Anyone who lives in New York long enough will eventually be haunted by it. The memories of experiences and relationships past cropping up like PTSD-triggering flashbacks as you walk the streets. Or, in Lorde’s case in the “What Was That” video, as you walk and bike them. And since “What Was That,” the lead single from her fourth album, is all about being haunted, setting its visual accompaniment in NYC makes plenty of sense. Besides, it’s also no secret that Lorde is a long-time enthusiast of the town, gushing about it with particular fervor during the rollout of 2017’s Melodrama as she discussed living there while making the record with Jack Antonoff.
While “What Was That” might have a similar sound to those Antonoff songs of the Melodrama era, it’s actually co-produced by Jim-E Stack and Olivia Rodrigo/Chappell Roan’s go-to, Dan Nigro. As for Stack, who also co-wrote, his presence on the song is somewhat antithetical to Lorde’s latest attempt at declaring, “I’m a New Yorker” since Stack is California through and through (and we all know how Lorde feels about California based on her shade-drenched third track of the same name from Solar Power). To boot, Stack has previously worked with Lorde’s former “nemesis,” Charli XCX (specifically, on “enemy” from How I’m Feeling Now). He then worked with Lorde on her cover of Talking Heads’ “Take Me to the River” just before working with both on the remix of “Girl, so confusing”—a.k.a. the song that buried the hatchet in a way that Madonna and Elton still truly haven’t.
Coming across like a mutant spawn of “Green Light” and “The Louvre” as far as the theme of the lyrics is concerned, Lorde opens “What Was That” with a verse drenched in yearning and denial. Of the variety that can only arise when somebody is the person in a couple to be broken up with, not to do the breaking up. So it is that Lorde paints the bleak, post-“cast aside” picture, “A place in the city, a chair and a bed [how very A Room of One’s Own]/I cover up all the mirrors, I can’t see myself [an undoubted allusion to how Jewish people mourn], yet I wear smoke like a wedding veil/Make a meal I won’t eat/Step out into the street, alone in a sea/It comes over me/Oh, I’m missing you/Yeah, I’m missing you/And all the things we used to do.” To visually drive home this point, Lorde walking around the city alone with her headphones on (an Addison Rae-approved activity) accentuates the breed of loneliness that is unique to New York. Especially after losing someone with whom you were once inseparable.
Almost as though to stave off the overwhelming feeling of isolation-driven melancholy (side note: Lorde should title the album Melancholia, as it sounds like a natural companion to Melodrama), she jumps on a bike—removing her headphones before doing so—after walking over the East 63rd Street Pedestrian Bridge (suspended above FDR Drive), like she’s trying to outrun this seemingly insurmountable feeling of sadness by going at a far faster pace than her feet could ever take her. Certain details of her surroundings (like ominous smoke billowing from a building behind her) appear to further emphasize the sense of decay and rudderlessness she’s experiencing without her erstwhile beloved. As for who that beloved might be, one presumes that the person she’s referring to is her ex, Justin Warren, a promotions director for Universal Music in New Zealand. And while the timeline of their relationship doesn’t necessarily correlate with Lorde singing, “Since I was seventeen/I gave you everything,” it does at least mimic Britney Spears declaring, “I’m Miss American Dream since I was seventeen” (and yes, she did give you everything before you all drove her mad).
As Lorde rides her bike in a manner that looks like she’s tripping the fuck out, “subliminal” intercut scenes of her appearing as though she’s at some MDMA-fueled party (complete with metallic bikini top) underscore the earlier verse, “MDMA in the back garden, blow our pupils up/We kissed for hours straight, well, baby, what was that?” The mention of MDMA also alludes to the “rush at the beginning” that Lorde talks about on “The Louvre,” describing, “A rush at the beginning I get caught up, just for a minute/But lover, you’re the one to blame/All that you’re doing/Can you hear the violence?/Megaphone to my chest/Broadcast the boom, boom, boom, boom/And make ‘em all dance to it.” Which is exactly what she’s doing again with “What Was That,” even going so far as to make ‘em all dance to it right in front of her by inviting everyone in New York to come to Washington Square Park on April 22nd for what was initially billed as a “listening party” for her new song, but turned out to be a key scene in her “What Was That” music video, released in the wee hours of the 24th (a testament to how quickly things can get done, when an artist really wants them to be—in other words, it turns out you can rush art).
Prior to that denouement, however, Lorde exits another bridge on her bike, followed by a cut to her once again walking the streets. This time, near 37th and 2nd, where she has a bit of a Richard Ashcroft moment in the “Bitter Sweet Symphony” video (as Doja Cat also recently did) by bumping into (or being bumped into, depending on how you see it) another fast-moving passerby. The irritation on her face almost making one think she might turn around and shout out, à la Carrie Bradshaw in “The Post-It Always Sticks Twice,” “Oh, you’re so busy! You’re so busy!” And yes, considering her NYC milieu for the visual accompaniment to this song, it fits that there’s a Carrie Bradshaw-esque quality to a song that asks an ultimately rhetorical question about a relationship and its failure.
But it’s a question she’s clearly been exploring since 2023, when she wrote in an unvarnished newsletter to fans, “I’m living with heartbreak again. It’s different but the same. I ache all the time, I forget why and then remember. I’m not trying to hide from the pain, I understand now that pain isn’t something to hide from, that there’s actually great beauty in moving with it. But sometimes I’m sick of being with myself.” There are many moments in the “What Was That” video when Lorde conveys that sense of what Tom Petty would encapsulate as being “tired of myself, tired of this town.” As to the latter point, there’s a certain “Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish tinge to what Lorde is going through in the aftermath of her breakup (i.e., “You made me hate this city”). Except that Lorde so obviously wants to show that New York can renew you again when you least expect it. (Though that sentiment will inevitably dissipate just as quickly as it arrived.)
Walking past the Grand Central area as the video reaches its final act, Lorde then walks into the First Avenue Tunnel (giving major FKA Twigs in the “Striptease” video energy) where she soon finds a door. A door that, for Lorde, seems to act as a magical portal into the sewer system (TMNT-style). Because from the door opening moment, the video then cuts to Lorde making her way through the blackness to climb to the top of the sewer’s ladder and come out of a manhole that miraculously leads her right into Washington Square Park. Where her acolytes await for her to perform more impossible feats.
In the end, though, she keeps it strictly “brat” by dancing without giving a fuck as the hordes worship her (something Charli also did at The Lot Radio last summer to inaugurate the first single from her then-forthcoming, zeitgeist-invoking album). And yes, the cops coming to break up the party so soon is also rather brat. Charli has, needless to say, counseled her well. Even if, of course, Lorde was already engaging in plenty of brat behavior on Melodrama, talking of parties and getting wasted on such songs as “Perfect Places.” The latter featuring a line (“Spill my guts beneath the outdoor light”) that ties into an even more New York (read: Brooklyn)-specific one on “What Was That”: “When I’m in the blue light, down at Baby’s All Right.” A music venue that is just another one of many haunted places in New York (though not as haunted as Zaks Hair Salon is about to be by Lorde’s free publicity), to those who once frequented it with a person they thought was “forever.” Or at least a person that reminds them of “better days” in the city.
[…] one of the key lyrics in “What Was That,” “Since I was seventeen, I gave you everything” relates to something else Lorde mentions to […]