The songs that capture the time.

Som Nirvana Smells like teen spirit.

The one who, without really dealing with the setback after the then, black-Monday stock market crash and its consequences, still collected the abandonment of a young sprained western world.

So that music can work. 

Royals is also one such.

Singer Lorde's debut track from 2013. It was an immediate success.

Before she even filled out her driver's license, she was hailed by David Bowie and soon became an important inspiration for Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Halsey and a number of other stars.

But, also for an audience that lacked their voice.

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (also called Lorde) spoke directly to, and about, them.

In "we" form.

Today, the Royals have been played more than 1 billion times. 

Musically, it was a small royal building.

Both on the album debut Pure Heroine, which was released the same year, and the sequel;

the heartbreaking, synth-fat Melodrama (2017), we got to feel in a different way a strong, eventful narrative in both text and sound.

Not infrequently it was colored by melancholy.

The new and third album Solar Power

is something completely different from its two predecessors.

Here, Lorde runs out of well-equipped studios, red gala rugs and glamor.

She is naked, aiming for the beach and taking a seat by the campfire with her friends.

Lorde sings away from instagrams, fame and the image of her as a generational voice.

She wants to be free, from everything, to be able to move on.

Be one with nature.

Warm guitar and vocals are what it's all about.

Lorde and her producer Jack Antonoff are based on the rock-historically influential California tradition of sun-ripened wise pop that emerged in the late 60's with Crosby Still's Nash & Young among many.

She makes the kind of music

she previously despised.

The one that men with guitars like to offer after the sausages have been grilled in front of the fire.

Fixed, in a Lordly way.

At its best, it's dazzling.

The title track is with their input from George Michael and Primal Scream the album's best and a given candidate for my annual list.

Fallen Fruit (with Phoebe Bridges) is just as subtle as Lorde can be.

And the Mood ring, which sees healing crystals and healing journeys, is hard to fend off.

But the more often it is weaker.

We have been pampered with New Zealand's own expression in music and lyrics.

There are less of those gifts here.

Which is perhaps not strange either.

Stepping into this musical path is harder than you think.

The paths are well trodden.

Courage, on the other hand, is not lacking. That Lorde chooses a path that few expect - with everything in addition - is nothing but a liberating sun salutation from an artist who protects his art and creativity as the last drop of water