Writer in the Dark

Jack Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced "Writer in the Dark".

In an exclusive podcast interview with The Spinoff, Lorde stated that she wrote "Writer in the Dark" from the perspective of "something being finished, but still feeling like I had something I wanted to say".[1] She was also inspired to write the lyric, "Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark" after she woke late one night in a bed she was sharing with a stranger. In a separate interview, Lorde said "Writer in the Dark" was the last song she recorded that made the final cut of the album and the second (after "Supercut") in which she "was speaking to someone or closing a door". The singer-songwriter said about the songwriting process, "It's interesting when you’re female and you write this confessional, painfully honest music about your life. There’s a lot of guilt associated with that."[1]

According to Lorde, the song is her way of saying, "It's what I've always been. It's what I was when you met me. It's what I will continue to be after you leave. That's exactly what was going to happen when you kissed a writer in the dark."[1] She noted that the lyrics of the chorus fluctuate in emotion. Lorde also said the writing process felt therapeutic and complex. When asked about writing from a traditionalist perspective, Lorde said she felt she made the song unique by implementing words such as "pseudoephedrine", the name of a sympathomimetic drug, which she said would work in a rap song; she enjoyed taking standard forms and putting "spiky bits on them".[1] The singer also compared "Writer in the Dark" and "Liability" (2017) to a rap cadence.[1]

"Writer in the Dark" was co-written and co-produced by Lorde (credited under her birth-name Ella Yelich-O'Connor) and Jack Antonoff. It was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York City.[2] The song is composed in the key of G Major with a walking pace tempo of 72 beats per minute while Lorde's vocals span a range of D₃ to D₅.[3] It is a piano ballad with sparse instrumentation in its production.[4] Its lyrics are Lorde's lament to an ex-lover, whom she tells she will always love but she also needs to move forward.[5] Paste writer Emily Reily said the song "combines Lorde’s defiance with her most desperate and exposed moments, showing she’ll go pretty damn far for love, but will move on when she chooses".[6]

The song drew comments on Lorde's vocals, which several publications compared to those of English singer Kate Bush.[7] According to Colin Groundwater from Pretty Much Amazing, Lorde vocals on the line "I love you til you call the cops on me" stretch to a "painfully human falsetto",[8] while Chicago Tribune editor Greg Kot said the singer delivers a "resonant line about obsession" as she finds a "way to tunnel out from the wreckage".[9] Drowned in Sound noted the "jolting shift on ‘Writer in the Dark’ from [Lorde's] usual semi-growl of a delivery to a much more high-pitched warble that is one of a handful of moments on this album to recall Kate Bush".[10] Entertainment Weekly stated that Lorde acknowledges the "trope of the scorned lover" in the song,[11] while No Ripcord said her vocals turn to grief in the lines, "I am my mother's child, I'll love you 'til my breathing stops".[12]

Lorde's vocals on "Writer in the Dark" were compared to those of Kate Bush (pictured in 1986).

"Writer in the Dark" received critical acclaim from music critics; several publications compared its songwriting to that of Taylor Swift.[13] Stuff.co.nz editor Graeme Tuckett called it one of the highlights from the album, saying, "Lorde giving her toughest and least inflected vocal performance in the service of the album's strongest set of lyrics".[14] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian stated that while the song was not the first attempt from a modern female singer-songwriter to channel Kate Bush, "it may well be the first one that doesn’t make you want to die of embarrassment on their behalf – the tune is wonderful, her cracked, raw vocal really affecting".[15]

Sharing similar sentiments, Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic called the song a "wonderful nightmare of a piano piece" and concludes by stating that Lorde is saying "something that’s been said many times before in song, but she’s still saying it more interestingly than most people".[16] DIY writer Will Richards called the song "flooring, showing her to be one of the most emotionally intelligent pop songwriters around", while NME's Dan Stubbs described it as "deliciously bitter".[17] Jon Pareles from The New York Times compared its lyrics to Swift and its aesthetic to Lana Del Rey's, saying it is "sometimes sparse and transparent enough to accompany Lorde’s voice with just a piano note or two".[18]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Melodrama.[2]

Management

• Published by Songs Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, Ducky Donath Music (BMI)
• Recorded at Electric Lady Studios (New York City)
• Mixed at Electric Lady Studios
• Mastered at Sterling Sound Studios (New York City)

Personnel

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics