Photo credit: Benjamin Wick
Seventeen-year-old pop phenom Lorde endured some backlash from hip-hip aficionados when her breakthrough single “Royals” took rap culture to task for celebrating reckless consumerism and mindless violence. Public beefs with such hip-hop performers as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea soon followed, as the young white singer from New Zealand went out of her way to talk about how she didn’t fit into the blinged-out world described by her Top-40 peers.
Thankfully, Lorde’s stellar set to a capacity crowd at the BMO Harris Pavilion did little to stoke these fires. A subdued version of “Royals,” played toward the end of her performance (but not, interestingly, as set closer), highlighted that the singer is perhaps ready to move on from the song—and critique—that brought her global acclaim. In fact, the highlight of Lorde’s set was a stunning version of “Biting Down,” a song rooted not in the contemporary rap scene but in the trip-hop world of Portishead. Here, Lorde’s soulful, wise-beyond-her-years voice was given room to breathe, allowing her to transcend the often-limiting cadence associated with hip-hop.
To further foreshadow the direction she may be heading, Lorde also included a cover of Bon Iver’s “Heavenly Father” in her set. Such a move allowed Lorde to show some love for her host state, but it also put on display the types of performers that are currently inspiring her. Hearing the not-yet-18-year-old sing “I’ve just been up here for goddamn years / Can you see now? / Filling up hulls with goddamn fears” was strangely moving, particularly because her take on Justin Vernon’s song followed a very emotional, yet very unpolished, speech about the perils of growing up.
It’s this ability to tap into the existential uncertainty that goes along with aging that allows for Lorde to connect so intimately with the scores of middle-class teenagers that packed the front rows of the BMO Harris Pavilion. These young people, and even many of their parents, understood what Lorde meant when she sang “It feels so scary getting old,” as she did during an excellent rendition of “Ribs.” No longer concerned with simply excoriating the materialistic world of hip-hop, Lorde appears ready to embrace the more metaphysical concerns of contemporary indie rock. It should be an interesting ride.
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