“Mood Ring” by Lorde, Wednesday, August 9, 2023

There is little new under the sun when it comes to fashion. In the '00s, '90s fashion of flannels and winter bubble vests gave way to a '70s revival: Bell bottoms or flares, replaced the straight-leg Levis; bold colors replaced the subdued primary colors of the '90s; and gimmicky accessories like bandanas and hoop earrings made a bold statement. Some novelty fashion trends also came back, enter the mood ring. On Lorde's 2021 record Solar Power, the singer wistfully remembers relics of her childhood in the early '00s in the song "Mood Ring." Lyrically satirizing the disconnection of the modern world, the acoustic guitar producer Jack Antonoff plays throughout the song harken back to the early '00s pop music. 
 

YOU CAN BURN THE SAGE, AND I'LL CLENSE THE CRYSTALS.  Discussing the first single Lorde dropped from her third album "Solar Power,"Switched on Pop guest Hanif Abdurraqid argues that Lorde isn't a "singer-singer but rather a deliverer of language." Lorde's voice is low and "gravely." With average lyrics or melodies or mediocre vocal delivery, Lorde's voice would have never become the trend-setter that she has become. However, all of those factors are there with Jack Antonoff's co- production and instrumentation. Similarly, the songs on the record are only credited to Lorde and Antonoff and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/engineer Malay on two tracks. Unlike many pop writers today, Lorde's imagery evokes specific, sometimes awkward images. The penultimate track, for example, "Mood Ring," interweaves lines about transcendental mediation and the early '00s. It reminds me of the New Age trends that were strong on daytime television and on the front covers of tabloids in the check out lines. The lyrics are heightened by Jack Antonoff's acoustic guitar that drives the song almost like Nelly's "Ride Wit Me," but the cheap-sounding electric guitar effect sounds like some of the lo-fi indie music produced in the early '00s and even found on some big budget pop records of the time. What's interesting about "Mood Rings" is that Antonoff holds back on the production. He and Lorde produce the track to be rhythmic, but Antonoff refrains from bringing out bigger beats to make the song radio-ready. Instead, we have a psychedelic pop track that is more vibe than bop or banger. 

DON'T YOU THINK THE EARLY 2000S SEEM SO FAR AWAY? But speaking of the early '00s, I may be in a minority of Lorde listeners who simply see the title of the song and think about another song from 20 years ago. Lorde may have not been aware of Relient K's problematic 2003 track "Mood Rings," a satirical song in which the speaker plots "to get emotional girls to all wear mood rings [so that men] can be tipped off to when they're ticked off." The song was a fan favorite, and by their third record Two Lefts Don't Make a Right. . . But Three Do, the band's popularity was branching out of youth group. Lorde's "Mood Ring" deals with how a media-saturated society makes us apathetic to what should be a good life, more in touch with nature. Relient K's "Mood Rings," however, bypasses the issues of complex emotions, making a joke at the expense of the band's female fans. Last year, after being called out on TikTok, the band apologized for the song, saying "We had a lot of growing and learning to do, still do!” Of course, Relient K was not the only band to employ casual misogyny--pop-punk and other genres of the early '00s were rife with it. Lorde's track, though, captures a feeling of the early '00s--definitely not the Christian youth group feeling--but leaves the sexism out!

Read the lyrics on Genius.