has seemed to grow up in the public eye, Yelich-O’Connor always attacks universal experience from a fresh angle.