Sober (Lorde song)

"Sober" is a song recorded by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, from her second studio album Melodrama (2017). Lorde co-wrote and co-produced the song with Jack Antonoff, with production assistance from Malay and vocal production from Kuk Harrell. It was released on 9 June 2017, by Republic as the album's second promotional single. "Sober" is the first of a two-track song, which is completed by "Sober II (Melodrama)", a song detailing the emotions after a party ends. It is an electronic R&B song that features a tiger's roar, trumpets, brass and tenor and baritone saxophones in its production. The lyrics detail the desire to tell someone how you feel about them while wondering how it will be once the liquor wears down. Its themes center on interdependence and possessiveness.

The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics who praised its unexpected direction and departure from the maximalist production on the preceding 2017 singles "Green Light" and "Perfect Places". "Sober" was also compared to the minimalist production on the singer's 2013 album Pure Heroine and the works of the xx. The song had minor chart placements in Australia and Canada, placing at 61 and 84, respectively. Lorde performed "Sober", with six other songs, as part of a re-imagined Vevo series at the Electric Lady Studios where she recorded most of her album. It is also part of the set list of her ongoing Melodrama World Tour (2017–2018).

Background

In a podcast interview with Hrishikesh Hirway's Song Exploder, Lorde described her first summer after her breakup with longtime boyfriend James Lowe as "wild and fluorescent", which she also mentioned was the "cusp" of transitioning into adulthood. She stated that she would often go drinking in her native country of New Zealand and had a strong desire to fill in the quiet episodes in her life to cope with her heartache. To the singer, parties have an "angst" to them, sharing a distinct memory of her having an intense conversation with someone and seeing people in her back porch dancing. Lorde stated that the DNA of the song is wanting to tell someone how you feel about them and knowing the other person feels the same way and needing the evenings theater have all the characters going to let your guard down.^[1]

She worked on the song with Jack Antonoff. Her fear of recording on Westlake Recording Studios, which to her was "too fancy", resulted in her having writer's block. She found a production room, which she called "The Rat Nest", a small and tiny room that created the song. In a demo, the overall production was initially more "moody" and "emotional". She had specific ideas about "Sober" and knew how she wanted it to take shape early in the recording process. Antonoff was open to letting Lorde take guard of the production. The first verse of the song had "uneven level of bars". The groove of the song, came after playing a show at Coachella, which was formed using a bongo drum and Lorde singing the words "Night, midnight, lose my mind" which were subsequently sampled into the track. She compared the preceding vocals to Prince and Michael Jackson.

On November 7, Lorde's birthday, she met with Malay in New York City at a session where he underlaid the groove she worked on with Antonoff into the whole song. He took the "serious" minor chords and turned them into "bouyant, urgent, insistent" party chords. To her, the song finally felt right after working on it for almost a year. She felt like being in the vignette that she was chasing. In the session, she also came up with the stop that occurs before the first verse. Kuk Harrell's vocal production helped to get the vocals "bouncing off the walls". The second verse is Lorde's favorite part in the song. Recorded close harmonies, which exist in certain words. The horns in the track took inspiration from Hudson Mohawke's production work on TNGHT, which Lorde states is ten percent of the reason why she started working on music. She also wanted brass which Laura Sisk took control of the horns during engineering. She wanted the horns to sound triumphant, testing out a tenor and baritone saxophone as well as the trumpet. The sound of a tiger's roar appears before the bridge, which was added two sessions before the song concluded when Antonoff was looking through song samples.^[2] According to Antonoff, this was one of his proudest moments when recording Melodrama.^[3]

Recording and lyrical interpretation

	"Sober" A sample of "Sober", an electronic R&B number,[4] which utilizes bongo drums,[1] brass horns,[5] trumpets, the tenor and baritone saxophones and a tiger's roar in its production.[1][2]
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Lorde recorded "Sober" at three different locations in the United States. She began recording at Westlake Recording Studios, in Los Angeles, California, assisted by recording engineer Eric Eylands. Shortly after the Coachella festival in 2016, Lorde worked with Antonoff, where they both came up with the song's groove. Additional recording also took place at Electric Lady Studios, in Greenwich Village, New York with Malay, who layered the song's groove. Recording was completed at Rough Customer Studios, Antonoff's home studio in Brooklyn Heights where he found the tiger's roar sample used in the track. John Hanes mixed the song at MixStar Studios. Laura Sisk served as the engineer for the track. Sisk experimented with the song's horns, which featured a combination of saxophones and trumpets.^[6]

"Sober" is composed in the key of C major with a moody pop tempo of 110 beats per minute. Lorde's vocals span a range of F♭₃ to D₅ and its chord progression follows a basic sequence of F–Am-G.^[7] It is an electronic R&B song using bongo drums, trumpets, the tenor and baritone saxophones, brass and a hidden tiger's roar in its production. Lorde revealed that throughout the song, mumbled screams "from detached bodies" are heard. Rolling Stone writer Jon Blistein described "Sober" as having "rumbling drums and gauzy synths" that slowly build to include "brash horn stabs that dance around Lorde's vocals."^[5] Pitchfork editor Marc Hogan expressed that the song had a "spare and slinky electro-R&B" production that kept with much of Pure Heroine (2013) or the xx. Hogan mentioned that "stereo-panned mini-Lordes chirp like angels and devils on her shoulders," with "dimly lit spaces and triumphal trumpet blares" that make Antonoff's "moody three-chord foundation seem like plenty".^[4] Lauren O'Neill from Noisey described its production as having "prominent percussion" with horns and an "almost hoarse purr" of a vocal.^[8]

The New Yorker's Carrie Battan stated that the lines, "I know this story by heart / Jack and Jill get fucked up and get possessive when they get dark" were about the "experience of being too lucid to ever really feel drunk".^[9] Dan Weiss from Consequence of Sound compared the same line to the vocal expressions of Prince as well as mentioning the track's "sparse array of bending and clicking textures" on the production.^[10] PopMatters writer Andrew Dorsett also mentioned that the line referenced the "imagery of a weekend more euphoric than pills is a little familiar" but notes that Lorde looks "ahead" in the chorus line, "What will we do when we're sober?". Mike Neid from Idolator stated that the lyrics detail how "she drunkenly loses herself in a partner's temporary embrace at a party".^[11] The main themes of the track center around interdependence and possessiveness.^[12] O'Neill described "Sober" as the part "where things get a bit intense and your heart starts hurting a bit and you start making out with your ex".^[8]

"Sober" is the first part of a two-track song, which is continued by "Sober II (Melodrama)", detailing the emotions and sense of loneliness after a party is over. In an interview with the National Public Radio's podcast All Things Considered, Lorde stated that both songs maps out the course of a party. "Sober", the first part, describes the party that is in "full swing," where they may be a "sort of tipping over into that area where it might be a little too much". However, "Sober II (Melodrama)", sings from the perspective of a "deflated room." In her words, there is a "sadness" when the lights come on after a party as you are used to seeing the walls washed in dark which makes it heartbreaking.^[13]

Critical reception

"Sober" received mostly positive reviews from music critics upon release. Several critics compared its minimalist production to Pure Heroine (2013), a departure from the maximalism of her previous singles "Green Light" and "Perfect Places".^[14] Spin writer Andy Cush called the song the "strangest" track Lorde had released so far. Cush compared the "crisp, minimal percussion" to her work on Pure Heroine, adding that it had a "slyly 2017 twist." He also mentioned that instead of Lorde drawing inspiration from 2000s Atlanta hip hop, she opted for an "artful take on the dancehall/house hybrid" present in modern radio today.^[14] The National Public Radio called "Sober" an "stormy epic about risk and regret that's timed perfectly to coincide with the start of an eventful weekend."^[15] Rolling Stone described the song as a "a sexy midtempo jam endlessly second-guessing its own pleasure".^[16] The Atlantic called "Sober" one of the highlights on the record, with writer Spencer Kornhaber stating that the track's "Latin shimmying gives way to gothic choruses".^[17]

Writing for Pitchfork, Marc Hodges called the song "transitional", as if it was in "motion to somewhere else". He called the production of the track "intoxicating" and found that her decision to use the same title track as other well-known artists was "less novel" for a performer like herself but that the "execution was "still tough to deny."^[4] PopMatters compared the track to Charli XCX's album True Romance (2013).^[12] Idolator writer Neid stated that while the song was a "bit of a rehash of her previous material," it boasted some of the "most finessed productions" on the album.^[18] Despite several critic's comments over the track's conventionality, it was listed at number one on Stereogum's top five songs of the week list for June 16.^[19] Peter from the publication commended the singer and Antonoff for being able to "capture the highs and the lows of a night out by crafting a banger that feels both understated and anthemic". DIY also placed "Sober" in their best tracks of the week list, with Will Richards complementing how "wonderfully versatile Lorde has become, and how effortlessly she slips into each guise."^[20]

Live performances

Lorde debuted "Sober" at a "tiny pre-Coachella gig" to a crowd of 240 at Pappy & Harriet's on 15 April 2017. This was the first full-length concert since July 2014. Before introducing the song, she stated that recording "Sober" was one of her most favorite things she had ever done. Tickets sold out in minutes.^[21] Eve Barlow from Billboard praised the performance, saying that it was "heartwarming to watch Lorde engage with such easy confidence" on stage, noting her growth in her level of comfort with the crowd.^[22] Lorde also performed the song at the Governors Ball on 2 June 2017. During the performance, a tilted box was used, pointing downward. At the end, the box opens and Lorde falls into the arms of her dancers. NME called the performance "simple, but delivered with so much poise and finesse, you can't help but be impressed."^[23] Lorde performed "Sober", with six other songs, as part of a re-imagined Vevo series at the Electric Lady Studios where she recorded most of her album and is part of the set list of her ongoing Melodrama World Tour (2017–2018).^[24][25]

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Melodrama.^[6]

Recording and management

• Published by Songs Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, Ducky Donath Music (BMI)
• Recorded at Electric Lady Studios (New York, New York), Rough Customer Studios (Brooklyn Heights, New York), Westlake Recording Studios (Los Angeles)
• Mixed at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, Virginia)
• Mastered at Sterling Sound Studios

Personnel

Charts

References